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THURSDAY AUGUST 30, 2012
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS
MOVIE REVIEW
"Killer Joe" is sure to shock
LANDON MCDONALD
lmcdonald@kansan.com
William Friedkin's gleefully amoral "Killer Joe" is a film designed to elicit both delight and disgust from its audience.
Some viewers, perhaps failing to heed the well-earned NC-17 rating, will emerge from the theater angry or repulsed, especially by the grotesque final scene. Others will marvel at star Matthew McConaughey's long-suppressed acting talents and celebrate the film's off-kilter performances and perversely comic tone.
Adapted by Tracy Letts from his own play, "Killer Joe" centers on the increasingly poor decisions of the Darwin award-worthy Smith family. Desperate to pay off his debt to a vicious Texas drug lord, Chris (Emile Hirsch) enlists the help of his dim-witted father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) and stepmother Sharla (Gina Gershon) in a scheme to dispose of his real mother and collect on her life insurance. Unwilling to get their hands dirty, the Smiths approach Joe Cooper
(McConaughey), a Dallas police detective who moonlightes as a contract killer. Joe agrees on one condition: He wants Chris's virgin sister Dottie (Juno Temple) as a retainer until the job is done.
An alternate title for "Killer Joe" could have been "The Dumb and the Desperate." The majority of the characters are aggressively ignorant and unlikeable, yet the experience of watching them is never less than wholly absorbing. Every act of degradation and betrayal carries with it the queasy mesmerism of a real-time car crash. Think of the Coen Brothers' "Fargo" without the reassuring balance of the Frances McDormand character and you'd be in the right ballpark.
The success of last year's "The Lincoln Lawyer" appears to have jolted McConaughey out of the career-stalling stupor brought on by years of romantic comedies. Since then he's been turning in the rich, nuanced work of a veteran character actor in films like this summer's "Bernie" and "Magic Mike." His performance as Joe is a knowing riff on his good ol' boy
image;— his charm and unfailing civility now the mask of a seasoned apex predator.
Hirsch and Church both excel as slack-jawed losers, when Gersonchows the scenery with gusto as the connivance, perpetually bottomless Sharla. The film's only weak link is Temple, an actress whose entire career seems geared towards starring in a remake of "Lolita," and who amplifies Dotty's space-waif persona to the point where it becomes grating.
FINAL RATING:
3 OUT OF 4 STARS
Friedkin, the renowned director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection" seems to have reached a creative resurgence that started with the adaptation of Letts' surveillance thriller "Bug" back in 2006. This new film is the work of a tireless master whose capacity to shock and disturb remains undaunted, even nearly four decades after Linda Blair's head spinning.
Edited by Laken Rapier
MOVIE REVIEW
In "Lawless," the outlaws rule
LANDON MCDONALD
imcdonald@kansan.com
Life is cheaper than liquor to the backwater desperados of "Lawless," director John Hillcoat's latest meditation on the evil that men do in the name of honor and family.
Although purportedly based on the real-life exploits of a Virginia bootleger clan known as the Bondurant Brothers, much of the film unfolds as a blood-drenched folk tale, packed to the rafters with larger-than-life characters and sudden, shuddering bursts of operatic brutality. It also features the great Gary Oldman wielding a Tommy gun in a scene that recalls Albert Finney's infamous house call in "Miller's Crossing."
The story, adapted from Matt Bondurant's novel "The Wettest County in the World," is told through the eyes of Jack (Shia LaBeouf), the youngest of the three Bondurants and the least likely to survive the family business because of his sensitive nature and general impulsiveness. His brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) are both hardened
men of violence. Hardy's character in particular seems not to possess a fear of death even when it comes in the eyebrowless, dandified form of Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), a Chicago investigator who's been sent down south to break up the moonshine racket led by exiled gangster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman).
LaBeouf is a capable enough performer when he's not having to hold his own against Oldman or Pearce. His courtship of a local preacher's daughter, played with understated grace by the lovely Mia Wasikowska, serves as a nice respite from all the bullet holes and sliced jugulars. Young Dane DeHaan, whose star has been on the rise since starring in last winter's sleeper hit "Chronicle," could have used some more screen time as Jack's crippled friend Cricket, who the brothers unwisely enlist to help run their moonshine still.
Hardy, meanwhile, continues to earn those early Brando comparisons with his mumbling, brooding take on the corn-fed alpha male, while Jessica Chastain channels hidden fire as the woman who dares
to love him. In the end, though,
it's Pearce's impeccably dressed,
hilbilly-hating lawman who nearly
steals the show. Who knew shaved
eyebrows could be so damn intimidating?
The film was written and scored by post-punk Aussie rocker Nick Cave, who also collaborated with Hillcoat and Pearce on "The Road" and "The Proposition," the latter of which remains my all-time favorite western despite the fact that it takes place entirely in the parched badlands of colonial Australia. His "Lawless" script never reaches the verbal or visual poetry of that earlier work, and the meandering, fanciful ending closes the film on a note of forced sentimentality. But as any good moonshiner will tell you, even watered-down brilliance is something worth drinking to.
FINAL RATING:
3 OUT OF 4 STARS
MUSIC
- Edited by Ryan McCarthy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - In this June 20, 2012 file photograph originally released by Trident, members of Duran Duran, from left, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor make an appearance at Trident's "See What Unfolds Live" event at Terminal 5 in New York. The band is canceling several concerts because of the illness of keyboard player Nick Rhodes. They had already called off concerts over the past week in Pittsburgh; in Kettering, Ohio; outside Chicago, and in Atlantic City, N.J. The band had hoped to reschedule some of the shows, but decided to cancel the final half-dozen shows on its North American tour.
Duran Duran cancels shows ends North America tour early
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH — Duran Duran is canceling several concerts because of the illness of keyboard player Nick Rhodes.
The band had already called off concerts over the past week in Pittsburgh; in Kettering, Ohio; outside Chicago; and in Atlantic City, N.J.
The band had hoped to reschedule some of the shows, but decided to cancel the final half-dozen shows on its North American tour. That includes the four U.S. concerts and two shows in Orillia, Ontario.
The band has said Rhodes is suffering from exhaustion or a possible viral infection.
site, "Nick held out all week, hoping that he would be well enough to perform again for these final few shows, but unfortunately the medical advice he has been given today requires him to continue to rest."
According to the band's web-
GELEBRITY NEWS
Kardsahian settles with Old Navy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Kim Kardashian has settled a lawsuit against Old Navy claiming the clothing retailer violated her publicity rights by retailers like a lookalike in an ad.
Kardashian sued over the spot in July 2011, claiming the company's use of a model who looked like her might confuse consumers about her actual endorsements, which include a clothing store and shoe line.
No details about the settlement were filed with the court.
"The lawsuit was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," said the reality TV starlet's attorney Gary Hecker, who declined to elaborate.
A spokesperson for Old Navy parent company The Gap Inc. was not immediately available.
The lawsuit was over the commercial title "Super C-U-T-E." The ad began airing in February 2011 and was still being used in some of the company's promotions months later. Kardashian's lawsuit stated.
It featured Canadian singer-model Melissa Molinaro, who an attorney for Old Navy said at a January hearing was famous in her own right. Her appearance in the ad wasn't intended to draw similarities to Kardashian, the retailer maintained.
Hecker contended that some news outlets and Twitter users noted similarities in the women's appearances.
Kardashian, 31, was seeking unspecified damages and an order barring Old Navy from using a lookalike model again.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kim Kardashian from the show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall in New York on April 30. Kardashian's lawsuit against Old Navy over an advertisement was dismissed Tuesday Aug. 28 after the two sides reached a settlement.
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