Killer Joe (2012)
Directed by William Friedkin
A cop who moonlights as a hit man agrees to kill the hated mother of a desperate drug dealer in exchange for a tumble with the young man's virginal sister.
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What critics say influenced Killer Joe
Juno Temple is stunning as this modernized, oversexed take on Tennessee William’s “Baby Doll,” with Dottie suggesting sexual curiousity, naivete and guile beneath her “slow” exterior.
It throbs with echoes everything from Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me to Elia Kazan's Baby Doll to Little Miss Marker, and trust me, you're going to want to take a scalding hot shower with a steel-wool loofa after its ecstatically nihilistic final sequence.
Adapted from Tracy Letts’ play by the playwright himself, Killer Joe is a dark comedy neo-noir that crosses the Coen brothers’ Fargo (keeping the half-baked money scheme but ditching frigid northern country for the deep-fried south) with Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll (although abandoning Tennessee Williams’ underage lust-fantasy innuendo in favor of a more direct approach), and presents characters so stupid and morally repugnant that you start rooting for a stone-cold killer.
Dottie could have been Carroll Baker's sister in Baby Doll, the overheated Tennesse Williams/Elia Kazan collaboration.
Based on Tracy Letts’ play and directed by William Friedkin—the same team that produced the unhinged melodrama Bug five years ago—Killer Joe updates Double Indemnity for the trailer-park set, which means bypassing clever entendre in favor of straight-up venality and sleaze.
Before you can spot the noir inspirations (“Double Indemnity,” “The Killer Inside Me,” many more), things have gone very very bad for Chris and his clan (how the plan unravels is a true work of noir genius on Letts’ part, including a “duh” twist that I didn’t even see coming).
Yet Letts and director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”), constructing a story that sometimes recalls “Double Indemnity” or just drunk Hitchcock, indulge the sleaze without much concern for the unconvincingly self-aware people or their relationships.
That's because "Killer Joe" is as degrading, disturbing and wholly jaw-dropping as "Blue Velvet" or "Videodrome," but, like those 1980s masterpieces, it's also expertly directed, even more brutally well-written and features a cast that acts the hell out of every scene.
Kin to Blue Velvet's Frank Booth, McConaughey's Joe is sociopathy incarnate in black-leather Tony Lamas, looking to profit, or kiss, or kill, or, preferably, all of the above.
It’s far more straightforward, but the only movie I can compare it to for immediate recognition is “Blue Velvet,” and I say that as praise.
The tone could be best described as the darkest of Coen brothers films, with some Blue Velvet oddity sprinkled in.
Even though Killer Joe plays sort of like Wild at Heart without the love, sympathy, and wonder, the acting is superb, and Friedkin expertly stages Letts’ screenplay for the camera of five-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel.
To do the deed, they contact Joe Cooper, a black-hatted and black-gloved Dallas police detective who suggests a cowboy movie villain as imagined by Jim Thompson; he might be kin to Lou Ford, the maniac Texas sheriff protagonist of Thompson's novel, "The Killer Inside Me."
The finale is bruisingly bloody, as rough a moment as any I’ve seen since Casey Affleck pummeled Jessica Alba in “The Killer Inside Me.” Friedkin doesn’t pull any punches, no pun intended, in a scene that is horrifyingly specific without ever losing its drama.
Thompson’s Pop.1280 and The Killer Inside Me center, like Letts’s play, on a lethally-inclined police officer.
First Chris and then Sharla get terrific beatings, Ansel learns he’s even a bigger fool than he or anyone else ever thought and Killer Joe (modeled somewhat after Jim Thompson’s protagonist in the unthinkably dark “The Killer Inside Me”) acts as if no matter what he does or whom he attacks no one on the Dallas police force will go after him.
It throbs with echoes everything from Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me to Elia Kazan's Baby Doll to Little Miss Marker, and trust me, you're going to want to take a scalding hot shower with a steel-wool loofa after its ecstatically nihilistic final sequence.
