A Blu-ray review this time, but one of a film that came out
this year and is well worth your money.
Mud is Jeff Nichols third film, after 2007’s Shotgun Stories and the amazing Take Shelter from 2011. Having only seen
Take Shelter, I can’t fully comment
on his evolution as a filmmaker, but looking at the quality of those two films,
Nichols will likely continue to go from strength to strength as both a writer
and a director.
The plot and story of Mud
is fairly simple, but there is one of the films great strengths, it doesn’t try
and fill up its run time with a complicated story.
Instead it focuses on the relationships between the
characters. When two 14-year-old boys, Ellis and Neckbone find a boat stuck in
a tree on an island on the Mississippi river (I assume this is right river),
the boys claim it for themselves.
However, also sharing the island with the boat is Mud
(Matthew McConaughey), he tells the boys that he is waiting for someone and
needs their help to get the boat running, which he too has claimed as his own.
Making a deal with the boys, they bring him food, parts and take messages for
him to people in town.
The person Mud is waiting for is his girlfriend Juniper
(Reese Witherspoon), this isn’t a spoiler as it is revealed early on in the
film, the reason for them not being together is something too interesting to
give away here, as I wouldn’t do it justice.
As mentioned before, this a film about performances and the standouts
are the two boys, Tye Sheridan as Ellie and Jacob Lofland as Neckbone. The
biggest compliment that you can pay them is that they genuinely feel like they
have been friends for years and have a short hand when they are around each
other, not having to speak to one another. Ellis has more screen time, as we
also get a subplot about his parents’ potential divorce.
Sheridan plays his character as a boy looking for a real
father figure and growing up without any real guidance, the only person he can
really speak to is Neckbone and then Mud. He places so much faith in the idea
of love being strong enough to keep two people together that it should never be
given up on, that when a relationship he has begins to have troubles, the
confused pain that creeps over his face is painful to watch as similarities
with the other relationships in the film finally hit home for him.
Neckbone is a rougher character and more comic, especially
with his cutting little remarks and delivery of the lines he is given. The best
is when he refers to his Uncle keeping him out of their house while he has sex
with someone. Around Mud, he plays it much more cautiously, wary of Mud and
what he is telling them. But he is loyal to Ellis and helps him whenever he
needs it, never questioning it, just attacking it with a determined steeliness.
Mud, the main character is someone who speaks through
stories and by telling people things that they want to here. This is no doubt
how he has come so far on the limited resources he had. McConaughey plays him
with a disconnected air, unaware of what is going on not only around him, but
in the world at large, focused only on getting his boat fixed and his girl.
Everything else is secondary.
It is a subdued and natural performance that really gets you
to invest in the character, so that when the action kicks off in the last
fifteen minutes you care about him. Maybe that is the performance’s greatest
achievement, he is able to make you sympathize with what could be seen as a
liar and a dangerous man.
The camera work is beautiful, as it swaps from long takes of
the river to journeys through the town, either in the back of a truck or on a
hand made motorcycle. Each shot is a work of art, and reminds me of Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, where
every shot looks and feels like a painting, each one perfectly framed, lit and
realised. If the rest of the film wasn’t as good as it is, it still is worth seeing
for its cinematography alone.
Jeff Nichols has crafted his best film so far and one that
should receive attention come the awards at the end of the year. But
unfortunately, will sadly be overlooked in all honesty. Make sure you don’t
make the same mistake.
To put it simply, this is the best film I have seen this
year.
