Film review: Mud

Director: Jeff Nichols

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland

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Having spent years getting his top off in deadweight romantic comedies, films such as The Lincoln Lawyer, Killer Joe, Magic Mike, The Paperboy and, most recently, Bernie have seen him finally finding a way to channel his effortless Southern charm and movie star charisma into a diverse array of rich, funny and fascinating characters. His latest film Mud is no exception. He plays the title character, a wayward drifter hiding out on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. With crooked teeth, tousled hair, crosses in his boots (“to ward off evil spirits”) and arms covered in snake tattoos, he looks like an older, modern day reject from a Mark Twain novel – and with a penchant for tall tales, not to mention a romantic conception of himself as an outlaw driven by his love for his childhood sweetheart, he sounds like one too.

At first sight, though, it’s hard to tell if he’s the sort of man who’ll be a friend or a foe. That’s partly because we’re introduced to him via the film’s true protagonist, 14-year-old Ellis (Tye Sheridan). Along with his fantastically named best friend, Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), he’s a frequent visitor to the island, having become enthralled – in the way that only young teens can – by the unexplained presence of a boat perched in one of the island’s trees. On their latest trip, Ellis and Neckbone realise that someone is actually living in the boat, and when they subsequently run into Mud, there’s an uneasy tension as both parties size each other up. Eventually, though, Ellis (aided by the somewhat warier Neckbone) agrees to help Mud, first by getting him food, then by acting as a go-between with the love-of-his life, a tarnished beauty called Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) whose intoxicating hold over Mud is the reason he’s on the run from some very violent men.

All of which might sound like the set-up for a very specific type of genre film, a variation, perhaps, on Night of the Hunter in which violence and the corruption of innocence are never far from the surface. But while those elements are certainly somewhere in Mud’s DNA, its ability to constantly surprise makes it a little less easy to classify beyond, perhaps, simply calling it a “Jeff Nichols film.” If that name doesn’t ring any bells, that’s because Nichols has only just started to emerge as one of American cinema’s most prodigiously talented filmmakers. Breaking through a few years ago with Shotgun Stories, a swaggering tale of familial rivalry in the Deep South, and following up with 2011’s Take Shelter, a remarkable slice of apocalyptic dread for our economically blighted times, Nichols switches gear again to create his most accessible and poignant film to date.