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KILLER JOE

 

Although Gina Gershon has never won any kind of acting award, I am here to tell you that she is the greatest actress ever! Moreover, she is unquestionably the sexiest woman in Hollywood and maybe even California - oh heck... the country!

 

That said, every red blooded American male needs to go out and see "Killer Joe" staring Gina Gershon and some other people. Prepare for the greatest film entry by any actress in the history of film-making.

 

Okay, okay, okay... so I'm going way overboard - but I can honestly say that because of Gershon's entrance in the opening minutes, the film immediately got and kept my attention throughout. The fact that Thomas Hayden-Church, Emile Hirsch and Matthew McConaughey were more significant characters doesn't diminish the fact that without her act one - scene one entrance "Killer Joe" is just another well done William Friedkin film.

Written by and based on Tony Letts play of the same name, we are taken into Dallas, Texas (though it is filmed in Louisiana) outskirts and into the lives of classic rural trailer trash. Emile Hirsch plays Chris Smith, a dim-witted loser who has gotten himself into a jam with a local drug dealer.

 

He initially turns to his father Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church) - who is even more dim witted - for $6000 to sate the wrath of the drug dealer. In response Ansel advises Chris to leave town in a hurry. But Chris has another plan.

 

Chris decides that it's best that the family have Chris' mother Adele (unseen) killed. Apparently Adele has been the cause of much grief and is the reason why Chris is in trouble. To some surprise, Ansel agrees in a matter-of-fact way; as does the young sister Dottie (Juno Temple) who is also dim-witted.

 

Of course, Ansel must include his current wife Sharla (played by the lovely Gina Gershon) who is possibly a notch smarter than the collective, but nevertheless also dumber than a box of rocks.

The plan is simple: they will hire this police detective named Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who moonlights as a paid assassin. They will pay him pr-bono and, after he has done the deed, pay him from the $50,000 life insurance policy Adele carries and whom Dottie is the sole beneficiary.

 

The family agrees it's a good plan. However, there are several thing that Chris got wrong. First off, Joe does work probono - he gets his money up front. Secondly, his fee is $5000 more than what Chris heard it was. Third... well, there are several things that Chris got wrong which make the film more delicious as it progresses.

 

Joe, does agree to do the job provided that the family give him Dottie as a sexual retainer. He thinks Dottie is 12 or 13 years old, though she comes off as maybe 15 or 16. I know, there is little difference - Joe likes little girls.

 

But that is the beauty of the story, morality not only is absent, there is no evidence that anyone in the film ever had any morals. Every character is morally void. A running gag has the next-door-neighbor's pit bull snarling and growling every time it sees Chris and you can't help but want the dog to get him. Hayden-Church, Hirsch and McConaughey are perfectly cast with the weak link being Juno Temple.

 

Friedkin draws the audience into this environment of depravity from the opening sequence with Gina Gershon to the end and it never lets you go. And that is the brilliance of the film.

 

"Killer Joe" is a dark comedy that takes us to that immoral place in our minds and leaves us there with the help of a sexier than sexy Gina Gershon giving it her all starting in Act one/Scene one.   -- GEOFF BURTON

 

GEOFF BURTON

 

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