Killer Joe - B

Rated NC-17, 102 minutes

Scattershot, dark "Killer Joe" makes for a wild ride

Emile Hirsch and Matthew McConaughey

The darkly funny but uneven new crime drama "Killer Joe" gives a whole new meaning to fried chicken and trailer park trash. Based on the Tracy Letts play and directed by Oscar-winning director William Friedkin ("The French Connection," "The Exorcist"), it has some sharp, very intense moments though some of it also seems very stagey. Matthew McConaughey is a quiet, low-key Dallas detective and contract killer, who's hired by a loser (Emile Hirsch) and his family (Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon and Juno Temple) to kill his mother for the insurance money to payoff some debts, though it all goes wrong very quickly. "Killer Joe" is lively, well-acted and superbly creepy tale and certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but Friedkin has fun capturing what happens when white trash crime goes wrong. Friedkin and Letts have worked together before on the equally dark, bizarre 2006 drama "Bug," but this darkly comedic effort works better than that film. "Killer Joe's" middle act is too uneven and some scenes are too long and stagey, but it helps that Friedkin assembled an inspired cast, particularly McConaughey in the title role, who emotes a brisk, quiet sexuality as the creepy, dangerous Killer Joe, along with solid turns by Hirsch, Gershon, Haden Church and especially Temple, memorable as the young girl who's much smarter than she looks. "Killer Joe's" cinematographer Caleb Deschanel captures the steamy South quite well, with Louisiana standing in for Dallas (though the lack of any Dallas skyline may give this away). Also, the film is rated NC-17 due to a few scenes of intense violence, some frontal female nudity and sexuality, including one controversial one involving the aforementioned fried chicken leg, though by and large most of its fairly tame. "Killer Joe" is lively, Southern and darkly potent tale you won't soon forget.