MUD
(2013 - April 26)
Drama
2 hr. 10 min.
Rated: PG-13 Language, violence and some sexual references
Grade: B
Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: Jeff Nichols
Stars: Matthew McConaughey,
Tye Sheridan,
Jacob Lofland |
See full cast and crew
Mud is an adventure about two boys, Ellis and his friend Neckbone, who
find a man named Mud hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Mud
describes fantastic scenarios-he killed a man in Texas and vengeful
bounty hunters are coming to get him. He says he is planning to meet and
escape with the love of his life, Juniper, who is waiting for him in
town. Skeptical but intrigued, Ellis and Neckbone agree to help him. It
isn't long until Mud's visions come true and their small town is
besieged by a
beautiful girl with a line of bounty hunters in tow. (c) Roadside Attractions
Mud is actually one of those films that after watching the trailer I wasn't very interested in seeing. I am not a big Matthew McConaughey fan. On an opening weekend of nothing but R rated movies except for Mud, I decided on Mud.
Mathew McConaughey in the title role of Mud actually surprised me, he wasn't half bad, but for me the real stars and the true strength of this movie are the two teenage boys, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland. These two boys have terrific chemistry with each other and with Mr. McConaughey.
Mud is a little bit Huckleberry Finn and a little bit Stand By Me. It plays like a novel brought to the silver screen but it is, in fact, an original screenplay. I enjoyed the detail and attention spent on the settings, not only the sets but also the atmosphere of the town, the riverboat homes the river and swamps. Writer/director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter), has in Mud laid out a tale of love and change, set in a unique backwater Arkansas backdrop, populated with a host of well-drawn
characters. At the same time the film's story, sadly, is also a bit scatter shot and bloated as it unfolds. Some of the story’s thematic and narrative
potency gets a bit muddled and is sacrificed by the process by the film's end.
The film has too many characters.
Nichols has a gift for writing three-dimensional, non-stereotypical characters that run the gamete on the scale of good and bad people, but
Mud drifts off course where it doesn’t need to, into fruitless
diversions.
Mud is 2 hours and 10 minutes and is about 30 minutes too
long because of these meanderings, they put a drag on what is otherwise a
rich and compelling narrative. For example, there are characters like
Neckbone’s uncle/guardian Galen (Michael Shannon) and
Mud’s neighbor, Tom (Sam Shepard), or May Pearl (Bonnie Sturdivant)
Ellis' coming of age love interest, that are given considerable
screen time but their importance as characters are, to be generous,
periphery at best.
However, secondary characters like Ellis’ parents (Ray
McKinnon and
Sarah Paulson) which are in fact relevant, but they feel a little
extraneous to the main narrative. Then there are character like King
(Joe Don Baker - Goldeneye) and Carver (Paul Sparks - Boardwalk Empire)
that actually appear for only one or two moments of any significance
but they are the main threat driving the central
plot. Even Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) seems little more than a plot
device. Witherspoon delivers a solid performance contrary to her
usual cute bubbly characters, but eve she is just another element, a
critical element,
that the story never really gets into.
This is also true of the
character Mud, he is so ethereal and mysterious that he hardly
seems real at times, especially in the beginning but McConaughey
delivers a great performance, he has Mud constantly teetering between
likable and menacing but even in Mud, there is more implied about his
character than the film ever Now about the two young boys that truly
hold Mud together, the pivotal performances of Tye
Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, making his film debut, are extraordinary.
Right from the start, we know that these two boys are not your
stereotypical, backwater hicks. Nichols' script and directing delves in depth into complexity of these two young men (primary
Ellis) as they are coming of age in a highly untypical manner.
Tye
Sheridan is very impressive, his face, his
sharp eyes exhibit an acute self-awareness when he plays his scenes.
Lofland has a very different attitude, with razor sharp timing. He has
an odd type of charisma making him a joy to watch, and together, the
pair have chemistry that
make them a formidable protagonist team. A lot of their scenes where
they interact with
McConaughey are positively brilliant. This film isn’t simply about
these two boys, even though it is clearly Ellis’ story, but there is too
much that is superficial inserted that tends to make the film drag a
bit at times, there are subplots like Ellis’ girlfriend problems that
although they may be poingant and charming do nothing to further the
plot.
