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Here\u2019s some free advice for anybody who doesn\u2019t like living outside of a jail cell or a coffin. If you hire somebody to commit crimes on your behalf, the kind of crimes that result in the death penalty if you get caught, make sure you properly vet the person you\u2019re working with. Because they don\u2019t in 2011\u2019s Killer Joe, and everything goes exactly how you\u2019d expect. The crime in question is murdering a family member to cash in on their life insurance policy, and the desired criminal is actually a cop who moonlights as a contract killer<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019d call Killer Joe a comedy of errors, because it certainly feels like it falls into that territory, but make no mistake. This movie goes beyond dark, and most of the humor, outside of Matthew McConaughey\u2019s pithy observations, is situational. Here we have two would-be criminals who are too cowardly to do the deed themselves, but don\u2019t have the funds to outsource it, culminating in the kind of family-annihilating disaster that could only truly be captured with a gritty Southern Gothic aesthetic.<\/p>\n It Won\u2019t End Well For Adele<\/p>\n Killer Joe boasts a stupid-simple premise, but it doesn\u2019t take much to understand the stakes. We\u2019re introduced to Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch), a young drug dealer who owes $6,000 he doesn\u2019t have to his supplier, Digger Soames (Marc Macaulay). The reason he owes money is because his abusive mother, Adele, stole the drugs he was supposed to sell and kicked him out of the house. Confiding in his not-so-bright, trailer park-inhabiting father, Ansel (Thomas Haden Church), who\u2019s also not on the best of terms with Adele, his ex-wife, Chris comes up with what, in his mind, is the most logical plan: kill Adele, collect her $50,000 life insurance policy, and split the money evenly with Sharla (Gina Gershon), Ansel\u2019s current wife.<\/p>\n The problem is that Chris and Ansel are profoundly stupid and unwilling to carry out the dastardly deed themselves. Chris has a solution in the form of \u201cKiller Joe\u201d Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a respected detective with a dark streak and secret double life as a contract killer. The terms of the deal are simple: Joe kills Adele, her insurance payout goes to Dottie (Juno Temple), Chris\u2019 younger sister and the sole beneficiary of the policy, and everybody splits the money.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things get very messy. Joe demands a $25,000 advance and has very strict operating rules since his day job puts him on the right side of the law while his extracurricular activities could land him in a whole heap of trouble. Unable to pay the advance, Chris and Ansel reluctantly agree to use Dottie as his \u201cretainer\u201d because she\u2019s allegedly a virgin and Joe is very interested in her, with the promise that everybody will go their separate ways once the deed has been done.<\/p>\n As you would expect from this arrangement, nothing goes according to plan. Joe very quickly marks his territory by seducing Dottie, who often says cryptic things suggesting she knows about the entire murder plot even though nobody told her about it. She even recalls an incident from infancy when Adele allegedly tried to kill her. Joe\u2019s presence is intrusive, invasive, and aggressive, and he\u2019s hellbent on not only finishing the job, but also running off into the sunset with Dottie if he can help it.<\/p>\n Alright, Alright, Alright \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n Everything goes horribly wrong for Chris, Ansel, Sharla, and Adele in Killer Joe while Dottie, naive enough to not know any better, sits in horror on the sidelines. Loyalties are betrayed, motives are revealed to be dubious, and the third act gets so violent, among other things, that it\u2019s hard to maintain eye contact with the screen but equally hard to look away. If you\u2019re not quite picking up what I\u2019m throwing down, here\u2019s a spoiler-free hint: the most upsetting sequence in this movie involves a bucket of fried chicken, Matthew McConaughey\u2019s performative Southern charm thinly veiling his sadistic tendencies, and everybody at the table trying to act like they didn\u2019t completely screw up what should have been an incredibly simple job.<\/p>\n Killer Joe is a uncomfortable viewing experience, and every character in it is the worst person you\u2019ve ever met. They\u2019re so stupid, though, that you can\u2019t help but laugh at their misfortune, of which there is plenty, when everything begins to backfire and they have nobody to blame but themselves.<\/p>\n![\"Killer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Killer-Joe-2011-8-900x506.png\")
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