{"id":4000,"date":"2012-08-10T13:47:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T19:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4000"},"modified":"2012-08-10T13:47:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T19:47:43","slug":"shock-cinemakiller-joe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4000","title":{"rendered":"Shock Cinema:Killer Joe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The only thing killer about \u201cKiller Joe\u201d is Matthew McConaughey, who summons one of the best performances of his checkered career in service of a trashy, despicable movie that fully earns its NC-17 rating. It\u2019s yet another example of a playwright \u2013 in this case, a Tennessee Williams-wannabe named Tracy Letts \u2013 compensating for his utter lack of talent by mucking around the bottom of the barrel of human decency.
\nThe guy is all about shock value, and little else, as he clumsily \u201ccrafts\u201d a tale about Texas trailer park types going doublewide in their contempt for each other and their fellow man. There\u2019s nothing funny, redeeming or interesting about anyone \u2013 except, possibly, McConaughey\u2019s Joe Cooper, a corrupt Dallas detective with a drawl that oozes the sort of disarming charm that enables you to overlook his psychopathic tendencies. You see, Joe \u2013 irony of all ironies — moonlights as a hit man. He even wears a black cowboy hat to seal the bad guy deal.
\nYes, Joe is a West Texas clich\u00e9 in search of a bad B movie, a needless commodity that Letts and Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (\u201cThe French Connection\u201d) are all too happy to fill in the name of \u2026 what? Art? It\u2019s certainly not entertainment, because who wants to be amused by rampant misogyny (a woman forced at gunpoint to perform fellatio on a piece of fried chicken) and gratuitous violence (a person burned alive)? Oh, and did I mention this is a comedy? It\u2019s more like a comedy of errors on the parts of Letts and Friedkin, who teamed 6 years ago on the equally insipid \u201cBug.\u201d They get virtually nothing right, from the film\u2019s uneven tone to the even more uneven performances by Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon and Juno Temple, this week\u2019s version of the \u201cmanic pixie dream girl.\u201d
\nShe plays dopey Dottie, a slutty virgin afflicted with what appears to be some form of brain damage. She longs for a man, but she\u2019s not likely to find one living as she does in the squalid trailer she shares with her dimwitted daddy (Church) and blowsy, oft-naked stepmama (Gershon). Then there\u2019s her irresponsible, drug-dealing brother, Chris (Hirsch), in hock up to his soon-to-be-wrung neck with the local mob. He needs cash and he needs it fast. And he figures the easiest way to get it is to hire Joe to off his mother so he and Dottie can claim the $50,000 insurance benefit. Problem is, Chris doesn\u2019t have enough dough to cover Joe\u2019s hefty down payment, so \u2013 like any good brother \u2013 he offers to prostitute the childlike Dottie to Joe instead.<\/p>\n

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