“Once summer season starts, the indies worth going to are few and far between. But in between all of the superheroes and explosions, there’ll be the small films here and there that garner mega buzz. This year, everyone seems to be talking about Matthew McConaughey in Mud. I even blew off the new Eli Roth movie to make sure I saw this one. Yeah, I think I chose poorly.
Mud wasn’t bad. It was just long and slow. It started off well enough. Two young boys discover a man living on an island along the river of their small town. They befriend him only to discover he’s a fugitive, yet they still decide to help him with his escape. That was all well and good, but it felt like things just dragged on and on until it reached one of the few possible conclusions.
McConaughey was good, though I dont know if it’s the potential Oscar buzz worthy performance I’ve been hearing. Maybe they’re just bitter because he didn’t get the long shot supporting nomination for Magic Mike (which I can sympathize with). I think part of the distraction was that I spent half the movie thinking that if you found a homeless fugitive living on an island, he would most certainly NOT looked like Matthew McConaughey. Even if you give him chipped teeth and cover him in dirt, he’s still not gonna look like that. Kinda tough to get around that.
I did like our child-who-came-of-age, Tye Sheridan. Mostly because he reminded me of Brad Renfro at that age (*tear*). He certainly had that young optimism and wonder and you did kinda see him grow up in front of you, but I feel like he could have been given more substance to work with. It kinda all seemed cliche.
Mud – \m/ \m/