Review of Killer Joe (2012) by Robbie V — 22 Oct 2016

Jet black comedy disguised as a crime film. Emile Hirsch and his trailer park family (Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershong, and Juno Temple) hire a Dallas Police Detective who moonlights as a hitman, known as Killer Joe and played by the excellent Matthew McConaughey, to kill Church's ex-wife so Temple can collect her life insurance.

The one catch is that they don't have the money yet to pay McConaughey so he take Temple as a "retainer." Things go downhill from there. This set-up sounds like it could easily be a glib comedy/crime picture ALA "Get Shorty" or "Out of Sigh," this film was directed by William Friedkin who brings an awfully hard edge to the film (it's actually rated NC-17) filled with a number of disturbing moments of sex and violence.

Written by Tracy Letts, I'm very curious to see more films from him. My main complaint is that the ending of the film felt like a bit of a punchline, but overall this is a terrific film that will certainly not be for all tasted, but will certainly delight fan of this sort of dark disturbing comedies.