Mud

Written and Directed by the fairly new-on-the-scene Jeff Nichols, where you might not of heard of his movies but this 2012 film is the one that finally shot him on the ‘who’s-who’ film scene with 13 wins and 15 other nominations. This drama was slow-moving with a heap of interesting shots and lovely cinematography on location in Arkansas by the Mississippi river. Mathew McConaughey shines as ‘Mud’ but the two children ‘Ellis’ played by Tye Sheridan and ‘Neckbone’ played by Jacob Lofland are the ones that carried the film along beautifully. Reese Whitherspoon, Sam Shepard, and Ray McKinnon also portray great acting chops, but it’s Sarah Paulson that plays ‘Mary Lee’ that second’s best in performance for me.

Its a wonderful sort of hero-boy story like ‘Tom Sawyer’ or ‘Huckleberry Finn’ type stories where the boys make a discovery and try to make things better in secret. This film’s message is a powerful one, of identifying what real love is, and if it’s not, when to cut it loose; because the wrong kind of love can be a toxic one that destroys everyone and everything in it’s path.

'Mud’ was a long one with a run-time of 130 minutes but despite the length they were able to triple what they started off with at the box-office with a whopping gross of $21 million USD that year. Certainly some of the best work by McConaughey; before (Dallas Buyers Club) and recommended for a decent movie night.