Weekly Movie Recommendations

Movies to See Right Now – Thanksgiving Weekend Edition

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Photo caption: Sandra Huller in ANATOMY OF A FALL. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – we’re in that time of the year when we’re flooded with eagerly anticipated movies, and I’ve posted new reviews of Napoleon, The Lady Bird Diaries, The Killer and Alan Pakula: Going for Truth. Plus a recommendation of tomorrow’s TCM telecast of the classic film noir The Narrow Margin, one of my favorites.

And, we’re not done yet. I’ve also seen May December and The Stones and Brian Jones. I’ll be writing about them soon, along with The Holdovers, which I hope to see this weekend.

When we get to the Holidays, I pause my regular WATCH AT HOME feature The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE) and replace it with the movies from my Best of 2023 list that are already available to stream.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

From my Best Movies of 2023 – so far:

  • OPPENHEIMER: creator of a monster controlled by others. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • PAST LIVES: a profound and refreshing romance. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • THE MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC: wow – laughs, thrills, love. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • RETURN TO SEOUL: brilliantly crafted and emotionally gripping. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • BARBIE: a marriage of the intelligent and the silly. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • FREMONT: self-discovery and a fortune cookie. Amazon, Vudu.
  • HANNAH HA HA: what makes for human value and fulfillment? Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
Photo caption: Petri Poikolainen in THE MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC. Courtesy of Cinedigm Entertainment Group.

THE NARROW MARGIN: murderous hide and go seek on a train

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Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN
Photo caption: Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor in THE NARROW MARGIN

The overlooked film noir masterpiece The Narrow Margin (1952) is a taut 71 minutes of tension. Growly cop Charles McGraw plays hide-and-seek with a team of hit men on a claustrophobic train. Marie Windsor is unforgettable as the assassins’ target. It’s on my list of Overlooked Noir, and it’s coming up on Turner Classic Movies on Friday, November 27 – set your DVR.

McGraw plays a cop assigned to protect a gangster’s widow on her way to testify against the mob. He immediately loses his partner to an ambush and will have to protect his cargo all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles by himself. His only edge is that the hit men don’t know what his target looks like.

The Narrow Margin has two very special elements. The first is the hardboiled dialogue between McGraw and Windsor and their performances. The second is director Richard Fleisher’s imaginative staging of the woman-hunt up and down the tight corridors and compartments of the train.

The screenplay is easily the best of veteran Earl Felton’s career, and he was nominated for an Oscar for this B picture. When McGraw, still in shock, reflects on the sudden death of his longtime partner, Windsor hisses, “Some protection they send me – an old man who walks right into it and a weeper”. McGraw resents having anything to do with her: “Sister, I’ve known some pretty hard cases in my time, but you make ’em all look like putty”. Later he snarls, “He’s dead and you’re alive. Some exchange.” But they’re both trapped together, and they’re not the kind to make the best of it – the great lines just keep coming: “Relax, Percy, I wouldn’t want any of that nobility to rub off on me”.

The Narrow Margin opens with trench coats and fedora, cigarettes and shadowed faces; when there’s gunfire, we know for sure that we’re in a noir. But then Fleischer moves it all onto the train, and we hear the sound from railroad airbrakes. Fleischer makes an early use of handheld cameras to maneuver around the tight spaces. There’s an especially innovative moment when a fight breaks out in a cramped train restroom – the bottom of a shoe flies up to camera level, then we’re under the sink as head is banged into wall.

The cast is uniformly good. I especially like David Clarke as a (gay?) hit man and Paul Maxey as a very fat traveler who keeps blocking the narrow corridors.

Of course, this is all fifty years before cell phones, and there’s a retro lo-tech moment where a slow-moving train leaves a message via hook to be wired.

Fleischer was a very versatile (and underrated director). When he shot The Narrow Margin, he was a 35-year-old rising director. The Narrow Margin was his sixth noir in five years. After The Narrow Margin, he moved to epics (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings, Barabbas). He later made one of the very best WW II movies, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and the ahead-of-its-time dystopian sci-fi cult favorite Soylent Green. He even made the second Schwarzenegger Conan movie. His noir body of work (Bodyguard, Follow Me Quietly, Trapped, Armored Car Robbery, His Kind of Woman) is impressive, and, in my opinion, The Narrow Margin is his masterpiece.

The Narrow Margin plays frequently on Turner Classic Movies. It’s available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.  (Don’t confuse it with the inferior 1990 remake, Narrow Margin.)

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Director Richard Fleischer’s use of reflection

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Sandra Huller and Swann Arlaud in ANATOMY OF A FALL. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the brilliant biodoc The Disappearance of Shere Hite and the gripping thinkpiece Our Father, The Devil, plus the outrageous and hard-to-find classic film noir Decoy, on TCM tonight.