Upfront recalling the Jekyll/Hyde center of Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me (filmed by Michael Winterbottom in 2010), Joe also wears black from hat to boot.
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Killer Joe presents an inversion of The Night of the Hunter, in which the interloping father—for his cop/killer, McConaughey has certainly studied the psychopath suavity of Robert Mitchum's preacher/killer—is actually welcomed by a family that knows no rule except might makes right.
This isn’t to say that the prime years McConaughey squandered shirtless in dire romantic comedies put him on equal footing with the iconic star of The Night Of The Hunter and Out Of The Past.
In appearance he channels Jack Palance’s Wilson in George Stevens’ Shane, the sure-shot (and coffee-drinking, like Killer Joe) dark spirit called forth to take on the new, eponymous threat.
He started out making movies out of plays (“The Birthday Party” and “The Boys in the Band” were two of his earliest) and a good strong ensemble still delights him.
The film harks back to the low-budget chamber pieces of Friedkin's early career (The Birthday Party, The Boys in the Band), and he creates a perfect storm of montage and character interplay within a confined space, which culminates in a disturbing loss of humanity.
In 1973, director William Friedkin followed the pioneering gay drama “The Boys in the Band” and the Oscar-winning thriller “The French Connection” with arguably the most shocking film in Hollywood history: “The Exorcist.”
"Bug," a 2007 adaptation of Tracy Letts' 1996 play, revolved around two increasingly troubled people losing their minds.
William Friedkin directs for the screen, adapting his second Letts play, after 2006's Bug, which starred Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon in the role he originated onstage.
Like Friedkin’s previous effort, the little-seen “ Bug ,” “Killer Joe” derives from a play by Tracy Letts, who lived in Dallas as a young man.
Killer Joe reunites Friedkin with playwright and scriptwriter Tracy Letts, who adapted his own off-Broadway play Bug for the helmer's paranoid 2006 outing with Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd.
The second collaboration between director William Friedkin ("The Exorcist") and playwright Tracy Letts after 2006's "Bug" is a much starrier, slicker affair featuring a career best performance from Matthew McConaughey as a cooly creepy sadist with a gentleman's veneer, yet this dark comedy seems all rather pointless, a hundred minute build up to a single punch line.
Just as he did with the underrated “Bug,” the legendary Friedkin proves to be an excellent fit for Tracy Letts’ searing gift with dialogue, character, and claustrophobia.
But that was not quite 40 years ago and since then he’s been mostly known for bad action films like “The Hunted,” and being married to pioneer feminist mogul, Sherry Lansing.
Friedkin’s work here is far more interesting and lively than the self-serious studio dramas for middle-aged men he made ten years ago like Rules of Engagement and The Hunted.
Directed by Oscar-winner William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection, The Hunted), Killer Joe is one of the more odd and challenging films I’ve had to review.
Since 2003’s flop The Hunted his only theatrical pictures have been the adaptations of Letts’ first plays - Killer Joe premiered in 1993, Bug in 1996 - though he’s also contributed episodes to smash TV hit CSI.
As a storyteller, Friedkin has always strayed from the norm and given audiences some of the most thought-provoking and powerful films of all times including The French Connection, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in LA and Cruising as well as a few other notable projects including Rules of Engagement, Bug and the erotic thriller Jade (penned by the wacky Joe Eszterhas).
Cruising , from 1980, is a rather terrible movie, but we learned from it important things about director William Friedkin, chiefly that he is about as vigorously heterosexual as a man can be, * and that he seemingly possesses a deep, abiding horror of sex.
Directed by the gutsy William Friedkin ("The Exorcist," "Cruising") and adapted by Tracy Letts from his own stage play, this Southern-fried, darkly humorous trailer-trash exploitation crime noir revels in the greedy characters' idiocy and the deranged story's psychosexual luridness.
In 1980, Pauline Kael wrote that Friedkin's homosexual underground/serial killer movie "Cruising" was "like a dead rat in a Lucite block."
