MovieChat Forums > Killer Joe (2012) Discussion > Not believable enough for noir, not surr...

Not believable enough for noir, not surreal enough for an indie

posted 8 months ago by mobocracy (845)
1 reply | jump to latest

The twist-ish plot narrative of Adele's killing being a scheme Chris and Ansel were suckered into by Rex and Sharla would have been great in an actual noir film where the cast and players had some verisimilitude.

But how believable is it that a Dallas detective is an actual hit man and willing to take random jobs from losers like Chris and Ansel without any real up front payment? And that somehow its going to actually work to pimp out the little sister to him, and oh, by the way, everyone (including Dottie!) is OK with him just moving in and screwing Dottie? I kind of liked the way McConoughey portrayed Joe, but it was entirely unbelievable he was an actual cop.

Most of this would be just stylistic if it was played in the kind of weird, surrealism that Lynch or even the Coen brothers can pull off. But it wasn't played for surrealism, either, or at least not enough to become a Lynchian thriller or even a Coen Brothers scheme.

And I'm not sure that Sharla's character was smart enough to help hatch this scheme, and if she was, why would she have stayed with Ansel? And why wouldn't she fear the obvious conclusion of Joe whacking the whole family when it was clear he wouldn't get paid? Maybe she's just dumb enough to think it'll work out with Rex and she'll get paid.

And if Joe is such a smart hitman, smart enough to unravel the scheme to the point that he literally steals Rex's insurance check, why wouldn't Joe just lean on Rex and threaten to frame him for Adele's death to get some or all of the insurance payout and let the family twist?

And what happened to the drug debt/death threat with Digger Soames? Chris had 2-3 days, max, before Soames was going to kill him. Since when does someone die under unusual circumstances, a cause of accidental death get issued, and an insurance payout and funeral happen that fast? It either took more time or the drug dealer angle simple got left behind.

And the whole situation with Dottie just didn't make sense.

This film seemed to try to be noir and indie in some kind of Southern Gothic wrapper all at once, and it didn't really succeed in any of it.

[–] DancingintheDark (1246) 8 months ago

You make some good points and pose some equally good questions but I’m just going to touch on your second paragraph. Joe’s moonlighting as a hitman for hire, especially relating to taking jobs from the type of people who attract attention like flys to shit, would never play out in present times, but in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and maybe a few years into the millennium, I can buy that. Before the information age became a ubiquitous part of life all sorts of situations/scenarios were openly available to those with the means/intent to exploit such times to their benefit.