Review of Mud (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

At first I thought this was like a modern day American version of 'Stig Of The Dump', although it only shares one or two similarities. Its a fairly slow paced film, one I'd categorise as an adventure/drama film. Its one of those films in which the main characters background is only very slowly elaborated on, in which the young boys are faced with different accounts of certain times, or aspects, in Muds life. I found myself questioning how I viewed him differently given the various details we learn about him, during the film.

The film covers themes including communication, trust including trust in relationships, evasion from the authorities, male bonding, companionship and isolation I suppose. I found Mud to be a very thoughtful and intriguing character - clearly a bit of a hermit or loner but also someone who is compassionate and wishes to help those who seem to mean no harm and present the opportunity to befriend him.

I found myself liking the simplicity of some aspects of the plot and I also felt that the young teenage cast did well in portraying their roles - the relationship between Mud and them seemed quite genuine and intrigued me. I felt that it was, or could be seen to be, a film with some clear morals present (or hinted at), in terms of the older adults having plenty to learn from the younger boys, their discoveries about Mud and lack of malice.

Some scenes were shot particularly well, taking advantage of sunsets, with the sun clearly visible in the background, slowly disappearing - that added a mysterious sense to the scene I'm thinking of. I felt it was quite a scenic film in general, with some general landscape shots (shown between scenes) being quite visually pleasing to look at.

Perhaps I should state the obvious - that there is a lot of Southern American accents present. I say this as some people may not be best keen on the more long drawn out 'drawl' present in that 'neck of the woods' and if so then you may well not enjoy this film. However, that aside and aside from the fact that its plot pace is really quite (meanderingly) slow, there is very little I can think to say to criticise it. For the record, I have no real issue, or problem, with the accent but I imagine some people may find it a bit grating.

Cast wise, Matthew McConaughey plays the title role of Mud. He usually appears in rom coms and the like, although he has appeared in a few other drama films. I thought he did pretty well in portraying the quiet, insular, thoughtful character. Also present in the cast is Reece Witherspoon as Muds love interest, Juniper (I hasten to clarify that although he has a love interest, it really is not primarily what I'd call a romantic comedy or otherwise purely a romance based film as such). She comes across as both relatively feisty and easy-going at times, while also pretty thoughtful as well I guess. Other cast members include Tye Sheridan as Ellis and Jacob Lofland as Neckbone, the two main young boys. I felt they did particularly well in playing their roles, although im not entirely sure I could explain precisely why, other than that they seemed very convincing regarding their friendship/companionship with Mud. Personally I felt that overall it was a pretty good film, one that some may love and some may think is too slow and a bit boring. I'm going with a 4 star rating to reflect this, as I did feel the start was lacking somewhat - it took me a while to get in to it but once I did, I quite enjoyed it.

Regarding the content, this film contains sexual references and brief images of mild nudity, there is mild to moderate violence hinted at, although nothing very bloody or graphic is shown and some moderately strong cuss words are spoken but other than that, it isn't likely to offend. Due to this, its been given a 12 rating.

I felt myself thinking it really was quite a thought provoking film by the end, given the series of events that took place and what we may take away from it, what could be learnt (if anything) from what happened. Some may possibly feel its a little too preachy perhaps, at a push but I felt it was, for the most part, a relatively solid film.

Yes, I'd recommend this film for its character development and some impressive cinematography, plus the good musical score. It is really quite slow and a bit bland for the first half and the southern American accent may bother some potential viewers but if this doesn't especially bother you then I'd say its well worth a watch. It didn't interest me much at first but I found myself feeling surprisingly gripped to it towards the end and I felt it was relatively well made overall, although certainly not perfect. I'm not sure how memorable it is in the longer term but I'd certainly not say it was a bad film, so on that basis then yes, I'd recommend it.