When we get to the Holidays I pause my regular WATCH AT HOME feature The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE) and replace it with the movies from my Best of 2023 list that are already available to stream.

CURRENT MOVIES

Shere Hite in THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE. Courtesy of IFC Films.

WATCH AT HOME

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in BARBIE. Courtesy of Warner Brothers.

From my Best Movies of 2023 – so far:

ON TV

Warren Oates in CHANDLER.

On November 22, Turner Classic Movies is presenting Chandler, the 1971 neo-noir starring Warren Oates as a seedy private detective who gets in over his head. I mention, but don’t dwell on Chandler in my essay Warren Oates: a gift for desperation. Look for film noir icons Charles McGraw and Gloria Grahame in supporting roles.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: ANATOMY OF A FALL. Courtesy of NEON.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Anatomy of a Fall, a great movie by any measure, and the thoroughly unpleasant Priscilla.

I also highlighted Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, playing TODAY on Turner Classic Movies. It features one of cinema’s very funniest scenes and one of the very saddest scenes – in the same movie. 

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

’71

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler in DINNER AT EIGHT.

89 years ago, only four years into the Talking Picture Era, there were dramedies (even though the word dramedy had yet to be coined). On November 15, Turner Classic Movies airs George Cukor’s Dinner at Eight, an all-star 1933 Hollywood dramedy that mostly still stands up today. Jean Harlow is hilarious as the trophy bride of the course nouveau-millionaire played by Wallace Beery. Marie Dressler is at least as funny as a former star actress yearning to relive an old romance. John Barrymore adds a heartbreaking performance as a man facing disgrace. If all this weren’t enough, we also get Lionel Barrymore, some ditziness from Billie Burke and a splash of sarcasm from quick-patter artist Lee Tracy. Harlow, who died at 26, is usually remembered as a platinum blonde sex symbol, but Dinner at Eight reminds us of her comic brilliance.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jason Clarke (left) and Jake Lacy in THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL. Courtesy of Showtime.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and In the Court of the Crimson King.

Set your DVR to record Turner Classic Movies’ airing of Harry Dean Stanton’s masterpiece performance in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas LATE TONIGHT (see below)

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ewen McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and SFFILM.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

Late TONIGHT, Turner Classic Movies will air Harry Dean Stanton’s masterpiece in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas. In Paris Texas, Harry Dean plays Travis, a man so traumatized that he has disappeared and is found wandering across the desert and mistaken for a mute.  As he is cared for by his brother (Dean Stockwell), he evolves from feral to erratic to troubled, but with a sense of tenderness and a determination to put things right.  We see Travis as a madman who gains extraordinary lucidity about what wrong in his life and his own responsibility for it.

At the film’s climax, Travis speaks to Jane (Natassja Kinski) through a one-way mirror (she can’t see him).  Spinning what at first seems like parable, Travis explains what happened to him – and to her – and why it happened.  It’s a 20-minute monologue so captivating and touching that it rises to be recognized as one of the very greatest screen performances.

Paris, Texas is on my list of the fifty or so Greatest Movies of All Time.

Natassja Kinski and Harry Dean Stanton in PARIS, TEXAS

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Lily Gladstone in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Courtesy of AppleTV.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon and of The Pigeon Tunnel, Erroll Morris’ fine biodoc of espionage novelist John le Carré.

REMEMBRANCE

Richard Roundtree in SHAFT.

Richard Roundtree’s FIRST MOVIE role was as the iconic John Shaft in Shaft. He went on to over 250 more screen credits, including four more as John Shaft. Although in my mind, the biggest star of Shaft was Isaac Hayes’ music, Richard Roundtree was, along with Pam Grier, the most significant on-screen force in Blaxploitation cinema.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • Killers of the Flower Moon: an epic tale of epic betrayal. In theaters.
  • The Pigeon Tunnel: a great storyteller’s story, told at last. AppleTV.
  • Fremont: self-discovery and a fortune cookie. Amazon, Vudu.
  • Flora and Son: a bad mom turns it around. In theaters and AppleTV.
  • Reptile: a neo-noir showcase for Benicio del Toro. Netflix.
  • Oppenheimer: creator of a monster controlled by others. Still in theaters.
  • Past Lives: a profound and refreshing romance. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

WATCH AT HOME

MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT. Courtesy of Frameline.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Ross Martin and Lee Remick in EXPERIMENT IN TERROR

There’s an early neo-noir on Turner Classic Movies on October 29 – 1962’s Experiment in Terror. It’s not one of the great noirs, but it’s a nailbiter with some high points and some curiosities. A criminal (Ross Martin) tries to heist a bank by threatening a bank teller’s little sister; he’s stalking her and scaring her over the phone, so the FBI leader (Glenn Ford) only has the crook’s asthmatic voice as a clue. The bank teller is played by Lee Remick, who is always worth watching, and the role of the little sister was one of the first for 20-year-old Stefanie Powers. Like Stefanie Powers (The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and Hart to Hart), Ross Martin became a well-known TV star (Artemus Gordon in The Wild, Wild West). The climax is a chase in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park – right where the departing throngs bottle-necked at the entrance to the long escalator – a point always to be remembered by Giants fans; oddly, the bad guy is trying to be inconspicuous by being the only person in the crowd to wear a hoodie – not yet ubiquitous ballpark fashion. Blake Edwards, much more well known for comedies, directed.