These include “Henry & June” (the first NC-17 title), “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” “Happiness,” “Mysterious Skin,” and, now, “Killer Joe,” an inky dark comedy from director William Friedkin -- who might’ve garnered an NC-17 for “The Exorcist” or “Cruising” if it had existed when he made them.
It should come as no surprise to discover William Friedkin ( The Exorcist , The French Connection , Cruising ) is the directorial force behind this perverted gem although there’s such a youthful energy behind the movie that you would never guess Friedkin was 76 years old.
Just after seeing William Friedkin's Killer Joe , I went back to fill a couple of holes in his filmography, films of his I hadn't yet seen.
Sadly, the flat digital photography renders the film a far sight from Friedkin's work in his 1970s heyday (The French Connection, Sorcerer, The Exorcist).
Still, Friedkin’s pedal-to-the-metal approach to genre filmmaking—evident in great films like The Exorcist , The French Connection , Sorcerer, and To Live And Die In L.A. , plus a few dismal ones, too—gives Killer Joe the energy and breakneck pace Letts’ work demands.
I especially liked his movie “Sorcerer” and in the 1980s his gritty “To Live and Die in LA” was one of my favorites.
Sorcerer was released in stereo, but the soundtrack has been "reimagined" (in Friedkin's term) by Aaron Levy of Todd-Soundelux, who worked on Friedkin's Bug and Killer Joe .
En 2012, son retour au premier plan avec l’incroyable Killer Joe l’avait replacé sur l’échiquier des réalisateurs les plus en vue, mais c’est aujourd’hui que son aura reprend toute son ampleur, avec la ressortie de son film maudit désormais considéré comme son tout meilleur: Sorcerer .
The Pulitzer-prize winning playwright (“August: Osage County”) is well-served by the veteran director William “The French Connection” Friedkin, who opens the show up and takes this Texas Gothic tale out of doors, into the dives, underpasses and trailer parks of an ugly, venal and violent underclass.
Director William Friedkin has been making movies for 45 years and, in that time, has created some of the greatest films, “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” and some of the worst (“Cruising (1980)”) and a whole bunch in between.
In 1973, director William Friedkin followed the pioneering gay drama “The Boys in the Band” and the Oscar-winning thriller “The French Connection” with arguably the most shocking film in Hollywood history: “The Exorcist.”
Sadly, the flat digital photography renders the film a far sight from Friedkin's work in his 1970s heyday (The French Connection, Sorcerer, The Exorcist).
Shamefully self-indulgent director William Friedkin (“The French Connection,” “The Exorcist”) seems to relish the overtly misogynistic, lewd scenes in which Sharla and Dottie are sadistically and violently degraded.
Anybody who trusts in the serenity that comes with age will be taken aback by William Friedkin’s new movie; four decades after “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” here is one of his most brutal works to date.
There's a foot chase between blasted-out, graffiti-covered buildings that's every bit as furious and tense as Friendkin's best car chase scenes, in The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) and Jade (1995).
William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) can certainly lay claim to cultural touchstones, but this is one of his lesser works, much closer to directorial efforts such as Jade and Rules of Engagement.
As a storyteller, Friedkin has always strayed from the norm and given audiences some of the most thought-provoking and powerful films of all times including The French Connection, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in LA and Cruising as well as a few other notable projects including Rules of Engagement, Bug and the erotic thriller Jade (penned by the wacky Joe Eszterhas).
Director William Friedkin has been making movies for 45 years and, in that time, has created some of the greatest films, “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” and some of the worst (“Cruising (1980)”) and a whole bunch in between.
The director is William Friedkin, who first churned stomachs with “The Exorcist.”
In 1973, director William Friedkin followed the pioneering gay drama “The Boys in the Band” and the Oscar-winning thriller “The French Connection” with arguably the most shocking film in Hollywood history: “The Exorcist.”
Sadly, the flat digital photography renders the film a far sight from Friedkin's work in his 1970s heyday (The French Connection, Sorcerer, The Exorcist).