Nichols,
in his director's hat, is incredible while creating film's unique
little world. He has ingeniously brought to life, on screen, the dying
world of 'backwater river
folk'. It is so visually captivating and so fully fleshed in this film,
in a way that is rarely seen in main stream cinema. In the opening
scenes and continuing on through the first half of the film, the
narrative that chronicles Ellis
and Neckbone’s meeting and bonding with Mud, is in fact, almost
dreamlike in its nature. It is absolutely beautiful iconagraphy and what
critics term mise-en-scène composition. (Mise-en-scène is
a French expression used to describe the design aspects of a theater or
film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a
story", a term referring to the sum total of what appears before the
camera, what the viewer sees, its arrangement—the composition, the sets,
the props, the actors, the costumes, the lighting—everything, the
whole). Nichols' genius shines here in Mud.
Mud's
story centers
on an Arkansas river-rat, a teenage boy named Ellis (Tye Sheridan), and
his river-rat friend,
“Neckbone” (Jacob Lofland), who
spends their days exploring the local rivers, eddies and islands. On one
of these expeditions the boys discover a boat on an island that a
recent flood had washed up into a tree which they quickly claim as their
own. One small problem though, they find someone is already living in
the boat, a mysterious drifter named Mud. The boys encounter him when
they return to their outboard that brought them to the island. To the
boys he is threatening yet intriguing and when he ask them to help him,
the boys are suspicious but cautiously agree. It doesn't take long for
Ellis and Neckbone to learn that Mud is entangled in a dangerous web
involving his beautiful lifelong love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), the
law,
and a posse of Texas bounty hunters, led by King (Joe Don Baker),
looking for some payback. Even though Ellis is going through some
serious life challenges of his own at the moment he is fascinated by Mud
and Juniper’s star-crossed love story. That fascination will put him,
and everyone around him, in great danger as he is dragged into Mud's
perilous web of lies and deceit.
In
the second half of the film the tone changes from dreamy
ideals to stark realities although it still carries that slightly
surreal aesthetic through many shots and sequences that heightens the
intrigue and beauty of
this depressing working-class dead end world. Mud employs a captivating
subtext of dread that runs throughout the film.
Ellis lives in a world that at no time feels safe or secure.
Ultimately, Mud walks a fine line between childhood and adulthood in a manner reminiscent, as I said earlier of Huckelberry Finn and Stand By Me. Mud is worth taking a look, it's a strange and depressing sort of folk tale of a little known part of America.
 |
| Writer/Director Jeff Nichols |
Cast
Mud Ellis Neckbone
Juniper Tom Blankenship
Pain & Gain is like a cinematic version of the Darwinian Awards, riddled with crass, crude, profane language and sexual references plus lots of barely clad buxom women, and plenty of sacrilegious humor. If none of that bothers you, you might just enjoy this film. 
The audience in the fairly packed theater, where I saw Pain &
Gain, certainly seemed to enjoy it. Perhaps it's just indicative of the
type of audience this sort of film appeals to, but this audience laughed
consistently at all the crude jokes and F words etc. As I often say,
without all the profanity and crudeness they could have reached a much
broader audience. 
It is, to some degree, amusing watching how stupid these guys were/are, all the more amazing in that this is a true story about actual events of crimes committed by the Sun Gym Gang in Miami from 1994-1995. The old adage that truth is stranger than fiction applies here, while the bumbling criminal buffoons can be comical, at the same time it is horrifying that such heinous acts are being played for laughs.
Pain & Gain is effectively directed and staged by Michael Bey and the performances by the cast are adequate to good. I would like to have given this film a better grade, in that I can really enjoy a good black comedy, but because of the writing and directing for Pain & Gain chose to aim for nothing higher than the gutter, in good conscience, I just couldn't. This sort of 'entertainment' appeals only to a very limited audience.
Pain & Gain is a violent, offensive, "stupid true crime" story with no positive role models and few if any redeeming values which, to be fair, is often the case when portaging the lives of criminals and murderers.