Lee Remick catching a Giants game at Candlestick in EXPERIMENT IN TERROR
Ross Martin in EXPERIMENT IN TERROR

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Piper Laurie as Margaret White in CARRIE.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – a new review of the neo-noir Reptile and two remembrances.

REMEMBRANCES

Piper Laurie was, in her middle age, recognized as a great actress of stage and screen, thrice nominated for Oscars. She was unforgettable as the religious fanatic mom in Carrie. What I didn’t know until recently was that she was a starlet in the Hollywood Studio era, co-starring at age 20 with Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power and Tony Curtis (three times); Laurie disdained those roles as empty adornments, and quit Hollywood in search of better material. Good for her.

Burt Young was one of those stellar character actors who make each supporting turn memorable. I first noticed Young when he elevated such a role in Chinatown. Of course, his signature (and Oscar-nominated)role was as Paulie in Rocky, alternatively devoted, blustery and vulnerable.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Kelley Kali in I’M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING). Courtesy of SFFILM

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Charlton Heston in SOYLENT GREEN
Charlton Heston in SOYLENT GREEN

On October 25, Turner Classic Movies is screening the 1973 cult sci-fi classic Soylent Green, which was utterly under appreciated until the past decade or so. Set in a dystopian future (like those so popular in today’s sci-fi), humans have pretty much destroyed the environment and most are impoverished, even homeless. The dietary staple is a green pellet provided by a mega-corporation. Charlton Heston is surprisingly effective as a jaded and solitary cop, whose investigation leads him to a horrifying discovery. The cast is very good, including Edward G. Robinson in his final performance. Soylent Green was directed by the versatile Richard Fleischer, 21 years after The Narrow Margin.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Jeremy Allen White and Anaita Wali Zada in FREMONT. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – the good-hearted and entertaining Flora and Son is in theaters and on AppleTV, and Fremont, one of the best and most overlooked movies of the year, now watchable at home. Another of the year’s best, Past Lives, is also streaming.

REMEMBRANCE

Michael Gambon, the venerated actor of the British stage, ended his career famously as Dumbledore in several Harry Potter movies. He had also played LBJ in Path to War, the lord of the manor in Gosford Park and the king in The King’s Speech, and elevated smaller movies like Page Eight, Quartet and Layer Cake.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

Ronald Zehfeld and Nina Hoss in PHOENIX

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

ON TV

Lon Chaney in THE UNKNOWN

OK – work with me here. On October 19, Turner Classic Movies will present The Unknown with Lon Chaney, and I think that Chaney’s charisma is worth sampling. And as a fun experience, not a “this is good for you” experience.

I will fess up that I am not a huge silent movie fan. I usually watch only one silent movie each year (out of the 250-300 movies that I see annually). I like the Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton comedies, but I usually find sitting through most of the silent dramas to be “eat your broccoli” experiences. But Lon Chaney really enlivens his films. It’s like he is acting in a more modern movie than are the other actors.

Chaney was an expert with makeup and is well-known for grotesque roles like Quasimodo, and the Phantom of the Opera.  Accordingly, I had always thought of Chaney as his nickname, “Man of a Thousand Faces”.

But, for all his reliance on changing appearances, Chaney was NOT a gimmick actor.  He was very naturalistic, a relaxed actor whose screen-acting was very modern.   His course features and his charm combine for a unique magnetism.  I think that he would have been very successful in today’s cinema.

Unfortunately, Chaney died suddenly at age 47, so he was able to make only one talkie – the 1930 remake of his 1925 silent The Unholy Three.  You can find snippets of the remake on YouTube and hear his voice.

The Unknown has a completely outlandish plot.  Chaney plays Alonzo, a circus freak with no arms, who throws knives and shoots rifles with his feet.  But actually, Alonzo is a criminal on the lam who is merely PRETENDING to be armless.  He’s love with his much younger assistant, played by 21-year-old Joan Crawford (already in her 18th film), who spends much of the movie in a bikini top.  The thing is, she has a phobia and only feels comfortable with Alonzo because she think he has no arms.  Alonzo starts contemplating amputation to get her to marry him.  Yep, this is about a farfetched as a plot can get, but Chaney’s expressive face transcends the weirdness.

