To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

1 star because -10 wasn't available. I would go so far as to say anyone who saw anything redeeming in the film may be as sick as the characters therein.

There is much to admire in "Killer Joe", a film which depicts a number of characters ill-suited to their predicament slowly, yet surely, tightening the noose they only discover to be around their necks in the first place by the time it's too late. It is several things: a very funny black comedy; an engrossing stripped down drama portraying a family in a way that, if it was British, you would describe as "kitchen sink"; a mobster movie; a coming of age story... There are many places wherein it feels like a Jim Thompson novel, or at least an adaptation of one of his novels.Fittingly, the film opens with a bang, and then does not really let up. Lightning cracks across a Texan sky and rain pummels down; a young man by the name of Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) arrives at his father's trailer in the dead of night and demands everyone wake up to let him in. He's in trouble - owing a local drug cartel $5,000 because his mother, divorced from his father and living separately, lost him the cocaine he was holding for them. His father's new wife, and the little sister they have custody of named Dottie (Juno Temple), are the epitome of dysfunctional – they shout; argue and bicker. Sharla (Gina Gershon) even answers the door nude from the waist down and it is revealed through quick-fire dialogue that Chris once beat his mother up.At this crucial juncture, director William Friedkin very subtly introduces the aforementioned Dottie – somebody very physically cut off from the ensuing argumentative chaos unfolding next door. She is younger, more child-like. She has fridge magnets glued to her bedroom door which spell out her name and sleeps in a room decked out with stuffed animals clutching a cutesy snow globe. In a town of hicks; rednecks; lowlifes; loose women and grizzled men, Dottie is a photogenic blonde with an ample figure and a girlish allure. Temple plays the role in such a way that she is temptress without striking us as being some who necessarily knows what that is – her performance is subtle smiles and happy faces; snappy, friendly backchat which neither means nor infers any offence.Strapped for ideas, Chris suggests the family have his and Dottie's mother – his father's ex-wife – killed. The reason? She has a $50,000 life insurance payout in Dottie's name. This would take care of Chris' money problems and it would eradicate a member of the public who has been a thorn in the sides of everyone else. When Dottie was a baby, for instance, she tried to suffocate her with a pillow.The vehicle through which to make this a reality is the titular "Killer" Joe Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, who has come a long way from when would be ridiculed by the British press as "Matthew Mahogany" for yet another feature in the mould of "Failure to Launch" or "Fool's Gold". Joe is a local law enforcer in the city of Dallas, but his real paycheques seem to come from his moonlighting as a hit-man. He is both refined and calm – he's a professional dealing with amateurs and possesses his own series of principals and regulations to do with his work. Contrarily, we do not sense the Smith family have ever had a principal between them their whole lives. They meet in a disused games outlet where pool tables lie wrecked and pinball machines beyond repair – what follows will essentially come to form a series of very dangerous games, of both mind and body, involving these two parties.Friedkin does not hold back in "Killer Joe" – within the first ten minutes, we have had presented to us blunt female nudity from both the waist up AND down. It is often an extraordinarily violent film in places, but the very distinct atmosphere of calm and method which dominates proceedings I think merely accentuates the violence. The film somewhat effortlessly combines the best of what Tarantino and the Coens were doing around twenty years ago with the manner about which Billy Wilder's very slowly cooks the situation in his 1944 feature "Double Indemnity", wherein characters are allowed to come and go on the issue of ending somebody else's life for an insurance payout before snowballing into further trouble once the murder has actually happened. There is plenty to recommend in "Killer Joe".

Like some of the other reviews have said, you are in for a wild ride if you decide to watch this movie. I just hope that you have a very strong stomach. Personally I loved it, after all isn't that why we go to the movies in order to escape reality. Sure at times it may not be a pretty site bit sometimes life isn't pretty. Sure they tend to exaggerate and overdo everything in the movies you have to admit it makes for an entertaining time, just like Killer Joe does. Some people did leave the theatre and were repulsed but hey its a film festival you are seeing unrated films that may or may not have undergone a final edit you should be prepared for the worse. Just watch it and tell me honestly you didn't enjoy yourself.

This is something of an admission, but here goes: what the hell was that all about? Someone tell my because I haven't a clue. It's entertaining enough, in that it carries you along with it, and this viewer (who not an hour earlier gave up on a film after 30 minutes which was dire and had no sign of ever getting better) was with it to the end.But I did expect something, some hint, as to - well, what? Maybe I should try it from some other angle: why did Tracy Letts write the play on which it is based and on which he based his screenplay, and what persuaded William Friedkin to direct it? That last comment sounds negative. It sounds that I think Killer Joe is in some way bad and that Friedkin should have left it well alone. I don't mean that, either.There's the nub of the problem: what, exactly was the point of it all? I'm never one to provide a synopsis and try to palm it off as a review, but in this case a little background is, perhaps, necessary.At the heart of it is a dysfunctional family, three of whom give stupidity a bad name. The fourth is also pretty dumb, but at least tries to be clever. Then there's McConaughey's Killer Joe, a cop who is also a freelance killer, hired to kill the first wife of the paterfamilias so the family can clean up on the woman's life insurance policy. In brief, it all goes haywire.Elsewhere this has been called 'a black comedy', but I don't quite see it if it was intended as such. I suspect I might have picked up on that had that been the case. But if not a black comedy - well, what? In this instance I would urge the curious to give it a whirl and see whether they can make head or tail of the film. But be warned: there are scenes of graphic violence and some gruesome quasi sex. Good luck. I'm only giving this a five, because that is halfway between good and bad, and that seems the fairest judgment.