3 Time Film Excess Nominee:
Best Screenplay: Tracy Letts (lost to Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin)
Best Director: William Friedkin (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
+ Best Poster of the Year
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| Blood-spattered deep-fried chicken never looked as good as on the poster for William Friedkin's Killer Joe |
QUICK REVIEW:
An underclass thug accuses his mother of cocaine theft and plans her death for the insurance sum along with his father and his family and with the help of a mysterious hitman. But the untraditional retainer for the payment (his younger sister) gets him to change his mind...
The Joe character, played with diabolic mastery by Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012)), is symbolic, it seems to me, as he is the incarnated consequence that this inconsequential family had not calculated on. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild (2007)), Thomas Haden Church (Heaven Is for Real (2014)), Gina Gershon (Bound (1996)) and Juno Temple (Maleficent (2014)) are all rough diamonds under the solid direction of master filmmaker William Friedkin (The Exorcist (1973)).
Tracy Letts (Bug (2006)) has adapted his own play, (just as he did for Friedkin's much inferior Bug), and his script is really good. The film seems a little bit like Friedkin's answer to the challenge that is Drive (2011), - though Killer Joe is less stylized, - but since the two came out around the same time, that interpretation wouldn't hold up in court.
The violence of Joe is gruesome, once it explodes in the film's finale. The film has plenty of dark humor and could be termed misanthropic. - It certainly shows a deeply callous, stupid, unhelpful underbelly of society without pity. The film's smart ending may make you feel a (very politically incorrect) cry howl out inside of you, objecting to the fact that these abominable people actually procreate.
Killer Joe is Friedkin's last film to date, and perhaps it will be the last of his career. If so, it is a strong end, a cool, hard, ideal for late-night adult pleasure (strictly for those with strong stomachs) a' la Bound.
Related review:
William Friedkin: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
The Boys in the Band (1970) - Friedkin and Crowley's groundbreaking gay birthday party movie
Watch the trailer for the movie here
Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 3.7 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Friedkin was a box office champion once, namely with The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist, but his career seems to come to an end with two smaller films that have flopped commercially. Killer Joe made a disappointing 1.9 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross) in the US, where it was only shown on 75 screens, its release hindered by its NC-17 rating. But also abroad, Joe, despite good reviews, suffered from poor distribution and audience reception.]
What do you think of Killer Joe?
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