Video Beaverhausen: "Killer Joe"

Matthew and Gina share a seriously Method moment in Killer Joe

This 2011 movie intrigued me upon its release but played theatrically at a time when there was so much turmoil in my personal life, I never got to see it. However, I was able to view it tonight, at last, on dvd.

Director William (The Exorcist) Friedkin tries to get his mojo back in Killer Joe with a trailer-park mis-en-scene that calls to mind David Lynch. NC-17 dark Americana. The uber-villain (nicely played by the admittedly hot Matthew McConaughey), the expressionistic lighting, the fetishism of material detail, the violence, the extended shots.

It's all a bit too much, however; a bit overbearing. And the ambiguous ending (hardly a spoiler) seems more arbitrary than arty.

Excellent performances, it must be said, by the always-willing-to-play-trashy Gina Gershon (the new Divine?), Thomas Haden Church, Emil Hirsch (a chameleon of an actor) and Brit-born Juno Temple, who assays Lolita-like Texas trailer trash admirably.