Mud Gets Down And Dirty In The Backwaters Of US Midwest!
by ALAN SAMUEL
Escape your past and do so at your peril. A man trying to hide out sets a town into a quiet frenzy in Mud, a delicious thriller from EOne Entertainment now sending emotions soaring at Empire Studio 12, COlossus and Cineplex Odeon screens across B.C. Not to be missed, this shocker is 130 minutes of tight, taut suspense sure to leave your hearts pounding and your minds in a flux.
Life in the sticks can be a drag. Youngsters in particular can find small town living troubling. Two such youths are Ellis and Neckbone. Tye Sheridan (Tree of Life) and newcomer Jacob Lofland are terrific as the boyhood pals who like adventure. On one watery journey they by accident meet up with a stranded lost soul named Mud and their lives are altered in the extreme. Hot Hollywood hearthtrob Matthew McConaughey (The Lincoln Lawyer) leaves his slick hairdo days behind to play a loose cannon with a shady past and an equally uncertain future. Over time the boys befriend this much elder figure and Ellis in particular harbours a special fondness for their new found friend. Attention to Mud has a way of gnawing at you and soon trouble on the homefront arises for Mud.
Like so many other families all is not well at Ellis’s home with mom and dad having their own growing pains. Man of the house Senior is having a tough time getting by while mom Mary Lee is a bit tired of life on the waterfront. Both Ray McKinnnon and Sarah Paulson do their best to protect Ellis but the boy has a mind of his own and his relationship with Mud takes more than a few intersting twists and turns as a mysterious past surfaces.
Smart writing and directing by Jeff Nichols makes Mud a first class character driven story that is full of style and surprises galore. Out to steal this film outright is a remarkable performance by Sheridan who absolutely shines as a boy wanting to become a man and having all sorts of pent-up emotion, seemingly not afraid of anyone. Uncertainty and humanity come to a colliding crescendo as this taut thriller takes many a twisted turn. Helping out in the family history department are Sam Shepherd and Michael Shannon who both add their considerable talents to this remarkable little film that is memorable and original and a classic young boy’s adventure tale sure to make you squirm and learn.
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