Killer Joe

Murders for hire almost never go off without a hitch in real life, and they’re even less-reliable in the movies. You either get stupid killers or stupid clients, or if you’re lucky (and Fargo is on cable), both. In William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, it’s the clients who don’t have it going on upstairs. Chris and Ansel (Emile Hirsch and Thomas Haden Church) hire bad-cop Joe (Matthew McConaughey) to kill a family member so they can claim the insurance money and pay off loan sharks. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Killer Joe is by no means a friendly motion picture, but the violence is pretty cartoonish and comes late enough in the proceedings that it’s hard to feel violated by it (despite the NC-17 rating). You should also know that this is the best Matthew McConaughey performance by a Texas mile, and his third really solid outing in a row.