Mud

Mud

Directed by Jeff Nichols

USA, 2012

Cornerhouse, 12 May 2013

This is a terrific film, an intelligent, rite-of-passage drama with a magnificently choreographed gunfight at the close.

There are echoes of Stand by Me and the opening scene of Great Expectations but its best described (scrabbling for a comparison) as a down-home, Americana version of The Go-Between, if you can imagine such a beast.

Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), two teenage boys, come upon Mud, a mysterious stranger (Matthew McConaughey).  He is a man of the river the like of whom they’ve never seen before, and Ellis in particular is smitten.  They decide to help Mud by bringing him food and equipment and taking messages to his girl (Reese Witherspoon), and in time the two boys find themselves embroiled in his troubles.

It is a film about boys and men, fathers and sons, and as such it is wholly satisfying, but what s especially fine – well, there are two things, the second being the luminous presence of Sam Shepard, legend – is that there is nary a hint of misogyny to be found.  You never give up on women or on love as a possibility, that’s the bottom line.

Take Shelter

Take Shelter

Directed by Jeff Nichols

USA, 2011

Cornerhouse, November 2011

Michael Shannon makes this movie, which for the most part is a riveting study of mental illness.

He has an extraordinarily expressive face, akin to a hero in a Steve Ditko comic.  It is an American face, certainly, and has something of the same sensitive, elemental quality to be found in Sterling Hayden’s face or Van Heflin’s.

The film keeps all its options open (is Curtis suffering from mental illness or experiencing some kind of premonition?) and there are surprises to be had right up until the very end.  But whether the final scene is a cop-out or a contrivance or a telling vindication, I’ll leave it for you to judge.

If Michael Shannon doesn’t get an Oscar for his performance here, there is simply no justice in the world.