Mud (2013)
Studio: Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions / Everest Entertainment
Theatrical Release: April 26, 2013
Director Jeff Nichols
PG-13
Review by Richard Rey
Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Shotgun Stories) latest installment is a riveting coming-of-age adventure drama set in the swampy backwoods of Arkansas. Nichols handles each of his films with care and precision, delicately examining each frame under a directorial microscope that allows for the greatest sense of the South. Mud is no exception.
When young Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his foul mouthed pal Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) discover an abandoned boat in a tree near their home along the Mississippi, their smiles are stifled by the startling arrival of a river-bottom, pistol-toting drifter inhabiting the hidden island who calls himself Mud (Matthew McConaughey). The boys strike a deal with the bizarre stranger who say he’s waiting for his one true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), to arrive so they can set sail for better, less murky waters. In exchange for provisions, the two can keep the rickety old boat.
The boys put unwavering faith in the scruffy Mud, Ellis in particular, choosing his outlandish fairytale love stories and Native American mysticism banter over the less poetic, heavy-handed truth: Mud is a fugitive on the run. With bounty hunters closing in on him and few people to turn to, Mud has no other choice than to charm the boys into becoming his chess-board pawns, delivering sappy handwritten letters to his mainland lover, and keeping his whereabouts secret from the state troopers.
Two fourteen-year-old boys meddling in grown folks business, its fable-minded plot can only take us places we want to be. Nichols effort in getting us to see the world through their eyes is a tremendous one, avoiding sappy learning moments and instead allowing the camera to act as a figurative mirror, reflecting our own childhood naivety as we ride along for the journey with these impressionable young boys, who by films end, have come one step closer to adulthood by personally experiencing the deep heartbreak of disillusionment.
Partially lined with unnecessary subplots and characters – the film would have been better without Ellis’ having a love interest in May Pearl (Bonnie Sturdivant), and with a more fleshed-out (or typed-out) rendition of Mud’s own Juniper – the thicker portion of this Southern pie is good eatin’. Had Nichols spent less time pitching buckets of stylistic gasoline onto the vibrant feel of the South’s fire that was well ablaze within the first ten minutes of the movie, he might have made a shorter near-perfect film that further solidified the relationship between Mud and the boys by convincing us of their emotional need for the man, rather than their mere curiosity toward the dangerous and dirty.
Though its story is implausible – certain scenes did make me cringe–this study of the nearly-extinct Gothic South paints us a portrait that is both powerful and convincing from start to finish.
Mud hits theaters Friday, April 26th, 2013.
[Rating: 4]
Theatrical Release: April 26, 2013
Director Jeff Nichols
PG-13
Review by Richard Rey
Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Shotgun Stories) latest installment is a riveting coming-of-age adventure drama set in the swampy backwoods of Arkansas. Nichols handles each of his films with care and precision, delicately examining each frame under a directorial microscope that allows for the greatest sense of the South. Mud is no exception.
When young Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his foul mouthed pal Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) discover an abandoned boat in a tree near their home along the Mississippi, their smiles are stifled by the startling arrival of a river-bottom, pistol-toting drifter inhabiting the hidden island who calls himself Mud (Matthew McConaughey). The boys strike a deal with the bizarre stranger who say he’s waiting for his one true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), to arrive so they can set sail for better, less murky waters. In exchange for provisions, the two can keep the rickety old boat.
The boys put unwavering faith in the scruffy Mud, Ellis in particular, choosing his outlandish fairytale love stories and Native American mysticism banter over the less poetic, heavy-handed truth: Mud is a fugitive on the run. With bounty hunters closing in on him and few people to turn to, Mud has no other choice than to charm the boys into becoming his chess-board pawns, delivering sappy handwritten letters to his mainland lover, and keeping his whereabouts secret from the state troopers.
Two fourteen-year-old boys meddling in grown folks business, its fable-minded plot can only take us places we want to be. Nichols effort in getting us to see the world through their eyes is a tremendous one, avoiding sappy learning moments and instead allowing the camera to act as a figurative mirror, reflecting our own childhood naivety as we ride along for the journey with these impressionable young boys, who by films end, have come one step closer to adulthood by personally experiencing the deep heartbreak of disillusionment.
Partially lined with unnecessary subplots and characters – the film would have been better without Ellis’ having a love interest in May Pearl (Bonnie Sturdivant), and with a more fleshed-out (or typed-out) rendition of Mud’s own Juniper – the thicker portion of this Southern pie is good eatin’. Had Nichols spent less time pitching buckets of stylistic gasoline onto the vibrant feel of the South’s fire that was well ablaze within the first ten minutes of the movie, he might have made a shorter near-perfect film that further solidified the relationship between Mud and the boys by convincing us of their emotional need for the man, rather than their mere curiosity toward the dangerous and dirty.
Though its story is implausible – certain scenes did make me cringe–this study of the nearly-extinct Gothic South paints us a portrait that is both powerful and convincing from start to finish.
Mud hits theaters Friday, April 26th, 2013.
[Rating: 4]
Post a Comment