This is a sultry, sweaty story about low-lifes in the 1960s south, the third feature directed by Lee Daniels (Precious). Jack hated it and I didn't like it much when we saw it ten weeks ago. Roger Ebert called it "great trash" in his positive review (minor spoilers therein). It stars Zac Efron (last in these pages in Liberal Arts), Nicole Kidman (most recently in Rabbit Hole), Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe, another nasty role), David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and John Cusack (the last project we saw of his was Hot Tub Time Machine) playing against type as a particularly despicable convict named Hillary. Daniels and Pete Dexter adapted the screenplay from Dexter's 1995 novel, winner of the PEN Center USA literary award for fiction.
This was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes a year ago and more recently Kidman was nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG award. It's available now on DVD and if you trust Roger Ebert more than you trust Jack and me (and why wouldn't you?), by all means get it from netflix.
No comments:
Post a Comment