Mud

In Arkansas, the fourteen year-old Ellis (Tye Sheridan) lives in a floating house with his mother Mary Lee (Sarah Paulson) and his father Senior (Ray McKinnon). Ellis helps his father selling fish with his best friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland). Ellis and Neckbone find a motorboat stranded on the top of a tree in an island on the Mississippi River since a flood and they plan to fix the boat for them. One day, they climb the tree and they find fresh meal inside the boat meaning that someone is living in "their" boat. They leave the place and meet a man named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) near their boat. Soon they learn that the passionate Mud killed a man that had beaten up his girlfriend Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) and now the father and the brother of the deceased man are hunting him down. Mud makes a deal with the romantic Ellis and Neckbone to help him to reunite with Juniper. But when Ellis meets Mud's stepfather Tom (Sam Shepard), he has a different opinion about the love of Juniper with Mud. "Mud" is a sensitive movie about a romantic boy that tries to help a stranger to meet his beloved girlfriend. The story of love and friendship brought recollection of "Stand by Me" because of the charismatic characters Ellis and Neckbone. The performances are top-notch and the cinematography depicts wonderful locations along the Mississippi River. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Amor Bandido" ("Bandit Love")

MUD is another overrated film that many viewers (and reviewers) seem to mistake for a stylish masterwork. In fact it's a very dull social drama with thriller undertones about a couple of kids who befriend a bizarre homeless man who lives out in the woods, often making a boat suspended in a tree his bed for the night. What the other viewers seem to miss is that it's BORING. MUD has potential, I'll give it that. Scenes of the kids exploring and enjoying a lot hot summer bring to mind the greatness of MEAN CREEK and STAND BY ME, but that's where the similarities end. Instead, this film gets bogged down in small-scale drama, a definite look-at-me style of acting, and way too much sentiment. The inclusion of a crime family and a revenge-fuelled second half doesn't really ring true and when you don't care about the characters anyway, that doesn't help. It also doesn't help that I can't stand the overrated Matthew McConaughey as an actor. He always seems to swan around with his turgid under acting and he bores me to tears whenever he's on screen. At least this film isn't as offensive as KILLER JOE, but I still hated his character. The pity is that some decent character actors are mired in support (in particular, Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks, both of BOARDWALK EMPIRE). And as for Reese Witherspoon - the less said the better!