Mud, 2012
Written and Directed by Jeff Nichols.
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon.
Matthew McConaughey can do no wrong at the moment. After staring in a long string of ‘leaning against things’ rom-coms with terrible performances, he’s since become on the finest actors currently working in the industry – and Mud may just be his best performance yet.
McConaughey plays the title role of Mud who befriends two impressionable teenage boys when they’re claiming a boat that was caught up in some trees. Mud is a wanted man with a dangerous past and he uses the boys to help him get in touch with the love of his life Juniper (Reece Witherspoon), testing the boy’s levels of trust in a beautiful coming of age tale.
While the story is great and engaging, it’s the superb performances from everyone that really drives Mud into high levels of greatness. As I said before, this could be McConaughey’s finest performance to date and the bond he builds towards Ellis (Tye Sheridan) is absolutely stunning. Sheridan himself also puts in a masterful performance that will tug at every one of your heart strings.
Mud tackles a lot of topics, not the least of which is relationships and the bonds we make (and break) during them. Whether it be boyfriend/girlfriend, father/son, husband/wife, uncle/nephew best friends and family, Mud delves into each one of these with a fine script from director Nichols. There isn’t one plot thread in this movie that is wasted as the movie flows from scene to scene with pitch perfect fluidity.
The film also delves into the murky world of first love as Ellis mirrors Mud’s life when he falls for high schooler May Pearl. Although it could be looked at as a superfluous plot thread as it only shows up in a handful of scenes, it shows Ellis’s potential volatile nature and just how much he could end up like Mud. For me, it was a stroke of genius on the part of Nichols.
There could be a question of the depiction of women in Mud as they come across as manipulative, deceitful lying bitches for the most part. I’m not sure if that was the intention from Nichols or whether if he was portraying them like that because that’s how the men of the movie see them, but it did feel like a bit of a mis-step with only Ellis’s mother being the only likeable female.
I would say that the film is probably 20-30 minutes too long. At 130 minutes, Mud paces itself like the laid back South and lingers on certain aspects that could have been shortened down. Because of this, I can’t say that Mud is the festival highlight I thought it might be.
Don’t get me wrong, Mud is a fantastic movie with some of the finest performances you’ll see on the big screen with a touching, beautiful story of relationships. It may have a few issues, but Mud is a superb film.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published April 27, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
