Mud

JP Liz V1

Trailer is out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m9IFlz2iYo

It is from Take Shelter's Jeff Nichols and looks to feature another good performance from Matthew McConaughey and the cinematography looks quite beautiful

jefreywithonef

I've been looking forward to this; Take Shelter was excellent while this has got a great cast in Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Joe Don Baker and McConaughey. I must get round to watching Nichols' first film Shotgun Stories.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

It's out here in the next couple of weeks. Not sure how wide a release it's getting but pretty sure the Lighthouse in Dublin is showing it.

Looking forward to seeing it.

johnny_ultimate

It's pretty good although not particularly remarkable in any way. There's a definite vibe of the classic coming-of-age adventure to it - shades of Mean Creek, Stand By Me etc... (Mud himself reminded me most of Christopher Lloyd in that long forgotten Dennis the Menace film :pac:). There's a strong sense of place and mood for the most part, and the performances are uniformily solid.

While I thought the slow burning pace worked well enough overall, there's a lot of strange scenes and subplots that vary in quality. The film also has a serious case of endless endings syndrome

especially when they seemingly show Mud's dead body, only to reveal that he's alive at the end somehow.

There's a few others scenes like that that sort of just linger without fully earning their keep, and while it does have character resonances the protagonist's troubled adolescent first love is particularly clunky. And there was some borderline condescending foreshadowing of the

snake bite

drama from very early on

Still, it's enjoyable, charming and atmospheric in its own way. Not quite as intriguing as Take Shelter, but an engaging yarn.

LuckyLloyd

I thought it was really good. As rightly mentioned above, very strong sense of place with a great soundtrack. Performances from the young actors are excellent and their roles are very well written - the strange dividing line between being kids and men. The plot worked really well for me - there is a sense of impossibility that builds up at times and it becomes difficult to see a way out of the predicament. That I was thinking that probably meant I genuinely bought into and cared about the characters. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Saw it today, I really liked it.

Agree with the post above about the endings. It seemed a bit long and almost like they'd had a few different ideas for how to end it and then did them all. Wasn't enough to put me off it though.

I'm not sure why McConagheyhey is getting so much praise for this. He's good enough, but he doesn't have a whole lot to do. The two kids carry it. Ellis is the main character and he was very well played by Tye Sheridan. The scene

after his "girlfriend" breaks up with him and he confronts Mud about being a liar was excellent.

. Neck-Bone provided a lot of the comic relief, along with Michael Shannon who I thought was hilarious. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but he had me in stitches.

I did have a bit of an issue with the scene where

Mud takes Ellis to the hospital on the dirt bike. Just the whole way it was shot seemed almost like a comedy film. They way he jumped off the bike before it had properly stopped and managed to hold on to Ellis and keep his own footing?? Also the way he was jumping in and out the window.

Over all I really enjoyed it though. I'd watch it again.

e_e

A great setup and a typical, somewhat underwhelming payoff. Couldn't help feeling disappointed given the heaps of praise for it.

Sad Professor

I went into this not really knowing anything except Jeff Nichols directed it. It's brilliant. A very different film from Take Shelter but just as good. It felt like a modern day take on Huckleberry Finn. Visually it's very evocative. Nichols has a great eye for little details.

Fantastic cast with McConaughey delivering another impressive performance. The young actor who played Ellis was superb, though for some reason I thought the other actor was the kid from Tree of Life.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've seen it compared to Huck Finn a few times, I was getting shades of Great Expectations off it. Or at least the start of Great Expectations.

Great Expectations meets Huck Finn meets Beasts of the Southern Wild.

AndyAbstract

Matthew mahoganey has been on a role of good films later, so hopefully he will continue it with this. I'll watch anything with Michael Shannon anyway

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

AndyAbstract wrote: »

Matthew mahoganey has been on a role of good films later, so hopefully he will continue it with this. I'll watch anything with Michael Shannon anyway

Shannon has a very small role in it, just so you know.

AndyAbstract

ah that's a shame, Will have to wait for superman for that then.

kraggy

Really enjoyed this. Would echo the sentiments of others on a few things.

The boy playing Ellis was wholly convincing. Great performance. Would also agree with the view that while McConnaughey was solid, I've seen him pull off better performances.

Witherspoon was middling. And the journey on a certain motorbike in a brief scene was indeed comical, but didn't take away from the film in any manner.

Go see it. Definitely worth the watch.

Fysh

I really enjoyed this, strange though it feels to be saying "Yeah, that Matthew McCounaghey film was really good". Some lovely lingering shots do a great job of establishing a sense of place, and it's a refreshing change to see an American film with father-son relationships at its core that doesn't just resort to Lazy Daddy Issues With Convenient Resolution By End Of Film as its approach. About the only criticism I might lay at its feet is that the film's focus on Ellis means that the female characters aren't given much scope to breathe, I think that's a necessary result of the film being almost entirely from Ellis' point of view.

InchicoreDude

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It's pretty good although not particularly remarkable in any way. There's a definite vibe of the classic coming-of-age adventure to it - shades of Mean Creek, Stand By Me etc... (Mud himself reminded me most of Christopher Lloyd in that long forgotten Dennis the Menace film :pac:). There's a strong sense of place and mood for the most part, and the performances are uniformily solid.

While I thought the slow burning pace worked well enough overall, there's a lot of strange scenes and subplots that vary in quality. The film also has a serious case of endless endings syndrome

especially when they seemingly show Mud's dead body, only to reveal that he's alive at the end somehow.

There's a few others scenes like that that sort of just linger without fully earning their keep, and while it does have character resonances the protagonist's troubled adolescent first love is particularly clunky. And there was some borderline condescending foreshadowing of the

snake bite

drama from very early on

Still, it's enjoyable, charming and atmospheric in its own way. Not quite as intriguing as Take Shelter, but an engaging yarn.

I think the idea was that he was in heaven at the end.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

InchicoreDude wrote: »

I think the idea was that he was in heaven at the end.

How was

the old guy with him then?

I did read about Take Shelter where the ending was deliberately left vague and Nichols himself said it was to allow people interpret it whichever way they were inclined to, pessimistic people saw it one way, optimistic people another, so maybe that's what he was doing here?