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Title: Killer Joe (2011)
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| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Matthew McConaughey | ... | Killer Joe Cooper | |
| Emile Hirsch | ... | Chris Smith | |
| Juno Temple | ... | Dottie Smith | |
| Thomas Haden Church | ... | Ansel Smith | |
| Gina Gershon | ... | Sharla Smith | |
| Marc Macaulay | ... | Digger Soames | |
| Gralen Bryant Banks | ... | Pizza Patron (as Graylen Banks) | |
| Carol Sutton | ... | Saleslady | |
| Danny Epper | ... | G-Man | |
| Jeff Galpin | ... | Biker Thug | |
| Scott A. Martin | ... | Pizza Manager (as Scott Martin) | |
 |
Gregory C. Bachaud | ... | Filpatrick |
| Charley Vance | ... | Preacher | |
Finding himself in considerable debt, Chris, a Texan drug dealer, decides the only solution is to murder his mother to collect the insurance money. Getting together with his father, the ex-husband of Chris' mother, they decide to hire Joe Cooper (a contract killer) who also happens to be a police detective. The plan is that the money will go to Chris' sister Dottie. However due to the size of the contract fee, Chris agrees that Joe can take Dottie as a retainer until the insurance comes through.
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This is about... hmm... about a father and son who want to kill the mother of the family to collect the insurance money from her death, and hire a killer (also a cop) who decides to take 'as a retainer' the younger sister of the family while they come up with the cash to pay him. It's always refreshing when your first though when this ends is - where did THAT come from?
By far this is Matthew McConaughey's most WTF-bad-ass performance, with touches of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet and even Anton Chigurh. He's such a fantastic, seductive, snake-like villain here, because after the first couple of times you see him, you're not quite sure where he'll go. Friedkin takes this material into some VERY dark places (I imagine based off of the play, once again like 'Bug' from Tracy Letts), and if you aren't offended after the first ten minutes, you just gotta hang on for the rest of the ride. It's a twisted-f**k film-noir comedy of horrors where morality is so screwed that you have to laugh to not recoil from where it goes ultimately.
The ending had me howling with laughter, recoiling in pain, and just stunned by McConaughey suddenly shattering an image he's built up for himself over the past fifteen years as a rom-com hack. It's his film, along with the unlikely-attractive actress Juno Temple, who has a seduction scene with 'Killer Joe' that is edge-of-your-seat. For those of us sick- bastards looking for something off the wall, it's one of the must-sees of the year. Not as surreal as Blue Velvet, but not as poorly-crafted trash as a Grindhouse movie. It's in an area somewhere in-between, and I can't wait to see it again.