DirkH’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.63
Where do I begin? I was rather taken by surprise by this film. When a film seems to gather momentum due to positive word of mouth, tend to completely ignore and avoid any and all reviews so I can go in unbiased. So I the only things I knew were that it was supposed to be good and that McConaughey apparently gave the best performance of his career. Yep, all that and then some.
Friedkin is perhaps the sickest and bravest octogenarian in the world. That he has the balls to produce some of the violent and sick scenes this film at his age makes me unequivocally admire him. Like his previous film, Bug, this is based on a play and that certainly shows. It has a couple of fixed locations and a select group of characters.
I'm not American so I'm hesitant to comment on the 'Poor White Trash' aspects and whether the stereotypes here are accurate, or could even be deemed 'real people'. As such, I treated them as a stereotypical trashy family and as stereotypes they served an important function. For me this wasn't about watching 'real people', it was about seeing what desperation, spite and hunger for control can do, with the family on the one side and our titular 'hero' on the other. Seeing these cardboard cutouts of trailer trash go through all this made it all one big absurd and satirical statement. There will always be people that want more, that will screw you over, especially when personal gain is paramount.
Veering through all this and causing a lot of the problems without her even knowing it is Dottie. She is so different from all the other characters that you'd almost classify her as the only real character and the only one that is really in control of her situation, She is portrayed in a wonderfully off kilter way by Juno Temple.
The rest of the cast is fantastic as well, with an absolute powerhouse of a performance by McConaughey (I shall never call him McHowdoyouspellthatagain? anymore). His Killer Joe first comes across as a cool customer, but slowly we get to see glimpses that he is a power hungry man, in search of control, with a rather disturbed sense of right and wrong. He is convincing, emanates a physical power and channels something psychotic behind his eyes I never knew he had in him.
And then there's that final scene. I think that will divide audiences. I absolutely loved it and thought it was one of the best acted and directed scenes I've seen in a long while. It is crass, misogynistic and rather disturbing and it had me glued to the screen from start to finish.
This film isn't for everyone and it's probably not as good as I have experienced it, but it was most definitely the type of film I really like and when it's as well made as this is I just cannot help but love it to death.