7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
When a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina GershonDark humor | 100% |
Crime | 63% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It’s never a good idea to brand people with labels. Case in point: my eldest sister, who is quite a bit older than I am (well into her sixties now) was driving through a North Carolina parking lot when she evidently inadvertently cut off another driver, a young and apparently fairly hot headed African American woman who screamed out at my sister, “Watch out, you crazy crack ho!” Now, if you were to see my sister, she would hardly fall into a category one might normally associate with the colorful term “crazy crack ho”. Usually pretty well put together and with a penchant for designer clothes, immaculately coiffed silver gray hair and tastefully understated makeup, few casual observers would probably ever refer to her that way, even if they didn’t find the phrase inherently more than a little objectionable. But this anecdote has provided fodder for quite a few laughs through the years, and it occurred to me as I watched Killer Joe, a film based on an early piece by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts (August: Osage County, which is due in its film form next year). Is it fair therefore to brand many of the characters in Killer Joe as a similary disparaged term, “white trash”? It may in fact not be fair, but who ever said life (not to mention film criticism) was fair? How else to describe the motley crew of trailer dwelling low lifes who populate this blacker than black comedy, a film that doesn’t just swirl around the charming idea of matricide but which also includes hints of incest and just for good measure insurance fraud. Probably never quite the audacious “laugh while you cringe” fest it might have been under the direction of, say, the Coen Brothers, Killer Joe is still an often astoundingly visceral experience, one that first tiptoes around and then stomps through a number of taboos which may leave some viewers feeling bracingly refreshed and others wondering what the heck they’ve just witnessed, kind of like some “innocent bystanders” must have felt in that North Carolina parking lot when my sister was so inaptly branded an insane meth user.
Killer Joe is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The original stage version of the film took place entirely within the confines of the family trailer, and the bulk of this film still is set in the often shadowy environment of a dowdy mobile home, to varying results. While close-ups feature excellent fine detail and nicely saturated color, a lot of the midrange shots in these interior settings are rather soft looking, lacking in really definitive contrast and offering less than fulsome color. Friedkin and Letts have made the perhaps questionable choice of significantly opening up the original play, though, with several sequences taking place out of doors, and those really pop with excellent clarity and sharpness, even if they deplete the claustrophobic momentum of Letts' original conception.
Do you want to know how you can tell when you're listening to an exceptionally vivid lossless surround audio mix? When you pause the film for a moment, wondering if that sound of a close by helicopter panning overhead is part of the soundtrack or actually happening outside your home theater room. That actually happened to me as I listened to Killer Joe's excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, in an early scene when Joe and Dottie are getting to know each other in the trailer and suddenly there's the distinct sound of a whirling helicopter blade clearly panning through the soundfield. There are several other standout moments in Killer Joe, including a couple of really explosive bursts of LFE, but the one issue that audiophiles may have with this track is that they are indeed moments, a second or two here or there where suddenly the surround tracks are completely alive with immersive qualities. The bulk of the film is taken up in much quieter, narrower dialogue sequences, something that obviously suits the quality of the film very well but which may disappoint those who want total immersion all of the time. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is extremely wide.
Friedkin's assertion in his commentary track that he doesn't judge these misfit characters may be at least slightly undercut by the branding of the trailer on this Blu-ray as "White Trash", and the fact is that most viewers are going to judge these characters without apology. There's a kind of smarmy quality to a lot of Killer Joe, and Friedkin at times seems to be pushing the envelope just to see if he can (why the gratuitous female nudity in a couple of scenes when it really isn't necessary, and why the extremely graphic violence in several key scenes?). But for those with a twisted and decidedly black sense of humor (and I freely admit I possess one), Killer Joe is undeniably funny in a cringe worthy sort of way. This isn't a film for everyone, or perhaps even for very many, but for those who are just as likely to crack a tasteless joke at an inopportune moment as they are to evince the milk of human kindness, Killer Joe comes Recommended.
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