Since 1975, when Jaws helped coin the term ‘blockbuster’, the summer has been the season for expensive event movies. These films will often have a marketing budget equal to the already mind-numbingly high production budgets. Competing financially with these summer blockbusters is, in a word, futile. To illustrate this point, even the James Bond movies, which have a mass fan-base spanning entire generations, will no longer compete; since the almost franchise sinking Timothy Dalton era, 007 has always reached the screens in the autumn season. Over the years, even being an event movie is often not enough, and generally (there are many notably obvious exceptions, this is a sweeping generalisation) these blockbusters have pre-existing fan-bases along with their excessive budgets.
2012 is a shining example of this point with the key summer smashes being The Avengers (the final culmination of years of build up); The Amazing Spiderman (a reboot of a still young franchise); Total Recall (a remake); Prometheus (a linked, possible prequel to the Alien franchise) and The Dark Knight Rises (the third installment of a trilogy).
These are not necessarily bad films, some of them are enjoyable, many of them have not been released at the time of writing, and one of them has been directed by Chris Nolan, who can seemingly do no wrong. The opening paragraph has not been set out to denigrate sequels, remakes or reboots, simply to expose the rarity of originality in cinema’s summer season. With this originality in mind, Killer Joe (original in comparison) emerges quietly into the market. With it’s NC-17 rating (or financial death-sentence) it was never going to compete with the other releases. But this also means it doesn’t have the same expectations. Killer Joe won’t be judged a success on it’s box-office takings the way that every other film in this season will, but on its achievements as a film.
Killer Joe tells the story of a dysfunctionally twisted family in small town Texas. Chris (Emile Hirsch) thinks his mother has stolen drugs from him, putting him in a debt with some local mobsters that he can’t pay back. With the help of his Dad, Ansel, his step-mother Sharla and his younger sister Dottie, he plans to kill his mother and use the insurance money to pay back his debts. In order to carry out the murder, he hires Killer Joe Cooper, a Dallas police detective who kills people in his spare time. Chris’ family is dysfunctional, confused, and possibly abusive, so when Joe, a law man with his own questionable moral code, enters their lives, he makes a big impact.
Directed by William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist (1973), arguably the greatest horror movie of all time, there might be an expectations of dark psychological horror themes. If these are your expectations, you’ll be surprised. Killer Joe is certainly dark and psychological, but it’s not a horror. It’s a tough film to put into a genre, is it a thriller with some funny moments, or is a comedy with dark undertones? It’s certainly dark and violent, but there are no shortage of laugh out loud comedy moments. Horror movies skate a fine line with comedy, as soon as the audience laughs instead of gasps, the suspension dissipates and the film has to work even harder to regain the audience’s attention. Killer Joe doesn’t have this problem. It jumps between funny and intense without losing the atmosphere.
It was mentioned earlier that Killer Joe is only comparatively original, this is because it is an adaptation, just from a more cult piece of source material. Adapted by it’s original writer, Tracey Letts, from a stage play by the same name, it has a clear foundation in theatre. Theatrical adaptations often rely on their actors and deep performance as opposed to big cinematic set-pieces, simply because there aren’t those set-pieces in the story’s origins. While the violence, intensity and the confusing family dynamic are the stand-out points from the film, the performances make these points worth watching. Of all the performances, it is Matthew McConaughey who stands out. The man has made his career on bad performances in bad films. What made his performance so incredible was the slow build up. His character didn’t seem too imposing, he didn’t seem to justify the reputation garnered, but as the film builds towards the climax, so does his character until any prior reputation McConaughey brings is completely wiped. Joe’s power over the family is fixating and comes from so many different levels, his attention to details, his role as detective and authority figure, and his physical strength. All of these characteristics contradict the Smith family.
“Families are screwed up. They always have been, and I suppose they always will be. But it’s all we’ve got.” - Tracey Letts
Letts writes a family that need each other, but one that would ultimately be better apart. Ansel’s wife is unfaithful, but his comic ignorance to everything around him leaves him unaware, emasculating him and stopping him from being the figurehead of the family. This puts that role on the shoulders of Chris, who’s incompetence put the family in the unfortunate situation in the first place. Chris seems to move from his mother’s to his father’s residence, unable to support himself, and so continues to live his life as if he has no responsibilities, causing problems for all around him and never accepting blame. Ansel’s wife, Sharla, is conniving, but isn’t smart enough to cover her back properly. The final piece of the jigsaw is Dottie, brilliantly played by Juno Temple. Dottie is the only character who doesn’t seem guilty, while she willingly knows about and condones the plan to kill her mother, she doesn’t seem to actually participate. It isn’t clear whether she has learning difficulties that the family have remained ignorant to, or if she’s just not particularly clever. But this naivety and innocence keep her distant from the family. It’s clear that she loves both Ansel and Chris, and that they love her, but they seem to stunt her and stop her from growing up. It is this reason that Joe’s presence in her life seems like a good thing.
The concept of Dottie’s reliance on either her family or Joe begs the question of the where the audience’s loyalties should lie. Is Chris the Protagonist? But his incompetence got the family into the trouble they’re in. If his plan works out, what will stop him from screwing up and falling back into trouble almost immediately? So is Joe more likable? Is Joe the protagonist? He provides security, a set of morals and rules and the semblance of a normal life. On the other hand, he’s a corrupt cop, how good can these morals be? Is he switched on, or just a little less messed up than the Smiths? This ambiguity of who to side with adds another level of enjoyment for the audience, why side with one over the other? Is it possible to dislike both equally? Should I be siding with this one?
Killer Joe is an enigmatic film, both darkly funny and terrifyingly visceral. It’s filled with both brilliant performances and gratuitous nudity, sex and violence. Despite its brilliance, however, it will be smothered by the copious amounts of expensive studio films that will flood our multiplexes for the next few months.
Written by Edward L. Corrigan - 08/07/2012
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