Mud

So, I haven't written in a few weeks, but I have seen a lot of movies. Movies like Iron Man 3, Star Trek, blah blah blah.  But really, I didn't have anything worth saying about those movies.  Oh! There was more of the same, and I still liked it.  BORING.  But, today, I saw a movie worth mentioning.

So, let's talk about Mud, y'all!

Mud is a movie currently rocking a sweet 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. This fact was what first caught my attention. Then, when I mentioned it on facebook, a friend responded with "The writer definitely has issues with women, but it's a really good film, nonetheless." This made me think... hmmm... issues with women, 99%, AND Matthew McConaughey?

Sign. Me. Up.

So, this movie is kind of a low-fi, coming-of-age, semi-mystery, semi-action, semi-drama in which Matthew McConaughey's shirt is an actual character of the film. No joke.

It's mostly humorless, with brief moments of excitement, but overall, it's a very patient (read:slow at times) character piece. The main character is a 14 year old boy who really carries the film quite well, and his adorably white trash friend "Neckbone." It had delightful backwoodsy things, and Reese Witherspoon pulled out some nice, nuanced acting with what could have been a stereotype of a character.

I'd have to agree with my friend that this movie reeked of issues with women, but I think it was more about a young boy trying to parse out how to have positive relationships with women, despite having a black-and-white understanding of love, and poor role models.

Overall, I think the 99% may be a function of a dearth of decent films out at the moment. Perhaps all the critics out there were so hard up for a movie they liked that they threw this one a bone. And that's fine with me.  I didn't think it was genius, but it was definitely worth a watch.  I got a little droopy in the second half, and frankly, I could have done without the bad guy, who seemed pulled out of a Steven Seagal movie. (In my rewrite, Mud would have been delusional. Running from no one.  That would have been awesome, right?) Despite that, I appreciated all the great acting and patient editing.

And, in one really stunning sunset shot, I saw a tree that looked like a silhouette of Abraham Lincoln. So that was fun.

Also, Michael Shannon should be in every movie ever made. He was kind of a throw-away side character in Mud, but he was SO watchable it didn't even matter. Love him. Love his work.

Peggy's rating: Three out of Five Stars.