Killer Joe
Directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and written by Tracy Letts (adapted from his stage play), this is a dark comedy tour de force.
Matthew McConaughey stars as detective "Killer" Joe Cooper, a hit man hired by Emile Hirsch's character to kill his mother, who stole his drugs, in order to get the life insurance money.
We've seen the setup before but its the execution that matters here and it is funny, violent, edgy, and entertaining. Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) is perfectly cast as Hirsch's father and ex-husband to Hirsch's mother...
Hirsch's innocent sister (Juno Temple) gets caught up in the mix and the story turns into a white trash version of the princess and the knight in shining armor (you'll just have to see the film to learn who the knight is...).
I thoroughly enjoyed this film.
The writer, Tracy Letts, is the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who wrote August: Osage County, which is another dark comedy of epic proportions. Letts' humor and subject matter reminds me of an American version of Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Cripple of Inishmaan, In Bruges).
L'ultimo terrestre
An Italian film in which Earth is invaded by space aliens. Part science fiction and part dramatic story about a lonely man trying to come to terms with his place in the world.
An interesting mixture of genres here that doesn't really work. However, the alien element does produce some insight by making (some of) us more aware of what's really important in this thing called life.
This film was generally derided by the press but I give the filmmaker credit for attempting a futuristic/realistic fable...
Life Without Principle
A Hong Kong film by director Johnnie To.
A morality play that involves a female bank employee selling high risk securities to old ladies, a police detective's wife trying to purchase an apartment that they can't afford, and some lowly gangsters trying to raise bail money by investing in financial index futures.
All of these stories intertwine around one bag containing 5 million Hong Kong dollars.
I didn't really get to know or care for any of the individual characters and the plot didn't particularly draw me in and so I wasn't too impressed with this film. There is an audience for this type of film but it just doesn't include me.
It was interesting though to see a film containing fictional news reports of the impending Greek debt crisis that could have been ripped from the headlines today. These scenes generated some uncomfortable laughter in the largely Italian and European audience...