I also recommend the 1925 silent The Unholy Three, like The Unknown, directed by Tod Browning.  (After Chaney’s death, horror master Browning went on to make Dracula and Freaks.) 

(Don’t confuse him with his son Lon Chaney, Jr., who also counted many horror pictures among his 197 screen roles.  I remember Lon Jr. most for playing Lennie in Of Mice and Men and the old retired sheriff in High Noon.)

Lon Chaney in THE UNKNOWN

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ashley Judd in William Friedkin’s BUG. Courtesy of Lionsgate.

This week on The Movie Gourmet, it’s William Friedkin Week – with reviews of three of the director’s underseen films, To Live and to Die in L.A., Bug and Killer Joe.

Just got back from two weeks in Spain. Gotta say that I was impressed with the movie choices on Iberia Airlines, all free: Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, Jerry and Marge Go Large, A Thousand and One, Hypnotic, Cocaine Bear, The Return of Casanova (Italy), Do Unto Others (Japan), Argentina 1985 and Adios, Buenos Aires (Argentina), The Cow Who Sang etc. (Chile, The Crime Is Mine (France) and Asteroid City. Plus big franchise movies: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Spider Man and the Spiderverse 3, Avatar: The Way of Water, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Creed III. Coupled with above-average airline food (included), there are worse ways to spend 11 hours on a plane.

CURRENT MOVIES

WATCH AT HOME

SUMMERTIME

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

  • Summertime: no longer invisible and unheard, giving voice through verse. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Undefeated: an Oscar winner you haven’t seen. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Kimi: an adequate REAR WINDOWS ends as a thrilling WAIT UNTIL DARK. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • Lune: funny, searing, and richly authentic. Amazon.
  • Phoenix: riveting psychodrama, wowzer ending. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking): a desperate dash for dignity. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Making Montgomery Clift: exploding the myths. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Our Kind of Traitor: Skarsgård steals this robust thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
  • ’71: keeping the thrill in thriller. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.

KILLER JOE: you sure ain’t gonna be bored

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OK, this is NOT FOR EVERYONE.  Here’s a movie that will either thrill or disgust you. Either way, you sure ain’t gonna be bored.

It’s William Friedkin Week at The Movie Gourmet, and we’re looking at three of the director’s more overlooked films. We’ve covered the neo-noir thriller To Live and to Die in L.A., and the psychological horror movie Bug. Today’s Friedkin classic is another neo-noir, that paragon of perversity, Killer Joe

In Killer Joe, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon and Emile Hirsch play a white trash family with a get-rich-quick scheme.  They give a hit man (Matthew McConaughey) the teen daughter (Juno Temple) as a deposit.  They’re all as dumb as a bag of hammers, so what could go wrong?

Killer Joe was directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and shot by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Right Stuff, The Natural) in just 20 days.  These guys know how to tell a story, and Killer Joe pops and crackles.

Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church and Juno Temple in KILLER JOE. Photo credit: KillerJoeTheMovie.com.

Killer Joe is rated NC-17 for good reason and Friedkin accepts the rating without complaint.  Indeed, Killer Joe has its share of Sam Peckinpah-style screen violence and an unsettling deflowering scene.  But the piece de resistance is an over-the-top sadistic encounter between McConaughey and Gershon involving a chicken drumstick,  at once disturbing and darkly hilarious.   But Sam Fuller and Quentin Tarantino would have loved it, and so did I.  Nevertheless, some viewers will feel like they need a shower after this movie.

Matthew McConaughey in KILLER JOE. Photo credit: KillerJoeTheMovie.com.

The cast does a good job, but the picture really belongs to McConaughey and Temple.  McConaughey was recalibrating his career a la Alec Baldwin – he had just started his move from playing pretty boys in the rom-coms to taking meatier, more interesting roles.  He is both funny and menacing as Killer Joe (and I liked him in Bernie and Magic Mike, too).  Killer Joe preceded his roles in Mud, The Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective  and The Free State of Jones.

The movie slowly makes Juno Temple’s character more and more central, until she takes command of the denouement.  Temple is always sexy (Kaboom and Dirty Girl), and here she is able to ratchet down her intelligence to play a very simple character, always exploited by others, who is finally empowered to take control.

I saw Killer Joe at a screening where Friedkin said that the screenwriter (famed playwright Tracy Letts) saw Juno Temple’s character as the receptacle for all feminine rage.  Friedkin himself sees it as a Cinderella story – just one where Cinderella’s Prince Charming is a professional killer.  That’s all pretty deep sledding to me – I see Killer Joe as a very dark and violent comedy – kinda like In Bruges with twisted sex.

Killer Joe is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Hulu.