Director: Jeff Nichols
Score: 8/10
Perfect Imperfection
Mud is an oddball sort of movie. I didn’t remember hearing much about it, as far as hype goes, but everything I had heard had been overwhelmingly positive. The movie sort of fell from my mind and was left languishing in my Netflix queue, until I finally decided to give it a watch the other night. I’m so very glad I did.
This is not an adventure story. It’s not one where every detail gets meted out in the end to the audience’s satisfaction. In fact, it’s easy to say that pretty much every character in the movie is demonstrably worse off by the end than they were at the start, but that’s because of what this movie is: a dyed-in-the-wool Coming of Age story.
The concept is simple, and almost timeless; a boy/girl on the edge of adulthood realizes that the world as it is doesn’t line up with the world as they think it should be. In this case, the boy in question is Ellis, played by Ty Sheridan (formerly of Tree of Life), and given a depth that seems well beyond the young actor’s seasons. Whether to credit that to the actor or the director is a mystery, but no matter what, the part is played to perfection.
I wanted to give Ty his credit where it’s due, because most of the buzz about this movie is due to the performance of Matthew McConaughey as the eponymous Mud—and it’s well-deserved buzz, at that. This is a movie almost custom-made for McConaughey. While he’s not as flighty and unstable as a method actor, Matt is a true chameleon, capable of wearing any skin and blending into a roll so completely that you truly lose sight of where the actor ends and the role begins.
That honesty is a trend throughout Mud, from the simple look at river life in Arkansas to the pains and disappointments of growing up. There’s no Hollywood-esque slap when the husband and wife are fighting, there’s just a whack to the head that sends a message more than it could possibly have delivered pain. Everything is dirty, and realistic, and imperfect. And that’s really what Mud is about. It’s a story of how utterly imperfect people are, that no one can really live up to the dreams and ideals we may have, and how all we can do about it is move forward and either learn to deal with it or wallow in our own miserable denial.
Mud isn’t quite worth the “masterpiece” moniker, but it’s a heartfelt movie. The emotions it delivers are very real, and equally valid. Jeff Nichols has proven himself in the past to be quite adept at this style of storytelling (Take Shelter, Shotgun Stories), and Mud seems thus far like a culmination of his abilities as a writer/director.
Acting: 9
Story: 7
Visuals: 6
Sound: 7
Enjoyment: 8
Overall Score: 8/10
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