With NC-17 movies, you’re never sure going in if the rating is going to be legit or if it’s essentially kowtowing to the Puritanical morals that still rule too much of the entertainment industry’s decisions.  Killer Joe, I’m happy to say, earns its rating with enthusiasm.  Starring Matthew McConaughey in the titular role, the film is, above all, a completely successful delivery of what its title promises:  a brutal, morally gray movie about a man who is a killer for hire.

Killer Joe is brought in by a simple family of questionable morals to kill their estranged mother when she takes out a life insurance policy benefitting her daughter Dottie.  Joe doesn’t work on speculation—cash up front or nothing—but Dottie’s innocent sexuality intrigues him enough to work on a retainer:  her.  As Joe’s relationship with Dottie deepens, so does his control of the entire family, and his hit on the mother brings consequences none of them could have predicted.

The climax of the movie is reminiscent of Michael Hanneke’s Funny Games as Joe’s sadistic personality pushes his victims to see just how far they will bend before breaking.  The scene is both exquisitely torturous and disturbingly erotic.  And, unlike Funny Games, there is never a question as to whether the victims deserve what they get.  The dishonesty and dishonor with which they have all behaved—barring Dottie, who is, like the archetypal innocents of melodramas, spared because of her honest purity—leaves only the question of whether they got exactly what they deserved or if the punishment exceeded the crime.  The film makes no attempt to answer that question for the viewer, and I expect different people will have different answers.

This film is one I will happily re-watch.  It was satisfying and not quite predictable on the first watch, and it has the kind of textual depth that means multiple viewings will reveal new humor and nuances every time.  It was well-filmed and tightly edited; at 103 minutes, there isn’t any fat that could have been trimmed, but yet the film never felt rushed or underdeveloped.

Killer Joe is a wonderful character and, while the role is not a stretch for McConaughey, one he plays with the suaveness and aplomb that are his hallmarks.  The rest of the characters were equally well-cast, especially Dottie.  I needed the same number of frames as Joe to recognize her allure—I never once questioned why he would be willing to work with only her as compensation, nor that he would consider the whole messy job a success if she was all he walked away with.  And that understanding was entirely because of [Juno Temple].  She was, perhaps, a more important role to get right than Joe himself; the entire premise of the movie falls apart if the audience cannot understand why she motivates him to proceed as he does.

Killer Joe is based on Tracy Lott’s stage play by the same name, and while the film is not an obvious adaptation of a play (the way, say, Carnage is), the origin makes sense upon reflection.  There are essentially five characters in the movie, with a handful of extras that could easily have been scripted in to add visual interest and depth of world to a film.  The scenes which take place somewhere besides the family’s trailer could easily have been relocated for the same reason.

If you like unapologetically brutal movies, you can’t do better than Killer Joe.  Highly recommended for those who like that sort of thing.