Killer Joe
LD Entertainment | Release Date: July 27, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
10
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanAug 10, 2012
Credit goes to the actors (especially Gershon) for giving almost as good as they get in seriously demanding roles, and to Friedkin for having what it takes – guts, chops and a refreshing lack of artistic caution – to bring things thundering home. Read full review
100
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 24, 2012
It's McConaughey who is the real revelation: All Grim Reaper strut and cutthroat stare, he savors each of Letts's vividly ghoulish lines. Read full review
90
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJul 24, 2012
A hideously funny tabloid noir. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 26, 2012
With an eye for gritty, shameless fun, Friedkin unleashes the play's guilty pleasure center. Friedkin holds nothing back, but it's Letts' rambunctious plotting that enables the director to chart a path to the wild climax. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJul 25, 2012
This is not some nostalgia-soaked throwback to the noir of old, but a rude, shit-kicking thriller that co-opts - and merrily defiles - a classic like "Double Indemnity." Whatever its shortcomings, at least they're never failures of nerve. Read full review
83
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonJul 23, 2012
It won't change the face of cinema history, and it won't win any awards (it's too downright dirty for that), but it's furiously entertaining, and a very strong piece of drama from a director who hasn't much luck in the last thirty-odd years. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 24, 2012
An unflinchingly ugly -- but downright mesmerizing -- tale that plumbs the depths of human immorality and, along the way, offers a dash of subtle commentary on just how far we, as a 312 million-member nuclear family, might have lost our way. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 23, 2012
This is a movie that's just out there, beyond our normal experience in a theater. You may walk away impressed or offended by Killer Joe, but Friedkin and McConaughey make sure you won't walk away indifferent. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 2, 2012
By far the film's deadliest weapon is McConaughey. The way the actor leans into threats, dropping his voice, wrapping eloquence in sinister tones, is skin-crawling. The muscles in his neck literally seem to tense one by one. And if the eyes are the window to the soul, you really don't want to peer for long into his. It is not an easy performance to watch, but it is unforgettable. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 28, 2012
As splashy as Killer Joe is, it's also, beat by beat, meticulously orchestrated, with no shortcuts to the carnage. When it comes to mapping psychoses, Letts and Friedkin are diabolically single-minded cartographers. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 26, 2012
Friedkin's still got it - the "it" being his ability to infuse every frame of the film with powerful ambiguity and doubt, and also his ability to attract terrific actors and propel them in unexpected directions. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissJul 18, 2012
McConaughey's fans might be shocked to see him in this role - more likely, they'd skip the opportunity - but they ought to give his performance a shot. The dimpled demon lover proves he can be just as seductive playing Texas's creepiest, craziest cop. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungJul 18, 2012
A likeably unpleasant slice of adults-only Texas noir, which aims at the funnybone as much as the jugular. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MuellerJul 18, 2012
Friedkin's unflinching trailer-park noir features ugly characters, game performances, degradation and the obscene abuse of a chicken drumstick. Highly recommended, then. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 1, 2012
It's ostensibly a Southern-fried comedy of terrors, but what little humor the film evinces almost immediately lodges in your windpipe like an errant bit of K-Fried-C gristle. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 9, 2012
Killer Joe is twisted pulp, and the actors chew on it bravely, boldly, and with varying degrees of success. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 9, 2012
A gleeful and unapologetic descent into delicious decadence, Killer Joe is proud of what it is and never tries to be something it isn't. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 2, 2012
The hardest thing to describe is tone, but it's the thing that most sets Killer Joe apart and makes it one of the most interesting and satisfying movies of the year so far. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 1, 2012
One hell of a movie. It left me speechless. I can't say I loved it. I can't say I hated it. It is expertly directed, flawlessly cast and written with merciless black humor by Tracy Letts. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 26, 2012
Even when the film goes too far over the top to be saved, McConaughey mesmerizes. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJul 22, 2012
It thrills in seeing dumb people getting their due in hyper-stylized displays of violence, and yet it never feels contemptuous of them. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangJul 18, 2012
The family that slays together pays together in Killer Joe, a nasty little Texas noir that transfers Tracy Letts' 1993 play from page to screen with generally gripping results before devolving into an over-the-top splatterfest. Read full review
65
MovielineMichelle OrangeJul 26, 2012
In its own way and to its own detriment, William Friedkin's splattery, southern gothic return to the screen seeks to amuse as well as shake and stir. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 24, 2012
Killer Joe is one of the most repugnant parodies of small-town stupidity that you will ever see, and Friedkin amplifies the shrill obscenities with blaring cartoon and kung-fu footage from his art director's fever dreams. Read full review
60
EmpireIan NathanJul 18, 2012
Family dysfunction to make Jeremy Kyle blush, but thanks to McConaughey's oily power and Friedkin's unflinching purpose it's a compelling beast. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 18, 2012
It is up to McConaughey's crooked cop to carry the picture: a sleek, loungingly casual loner whose hunger for violence, like his hunger for fried chicken, is finally and horribly gratified. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 24, 2012
You end up feeling sorry for all the actors forced to humiliate themselves, except for McConaughey, whose portrayal of sadistic, manipulative evil is mesmerizing, in part because it was so unexpected. He continues to surprise. Friedkin, sadly, continues to coast. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 2, 2012
The bone-crunchingly violent film has luridly entertaining moments. But by its resolution, this sleazy Southern Gothic nightmare has simply gone off the rails. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 30, 2012
Even if you like your movies sick and black, as many people do, it's hard to miss the irony: in the very act of trying to intensify his Southern tale, Friedkin dilutes the impact. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 26, 2012
Mr. Friedkin, a director with a talent for kinetic screen violence, never finds his groove with Killer Joe, which lurches from realism to corn-pone absurdism and exploitation-cinema surrealism. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJul 25, 2012
Killer Joe throws down a dare by expecting its audience to be the cool connoisseurs of the story's "comic" outrageousness, then rubbing viewers' faces in close-up scenes of brutality that reasonable people ought not to be able to watch. That up-close experience, however effectively done, is a movie specialty that's its own kind of mean. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 24, 2012
When this sick, ludicrous cocktail of sex, violence and mayhem was first unveiled a year ago at the Toronto International Film Festival, one wag aptly described it as "the ghost of Tennessee Williams meets the spirit of Quentin Tarantino." Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensJul 28, 2012
The pleasure of watching McConaughey strut, preen, and menace his way through this Southern-fried black comedy (at least I think it's a comedy) isn't quite enough to save Killer Joe. The whole movie has something tonally off about it, not to mention a theatricality that works against it in a way Bug's didn't. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoJul 28, 2012
Killer Joe isn't as outlandish in premise as it is in execution, which is saying something. Read full review
38
Washington PostMark JenkinsAug 2, 2012
The action and dialogue find the same squalid level in time for the climactic scene, the cruel humiliation of a central character. That's when sensitive viewers should do what the bloody-minded Joe could never imagine: Walk away from the mess he has made. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 26, 2012
What's most notable about this aggressively cynical project is how much talent it wastes. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithJul 27, 2012
A sleazy and pointless film about sleazy and pointless people, Killer Joe reminds us that what Quentin Tarantino does isn't easy. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 26, 2012
Killer Joe is, at bottom - and I mean bottom - ugly and vile, not to mention dumb and clumsy. Read full review
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