Killer Joe (2012) Review

★ ★ 1/2

By: Kameron McBride

 This film is sleazy, disgusting, filled with stupid characters and has enough grease that it probably could be put on a bun and sold at KFC¹ and yet, I found myself fascinated by it.

Killer Joe tells the story of the Smith family—who might be able to screw in one light bulb between the lot of them—and their  stupidity gets them into quite a bit of trouble. The son Chris (Emile Hirsch) has gotten in deep with the wrong people and decides to hatch a plan with his father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) to kill his biological mother and collect the insurance money. Chris has heard of a corrupt cop named "Killer" Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who will do contract killings. His price is steep, but as Chris points out they wouldn't want to go cheap on this one.

Joe looks exactly as you would expect, seemingly impervious to the Texas heat he wears all black, right down to his leather gloves. His eyes are constantly obscured by dark sunglasses while a cowboy hat sits on his head. McConaughey was the perfect choice for the role, playing Joe like a rattlesnake: cool and collected as long as you maintain your distance but that rattle always reminds you of how dangerous he can be.

Chris and Ansel meet Joe but discover they can't pay him. Joe almost walks out on them but decides to use Chris' sister Dottie (Juno Temple) as a retainer. Chris and Ansel tentatively agree and Joe sets out on his mission.

As I said earlier, the characters in Killer Joe are almost all baffilingly stupid. This becomes the clearest at the climax of the film when we discover just how little thought Chris has put into his master plan. The surprising thing is that director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) manages to weave a tight-enough story that as an audience we remain engaged with what's going on. The actions on screen are unpaltable but we can somehow kind of appreciate Friedkin's ability to build tension and keep us from just shutting the damn thing off.

This is also my issue with the film: it's always good in spite of itself. There's a lot of talen assembled here that got me interested enough to see the film but the always seem to be excelling in spite of a vile story. The film is based on Pulitzer-winning writer Tracy Letts' off-broadway show of the same name-which starred the great Michael Shannon. It feels theatrical with limited sets and a lot of dialogue, rather than action. The climax of the movie lost me, it stuffed a lot of action into about ten minutes and I wasn't really sure what it was trying to say anymore.

Killer Joe will be interesting to those who can stomache it but I'm not sure if that's enough to really recommend it. It's an experience that can feel kind of like an endurance.



1. The product placement by KFC—by the way—is so vile that I wouldn't be surprised if the company asked for its money back.