Mud

It’s refreshing when you see a director properly capture a specific region’s charm without overly glamourizing it. I have a buddy from New York who recently clued me in on the fact that everyone in the northeast is just as jaded as he is. Even at age 12 when his family moved to San Diego and his friends tried to teach him how to surf, his response was “Surfing??? That’s outside! Fuck surfing son!!” Only someone like Scorsese or Spike Lee can make these people seem endearing.  Well Jeff Nichols, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors, along with Benh Zeitlin (in spite of his stupid name spelling) were able to do the same for the south in Mud and Beasts of the Southern Wild respectively.

Mud continues the hot streak that Matthew McConaughey  is on. Gone, it seems, are his days of making romantic comedies with talking horses like Mr. Ed. Ed aka Sarah Jessica Parker is finally fading into nothingness and this is freeing McConaughey from the evil spell that her shark eyes has put him and Hollywood under.  He can once again make decent movies without getting away from what he does naturally; relying on his southern accent and charm. Strong acting is what drives Nichol’s films and this picture is no different. I am always leery when a movie relies on child actors but Tye Sheridan (Ellis) and Jacob Lofland (Neckbone) deliver great performances in solidly portraying two young boys growing up in the country; versus some of their counterparts who look and sound like they are reciting their Easter speeches on screen.

Mud tells the story of Ellis and Neckbone, who while exploring a nearby island, discover a boat that’s stuck in the trees. Once they climb up with the hopes of turning it into their clubhouse, they realize that someone is actually living in it. This is when they meet the mysterious Mud (McConaughey) and make a deal with him to bring him food in exchange for the boat. Well as they get to know each other and form a friendship they learn that Mud is waiting to meet up with the love of his life Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) who is in town and awaiting further instructions from him. It isn’t until Ellis and his mom are stopped by a police barricade on the highway one day that Ellis discovers that Mud is a wanted man by the authorities.  Ellis and Neckbone confront Mud about his fugitive status and this is where the movie picks it up a notch.

If you go in not knowing much about the film, you think you know what to expect; the typical, boys get in too deep with a criminal and really discover that he is a bad man and therefore puts their lives in danger. But that’s not this movie’s focus; it’s about Ellis learning some pretty hard lessons about life early on and how he looks to the superstitious McConaughey and his quest to reunite with Juniper to help him cope with the broken marriage between his parents and his own insecurities about relationships and how they should end up. The entire time it seems like the only pure advice he is getting is from Mud but you are never really sure about McConaughey's character. Can he really be trusted? You keep waiting for him to show his true colors but you also want to believe that he is a good man mainly because he is McConaughey, much like Denzel in Training Day.

This movie moves slow at times, but just like the wonderful Take Shelter, every bit of the story that is told is necessary to set the overall tone of the film. The final climatic scene seems a bit out of place, but the action junkie in me loved every second of it. So I really liked this film and I give it a rating of very FRESH.