Mud touches on true love, fatherhood, adolescence, friendship, and redemption.

Matthew McConaughey leads a stellar cast in this complex and compelling tale of a man who risks everything for love. Sam Shepard, Michael Shannon, Sarah Paulson, Joe Don Baker, and Jacob Lofland give wonderful performances but McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, and Tye Sheridan, in a break out role, really stand out. Lovely cinematography by Adam Stone shows both the beauty and desolation of the river and the stark reality of a small southern town. The film clocks in at 2 hours and 10 minutes, but feels shorter. The plot is unpredictable, the dialogue natural, and the acting nuanced. The one problem I have with Mud is Reese Witherspoon. I’m guessing she wanted to up her indie cred and the filmmaker wanted to use her name to garner funding for his project. Either way, she sticks out like a sore thumb. Despite Witherspoon’s presence, Mud works and serves as further proof that McConaughey can do more than play bongos. Mud was my favorite film of 2013.

I enjoyed this film. I’ve read reviews calling the direction, by Ariel Vroman, flat but it seemed to me that the director kept the mood as repressed and unemotional as its subject, Richard Kuklinski. The Iceman takes place over twenty years in the life of a notorious hit man/serial killer. I found it a fascinating look at a man who murdered people for a living, then took his daughters roller skating. Michael Shannon underplayed Kuklinski and Winona Ryder surprised me with her performance. Ray Liotta stands out as usual and I wish he had more screen time. David Schwimmer is passable as a lowlife hood and James Franco appears for some reason. Stephen Dorff and Chris Evans shine in their small character roles. I would like to have seen more of them.