Nonureva Really Surprised!

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

MrAlanChristoph If you want to avoid Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, do NOT watch this movie. Dottie is a minor in the film and she has sex with an adult man. Another part of the movie that made me really sick was watching Matthew McConaughey forcing Gina's character to perform oral sex on a piece of chicken on Matthew's crotch making it look like he was getting oral sex. If people wanted to see sex they would watch porn not a movie.This movie receives a bad rating from me. I was left disturbed after watching this movie.

Alyssa Black (Aly200) Oscar winning director William Friedkin has never been afraid to shy away from dark material as evidenced by the controversial, but Oscar nominated "The Exorcist" in 1973. However Friedkin outdoes that unsettling supernatural horror film with this deeply disturbing thriller that makes "The Exorcist" look tame by comparison. Based on the play by Tracy Letts (who also wrote the Award winning 'Aigust: Osage County'), the film follows a financially desperate family who hires a mysterious P.I./hit-man to kill the former familial matriarch. However the situation soon spirals into a torrent of terrifyingly uncomfortable scenes of violence and sexual depravity that leaves a shocking wave of startling consequences in its wake. The film is well cast with Emile Hirsch as the ne'er do well son who hires the titular hit-man; Hirsch plays his character, Chris, with a well meaning demeanor towards his little sister, Dottie, but Chris does not comprehend what his actions will unleash once he contacts Joe Cooper and ultimately learns the severity of what he has done. Thomas Haden Church, no stranger to playing some desperate characters (watch his work in "SpiderMan 3" for an example) is the dimwitted patriarch who just goes with the flow of his son's insane plan to off his ex-wife. Gina Gershon is the foul mouthed and self-serving stepmother who is in the plan for her own gain & also pays quite a sick and bloody price for her own foolish motives. Then there's the virginal-like, but emotionally (and clearly mentally impaired) Dottie, played to perfection by Juno Temple. Dottie sadly doesn't have a filter when voicing her thoughts which hurts the plans of her family, but her childish persona is what draws the normally aloof Joe Cooper to her; providing a unique relationship dynamic aside from the dysfunctional family angle.The film's standout performance however goes to Matthew McConaughey's subtlety maniacal & volatile portrayal of the title character. At first we are shown how calm and collected his demeanor normally is; tapping into the usual McConaughey skill set. However as the film progresses & his cruelty is slowly uncovered, unease begins to set in particularly when he seduces the virginal Dottie (McConaughey was a rom-com lead for a reason, but this starts to veer away from that image). The climactic turn comes during the film's explosively depraved final act where Killer Joe's true sadistic side is unleashed as McConaughey screams epithets of threats and engages in one horrific scene of sexual depravity that will jar even the most stone-faced viewer. This is definitely the film that turned McConaughey into a far more bankable dramatic lead following his rom-com roles; there's no debate in my opinion that was a spooky turning point. The content of the film is definitely not for the squeamish viewer especially if one is familiar with some of director William Friedkin's work, again mostly with "The Exorcist". However given the levels of S&M type acts, these are probably the boldest risks taken by the screenwriters, director and the actors (again particularly from the usually likable Matthew McConaughey) which do pay off but at the cost of unforgettable imagery. If you dare, give "Killer Joe" a try, but be warned that you'll be in for a wild ride.