Shamefully self-indulgent director William Friedkin (“The French Connection,” “The Exorcist”) seems to relish the overtly misogynistic, lewd scenes in which Sharla and Dottie are sadistically and violently degraded.
Anybody who trusts in the serenity that comes with age will be taken aback by William Friedkin’s new movie; four decades after “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” here is one of his most brutal works to date.
Just not very successfully (Deal of the Century, anyone?).
Then he hit a slump in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of duds — Jade, The Hunted, Rules of Engagement and most infamously The Guardian, the one about the tree that ate babies (no, seriously).
There's a foot chase between blasted-out, graffiti-covered buildings that's every bit as furious and tense as Friendkin's best car chase scenes, in The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) and Jade (1995).
In The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968), The French Connection (1971), Sorcerer (1977), The Brink’s Job (1978), Deal of the Century (1983), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Blue Chips (1994) and, more recently, Killer Joe (2011), the pursuit of money entails underhand tactics, struggle, betrayal and violence.
William Friedkin, der schon mit dem großartigen Brennpunkt Brooklyn ( The French Connection ) oder später auch mit Killer Joe die Grenzen des Genres auslotete und Konventionen brach, setzt dies auch konsequent mit Leben und Sterben in L.A. fort und kreiert damit einen Crime-Thriller, der sich auch vor weitaus bekannteren Größen wie Chinatown , Heat oder L.A. Confidential nicht verstecken braucht.
Un terreno narrativo quindi familiare e confortevole per il regista de Killer Joe (2011) che nella dura vita dell’uomo di legge in bilico tra legalità e giustizia privata ha saputo costruire le sue e le fortune filmiche del sopracitato Braccio violento .
William Friedkin es uno de esos directores de antaño que a pesar de haber formado parte del glorioso y rupturista Nuevo Hollywood de la década del 70, en esencia su producción artística puede categorizarse sin problemas como la de cualquier otro director de la fase inmediatamente previa, la del Hollywood Clásico, ya que sus películas fueron de lo más variopintas y pueden dividirse en obras maestras o faenas muy interesantes, hablamos de Los Chicos de la Banda ( The Boys in the Band , 1970), Contacto en Francia ( The French Connection , 1971), El Exorcista ( The Exorcist , 1973), Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), la televisiva 12 Hombres en Pugna ( 12 Angry Men , 1997) y Killer Joe (2011), trabajos atractivos pero de segunda línea, pensemos en Fiesta de Cumpleaños ( The Birthday Party , 1968), Los Alegres Veintes ( The Night They Raided Minsky’s , 1968), ¿Y Dónde Está el Ladrón?
But director William Friedkin, that old master who brought us The French Connection and The Exorcist before a few decades in the wilderness (the man directed Blue Chips, for cripes sake), shows off a dirty old man's glee; the movie is almost affably amoral.
Friedkin’s work here is far more interesting and lively than the self-serious studio dramas for middle-aged men he made ten years ago like Rules of Engagement and The Hunted.
William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) can certainly lay claim to cultural touchstones, but this is one of his lesser works, much closer to directorial efforts such as Jade and Rules of Engagement.
It feels as if it’s filtered through a lens that blends early 90s neo-noir features like Red Rock West with a gritty exploitation vibe from grind-house 70s films.
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Trailer park dad Ansel (Thomas Haden Church, " We Bought a Zoo") and slutty stepmom Sharla (Gina Gershon, "Showgirls") can't help, but his pill-popping, alcoholic mom has a 50K insurance policy set aside for his little sister Dottie (Juno Temple, "Kaboom," "The Dark Knight Rises") and he's heard about a corrupt cop who can take care of such things, a man called "Killer Joe."
Without losing any of Bug’s intensity, Killer Joe spins a lot of dumb hick behavior into a wellspring of comedy and plot twists, recalling Raising Arizona’s colorful vernacular while turning a simple contract job into a complicated web of family betrayals.