Killer Joe (film)

Killer Joe is a 2011 American Southern Gothic crime film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Tracy Letts is based on his 1993 play of the same name. The film stars Matthew McConaughey in the title role, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, and Thomas Haden Church.

In the film, the estranged family of a woman scheme to kill her in order to collect on her life insurance policy. They realize too late that they are not the actual beneficiaries of the policy, and the co-conspirators quickly turn against each other.

Plot
In West Dallas, Texas, 22-year-old drug dealer Chris Smith comes to the trailer park home of his dimwitted father Ansel and his cheating step-mother Sharla after his mother and Ansel's ex-wife, Adele, has thrown Chris out of her house. To make matters worse, Adele stole cocaine Chris was supposed to sell, and he is now desperate to pay the $6,000 debt he owes his supplier Digger Soames. Chris tells Ansel that by killing Adele, they can collect on a $50,000 life insurance policy of which Chris's sister Dottie is the sole beneficiary. Chris and Ansel agree that after paying a hit man from the proceeds of the insurance policy, they will split the remainder four ways between themselves, Dottie, and Sharla. Dottie approves of the plan and Chris arranges a meeting with Joe Cooper, a police detective who has a side career as a contract killer. Before the meeting, Dottie tells Joe that Adele tried to kill her once when she was an infant.

Since Chris and Ansel are broke, the plan almost falls apart when Joe demands $25,000 in advance. However, Joe is interested in Dottie, who is implied to be developmentally disabled after an incident where her mother tried to suffocate her as a child, and offers to take her as a "retainer" until the insurance money comes through. Digger has his biker henchmen beat Chris badly and threatens to have him killed unless he pays what he owes. Chris has a change of heart and asks Joe to call off the hit and stop seeing Dottie, only to discover that he has already killed Adele. With the help of the reluctant Chris, Joe leaves the body in a car and sets it on fire.

After Adele's death, the family learns that the insurance beneficiary is actually Rex, Adele's boyfriend, rather than Dottie. Chris then admits he originally heard the details about the policy from Rex, who also told him about Joe, thereby duping Chris into hiring Joe to kill Adele. Ansel blames Chris for the fiasco and tells him he should just kill himself. Chris tries to persuade Dottie to run away with him to escape Digger and Joe, both of whom expect to be paid. Dottie agrees to go with Chris if she can see Joe first.

After Adele's funeral, Joe pulls Rex over in his car and Chris buys an illegal pistol. When Ansel and Sharla return home, they find Joe inside with Dottie. He comes out of her room and asks increasingly pointed questions of Sharla, leading her to admit that she knew the policy was really for $100,000, since accidental death doubled the payout. Joe shows them a check of that amount payable to Rex, implying he is dead, as well as offering incriminating photos that prove Sharla was having an affair with Rex. Angered, Ansel declines to protect Sharla when Joe chokes her, punches her, and forces her to simulate oral sex on a fried chicken drumstick.

Joe knows Chris is coming to take Dottie away, and threatens to kill Ansel and Sharla if they do not stop him. After Chris arrives and is seated for dinner, Joe announces that he and Dottie will be married. Chris rejects this, ordering Dottie to leave with him. Joe tells her to stay where she is, but Dottie stands up and walks away as both men yell at her. When Chris threatens Joe with his gun, Sharla stabs Chris with a steak knife and Joe tackles him. Ansel and Sharla rush to assist Joe as he savagely beats Chris, not wanting to be killed if Chris flees with Dottie. Dottie recovers the gun and, in a rage, fires several shots, killing Chris and seriously wounding Ansel. Dottie turns the gun on Joe, telling him that she is pregnant. Joe appears overjoyed as he inches closer to Dottie. The film ends just as Dottie moves her finger to the trigger.

Cast

 * Matthew McConaughey as 'Killer Joe' Cooper
 * Emile Hirsch as Chris Smith
 * Juno Temple as Dottie Smith
 * Thomas Haden Church as Ansel Smith
 * Gina Gershon as Sharla Smith
 * Marc Macaulay as 'Digger' Soames

Release
Killer Joe premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival before making its North American debut at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, where US distribution rights were acquired by LD Entertainment. LD Entertainment, Liddell's new theatrical distribution company headed by David Dinerstein, scheduled its release for July 2012.

The film made its Quebec premiere at the Fantasia Festival, an annual international genre film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, on July 31, 2012.

The film's UK premiere was at the Opening Gala of the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 20, 2012, where it was introduced by Friedkin and Gershon, who later attended the after-party at the National Museum of Scotland. The film received a theatrical release in the United Kingdom on June 29. It opened in three theaters almost a month later (July 27) in the United States.

In the United States, the film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA for "graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality." After an unsuccessful appeal, LD Entertainment announced plans to release the movie uncut, with the NC-17 rating, on July 27, 2012.

On October 23, 2012, the film's NC-17 rating was surrendered. It was released in the United States on DVD and Blu-ray unedited, as an unrated director's cut.

Box office
The film was not a box office success, only grossing $1,987,762 in the domestic market and $2,645,906 internationally for a worldwide total of $4,633,668. The film was only released in 75 theaters nationwide and closed on October 14, nine days prior to the rating being surrendered.

Critical reception
According to Justin Chang of Variety, "Killer Joe was Letts' first play, written more than a decade before his smash hit August: Osage County, and the text's sneer of condescension toward its panoply of trailer-trash caricatures has not entirely abated here," yet "the film doesn't belabor even its cheaper punchlines, and the fleet, kinetic visual style devised by d.p. Caleb Deschanel and editor Darrin Navarro emphasizes narrative momentum over cruel comedy. To be sure, Friedkin is clearly amused and appalled by his slovenly, foul-mouthed characters, with their off-the-charts levels of dysfunction and incompetence. But he directs them vigorously enough, pushing them past the realm of caricature to individuate themselves onscreen."

The Daily Telegraph said Church, Gershon, and Hirsch portray a "uniformly gormless family unit" in a film whose "positively Jacobean climax [earns] its 18 certificate and then some."

Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York named Killer Joe the fifth-best film of 2012, calling it a "thrilling black comedy."

Awards
McConaughey received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead. The Women Film Critics Circle, however, nominated the film for its display of the worst female and male images.
 * Winner Best Independent Film Saturn Awards
 * Winner Best Actor Saturn Awards (Matthew McConaughey)
 * Nominated Best Director Saturn Awards (William Friedkin)
 * Nominated Best Supporting Actress Saturn Awards (Gina Gershon)
 * Nominated Best Writing Saturn Awards (Tracey Letts)
 * Winner Special Honorary Award Austin Film Critics Association (Matthew McConaughey)
 * Nominated Grand Prix Belgian Film Critics Association
 * Nominated Best Actor Independent Spirit Awards (Matthew McConaughey)
 * Nominated Best Supporting Actor San Diego Film Critics Society (Matthew McConaughey)
 * Winner Best Supporting Actress Toronto Film Critics Association (Gina Gershon)
 * Winner Golden Mouse Venice International Film Festival (William Friedkin)
 * Nominated Golden Lion Venice International Film Festival (William Friedkin)

Home media
Killer Joe was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 21, 2012.