johnnyboyz There is much to admire in "Killer Joe", a film which depicts a number of characters ill-suited to their predicament slowly, yet surely, tightening the noose they only discover to be around their necks in the first place by the time it's too late. It is several things: a very funny black comedy; an engrossing stripped down drama portraying a family in a way that, if it was British, you would describe as "kitchen sink"; a mobster movie; a coming of age story... There are many places wherein it feels like a Jim Thompson novel, or at least an adaptation of one of his novels.Fittingly, the film opens with a bang, and then does not really let up. Lightning cracks across a Texan sky and rain pummels down; a young man by the name of Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) arrives at his father's trailer in the dead of night and demands everyone wake up to let him in. He's in trouble - owing a local drug cartel $5,000 because his mother, divorced from his father and living separately, lost him the cocaine he was holding for them. His father's new wife, and the little sister they have custody of named Dottie (Juno Temple), are the epitome of dysfunctional – they shout; argue and bicker. Sharla (Gina Gershon) even answers the door nude from the waist down and it is revealed through quick-fire dialogue that Chris once beat his mother up.At this crucial juncture, director William Friedkin very subtly introduces the aforementioned Dottie – somebody very physically cut off from the ensuing argumentative chaos unfolding next door. She is younger, more child-like. She has fridge magnets glued to her bedroom door which spell out her name and sleeps in a room decked out with stuffed animals clutching a cutesy snow globe. In a town of hicks; rednecks; lowlifes; loose women and grizzled men, Dottie is a photogenic blonde with an ample figure and a girlish allure. Temple plays the role in such a way that she is temptress without striking us as being some who necessarily knows what that is – her performance is subtle smiles and happy faces; snappy, friendly backchat which neither means nor infers any offence.Strapped for ideas, Chris suggests the family have his and Dottie's mother – his father's ex-wife – killed. The reason? She has a $50,000 life insurance payout in Dottie's name. This would take care of Chris' money problems and it would eradicate a member of the public who has been a thorn in the sides of everyone else. When Dottie was a baby, for instance, she tried to suffocate her with a pillow.The vehicle through which to make this a reality is the titular "Killer" Joe Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, who has come a long way from when would be ridiculed by the British press as "Matthew Mahogany" for yet another feature in the mould of "Failure to Launch" or "Fool's Gold". Joe is a local law enforcer in the city of Dallas, but his real paycheques seem to come from his moonlighting as a hit-man. He is both refined and calm – he's a professional dealing with amateurs and possesses his own series of principals and regulations to do with his work. Contrarily, we do not sense the Smith family have ever had a principal between them their whole lives. They meet in a disused games outlet where pool tables lie wrecked and pinball machines beyond repair – what follows will essentially come to form a series of very dangerous games, of both mind and body, involving these two parties.Friedkin does not hold back in "Killer Joe" – within the first ten minutes, we have had presented to us blunt female nudity from both the waist up AND down. It is often an extraordinarily violent film in places, but the very distinct atmosphere of calm and method which dominates proceedings I think merely accentuates the violence. The film somewhat effortlessly combines the best of what Tarantino and the Coens were doing around twenty years ago with the manner about which Billy Wilder's very slowly cooks the situation in his 1944 feature "Double Indemnity", wherein characters are allowed to come and go on the issue of ending somebody else's life for an insurance payout before snowballing into further trouble once the murder has actually happened. There is plenty to recommend in "Killer Joe".

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Chris Smith has a problem. He owes a lot of money to some bad men, his dad can't loan him the cash, and he's sort of a lowlife. So he hatches a plan to hire a guy to kill his mom so that his younger sister Dottie can get the insurance settlement. This is never a good plan in the movies, and probably not in real life, either. As you may well deduce, things do not go as planned in this excellent crime thriller from an old hand, director William Friedkin.Chris (Emile Hirsch) knows a guy who knows a guy. The second guy is Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a Dallas police detective who moonlights as a hired killer. Nice work if you can get it, as they say. The intimidating Cooper lets it be known that he wants part of his fee upfront, and it's not a small amount, as a retainer. On the one hand, it's a heck of a lot smaller than the insurance payout will be. On the other hand, neither Chris, his beaten-down dad Ansel (Thomas Haden Church), nor his stepmother Sharla (Gina Gershon) has the money - they were counting on the insurance to be able to pay off Killer Joe. These people are not adept at project planning.So Joe, rather than simply walk away from a situation from which he can't really benefit, comes up with an alternative: the family will "loan" him Dottie (Juno Temple), a twentysomething virgin (I know, right?) who's best described as being terminally naive. Now, a normal family might reject this idea outright: What father in his right mind would let an acknowledged killer have his way with his daughter? Well, these aren't normal folks. Besides, they got a killing to attend to.As you may logically conclude, once that little line of selling out your kinfolk has been crossed, there's no turning back. We know full well we're in for a heap of double crossing. And a lot of yelling and screaming. And, as a matter of fact, blood and deadness. So although, on the surface, the plot may look like it's from a low-rent Cinemax feature, the surprising intensity and viciousness of McConaughey and the remarkable supporting cast (particularly Gershon) drive this story a long, long way. Even the writing (by Tracy Letts, who wrote the play on which the movie is based) is crisp and plausible but not overly predictable. Killer Joe is a grimy, grisly, dusty, and foul-mouthed minor classic, presided over by an unlikely bad seed: Matthew McConaughey.