It's a comedy. A very very black indeed comedy, but a comedy nonetheless. I laughed a lot.
I also squirmed a lot too. For Killer Joe is one of the most uncomfortable films I have sat through in a very long time.
Friedkin and his superlative ensemble cast suck you so deeply into the dead-end lives of the protagonists that, as the friend I saw the film with remarked, you forget that you are watching a movie.
Of course, Friedkin is a past master of cinema verite. As he explained in the Q&A session which followed the screening I attended at the NFT in London, he believes his job as a director is to take a good script, cast it really well, and then create an atmosphere in which the actors can express themselves. I think he achieves that in Killer Joe. Whether you like the result will depend on whether you 'enjoy' watching people with little education, little money and little hope slowly and inexorably destroying themselves.
Friedkin himself said, only half jokingly, that we weren't supposed to 'enjoy' the movie. And while he's probably sort of right, there is much to admire in it. Caleb Deschanel's photography is immaculate. The slow-burn narrative gradually draws you in. All the cast are good, and Thomas Haden Church as the bemused but essentially decent father, Matthew McConaughey as the eponymous lawman turned assassin and Juno Temple as his Lolita are all outstanding.
Temple, daughter of British filmmaker and chronicler of the Sex Pistols Julien Temple, was 22 when she made Killer Joe, but she plays about 13 or 14. (Her exact age is never given, although it is implied that Joe at least thinks of her as being 12.) Which makes the seduction scene involving her and Joe deeply disturbing.
As for Matthew McConaughey, the handsome rom-com star, well, he is a revelation. I suspect at least some sections of his fanbase will be alienated, if not nauseated, by some of his antics in Killer Joe. The Wedding Planner it ain't.
At the end of the Q&A session Friedkin told a joke about an actor playing Hamlet being constantly booed by the audience, who eventually turned on them with the remonstration, "don't blame me, I didn't write this s**t". Bad Boy Billy then gestured at the curtained screen behind him and echoed the punchline about the film we had just watched.
Killer Joe - offensive s**t or neo-noir masterpiece? You decide.
I also squirmed a lot too. For Killer Joe is one of the most uncomfortable films I have sat through in a very long time.
Friedkin and his superlative ensemble cast suck you so deeply into the dead-end lives of the protagonists that, as the friend I saw the film with remarked, you forget that you are watching a movie.
Of course, Friedkin is a past master of cinema verite. As he explained in the Q&A session which followed the screening I attended at the NFT in London, he believes his job as a director is to take a good script, cast it really well, and then create an atmosphere in which the actors can express themselves. I think he achieves that in Killer Joe. Whether you like the result will depend on whether you 'enjoy' watching people with little education, little money and little hope slowly and inexorably destroying themselves.
Friedkin himself said, only half jokingly, that we weren't supposed to 'enjoy' the movie. And while he's probably sort of right, there is much to admire in it. Caleb Deschanel's photography is immaculate. The slow-burn narrative gradually draws you in. All the cast are good, and Thomas Haden Church as the bemused but essentially decent father, Matthew McConaughey as the eponymous lawman turned assassin and Juno Temple as his Lolita are all outstanding.
Temple, daughter of British filmmaker and chronicler of the Sex Pistols Julien Temple, was 22 when she made Killer Joe, but she plays about 13 or 14. (Her exact age is never given, although it is implied that Joe at least thinks of her as being 12.) Which makes the seduction scene involving her and Joe deeply disturbing.
As for Matthew McConaughey, the handsome rom-com star, well, he is a revelation. I suspect at least some sections of his fanbase will be alienated, if not nauseated, by some of his antics in Killer Joe. The Wedding Planner it ain't.
At the end of the Q&A session Friedkin told a joke about an actor playing Hamlet being constantly booed by the audience, who eventually turned on them with the remonstration, "don't blame me, I didn't write this s**t". Bad Boy Billy then gestured at the curtained screen behind him and echoed the punchline about the film we had just watched.
Killer Joe - offensive s**t or neo-noir masterpiece? You decide.