Killer Joe
William Friedkin's wild. The Exorcist always rubbed me as an authentic, classy, horror foray into unspeakable demonic powers. It's a proper well made film that used minor tricks to enhance the viewing. It was raw filmmaking in it's purest form. What transpired afterwards is still to this day
the scariest film of all time. I'm sure I'm boring you at this point. Everyone calls The Exorcist the benchmark. No shock at all. What I'm getting at is that 39 years later, Friedkin would almost get as close to f
ucked up as he did that long ago with 2012's
Killer Joe. This really flew under the radar. I was well in my teenage years in 2012, in other words I was watching every film under the sun. Yet I never heard of anyone named
Killer Joe up until about last year. If you've yet to see this film, I won't spoil it. But Goddamn if I defy my rule.
Killer Joe tells the story of a beer-swishing wicked white trash family that meets a man named Killer Joe to request a service. As much as I contemplated even mentioning that, that's all the plot I'll give away. It really is the type of film that you need to go in completely washed of any ideas or rumors you might've heard. This might be Matthew Mcconaughey's best performance. He's deserving of his little statue man for
Dallas Buyer's Club but if this weren't such a divisive trashy film, he could've been easily nominated for this. He's aggressive, sexy, deadly, menacing, and without a doubt a terrible person, all brought incredibly wrapped up by his performance. Friedkin hasn't felt so essential in a very long while.
This received the much controversial rating of NC-17. Before I watched the film I said "what could be so terribly explicit about this film it needs an NC-17?".
Then I watched it.
The first 5 minutes, a women's hairy downstairs enters the frame right in front of Emile Hersch's face. It's absolutely repulsive. Not to mention a scene that simulates oral sex. I swear if someone stumbled onto this film at that very moment, they might think they're watching a XXX porno. It's absolutely brutal and not entirely in a satisfying way, just an ugly scene that's hard not to watch. Everyone fills these roles beautifully. The violence is nasty, the dialogue is ripe with southern Dallas accents, and Friedkin's direction is fierce.
Highly recommended if you can stomach. Nothing compares to
The Exorcist but goddamnit ya'll I don't think anything compares to
Killer Joe either yeeeee-haaaaaw.
B+