When a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.
Twisted, tense and trashy, it’s glorious fun.
From Gina Gershon’s pubic hair onwards, it’s clear Friedkin’s appetite for provocation has not dimmed, and the veteran director’s eye is as sharp as ever.
Virtually from the opening scene – a ludicrous full-frontal shot of Gershon – to the hyper-violent finale, the 76-year-old Friedkin throws everything at the characters, riffing a little on his back catalogue (the tautness of The French Connection, the shock of The Exorcist, the scuzziness of Cruising) to deliver his most vital film in years.
Friedkin’s unflinching trailer-park noir features ugly characters, game performances, degradation and the obscene abuse of a chicken drumstick. Highly recommended, then.
Sickeningly violent, Bad Lieutenant bonkers, but undeniably compelling.
It’s a very guilty pleasure indeed, a comic book heightened reality of one half of the American Dream, the one that’s going rapidly down in flames.
This is a vibrant, well paced piece of work from a director who really knows what he’s doing.
Killer Joe is a piece of southern gothic that has the corkscrew turns of a mainstream thriller, but it’s the shifting, hyped-up relationships that keep you hooked, along with the way it toys with ornaments of American life from the family unit to southern fried chicken.
The positively Jacobean climax, which earns the film its 18 certificate and then some, finds an imaginative use for takeaway southern-fried chicken that is perhaps even more revolting than eating it.
Family dysfunction to make Jeremy Kyle blush, but thanks to McConaughey’s oily power and Friedkin’s unflinching purpose it’s a compelling beast.
Killer Joe sets the scene for a killer noir, with some killer lines and killer characters, but Friedkin's energy and determination to wrest the story away from the stage and set it free in the cinema deserts him in the final act.
Adapted from his own play by Tracy Letts, the film twists itself into fine knots of sump-black comedy.
The film becomes unintentionally funny by the grotesque closing stretch.
Aside from Joe, the characters are not convincing and the story makes an ill-advised swerve into blood and splatter.
Lovely to see Friedkin on such mischievous form and McConaughey finally revealing his dark side.
The actors are tremendous, and there's a dizzying script by Tracy Letts, a Pulitzer-winning playwright. His perverse sitcom can't quite transcend its off-Broadway origins, but not many plays have such a remarkable cast … or a climax that's so certain to make you lose your appetite.
Revels in evil and lacks any sprightliness that might have redeemed its twisted characters, all of whom are loathsome and stupid.
What follows is a twisted, well acted and quite compelling comedy of errors, until a brutal, over-extended finale leaves a very sour taste.
William Friedkin talks Killer Joe: interview
William Friedkin
General release. Check local listings for show times.