Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with another Sundance review for you. I only have about 10 more movies before I leave Park City, but I’m a little behind on my reviews, so I’ve taken some time out to write up some stuff.

The buzz on Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s novel THE KILLER INSIDE ME has been mixed, to be kind. Word spread about a woman standing up at the Q&A of the premiere and chastising Winterbottom and the Sundance programmers for this film, which she called disgusting.

I’ve also heard mixed things from normal people, which, in all honesty, I wasn’t sure how to react to. I’m a fan of Winterbottom’s, but not obsessive. I saw his other Sundance film, the documentary based on Naomi Klein’s THE SHOCK DOCTRINE (which is really good… kind of like a less polarizing Michael Moore film) and who doesn’t like 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE? But I know how oddly people react to violence sometimes and I held out hope that people were just offended and turned themselves off to the movie.

This time my hope was well placed. THE KILLER INSIDE ME is dark, brutal and beyond fucked up, but it’s also fantastic filmmaking. From a technical standpoint I will argue anybody that says this is a bad film. Winterbottom and DP Marcel Zyskind bring a relaxed, rural beauty to this story of a small town sheriff (Casey Affleck) named Lou Ford who moonlights as a sociopath.

The pacing is deliberate, but not dull, the acting is fantastic from all involved, the cinematography is gorgeous, the editing is well done… It’s the story that will turn people off. When things go violent they go fuck violent. I watch some sick and twisted shit and this movie made me cringe with the sheer brutality of it.

But that’s a good thing, right? We’re not supposed to like violence, right? I’m not a PC hippie who will wag a finger at anyone who enjoys big dumb violent action flicks, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t get the argument from these same people who call dumb violent films dangerous because they glorify brutality and then get all up in arms when a film portrays violence as something hurtful and ugly.

Affleck’s character is all kinds of messed up in the head, but on the surface he’s a calm, charming, polite public figure. Even when he dips into violent territory it hardly ever seems to come from a place of passion or rage. He never seems to drop his smile, which makes the violence at his hands even creepier.

That’s another thing. Lou Ford isn’t a slasher. He does his killing with his fists… bludgeoning his victims.

To make it even MORE creepy, his sexual kink is spanking and light hitting, something we learn comes from an almost incestuous relationship with his mother.

All that makes this movie sound like some kind of thriller and while it does get brutal and intense it really doesn’t feel like that. Winterbottom created a movie about weird, but layered characters. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to compare this movie to something like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I wouldn’t say KILLER is better or even on the same level as No Country, but it’s a similar universe.

There’s also something to the style of this picture, a ‘60s small town Texas noir? Yeah, that’s pretty damn close because while Lou Ford is a murdering bastard, you still are kind of on his side for some reason. It’s not that you’re wanting him to kill the people he does, but he’s just so normal and nice when he’s not that it almost feels like an attack on you when he strikes out. I mean, you like this dude… he’s soft spoken and kind… hell, even when he kills he seems to do it coldly, from a strictly logical (not emotional) place.

Both Jessica Alba (playing a prostitute that worships her abusive lover) and Kate Hudson (as Affleck’s fiancée) turn in fantastic performances, the former a career best (Hudson’s Penny Lane will always be my favorite, I think). Alba is like a puppy, unconditionally loving this guy. Their relationship begins with violence and ends with violence, but she never loses the adoration for this guy.

I don’t personally understand it, but I don’t understand the thought process of a woman that chooses to stay in an abusive relationship either.

The flick also features great turns by Bill Pullman (who literally enters the picture screaming like a madman), Elias Koteas (although his character just seems to drop away in the last third), Ned Beatty (so glad to see that dude again), young Liam Aiken as probably the sole innocent in the story, Brent Briscoe and Tom Bower.

I was really taken with this movie and can’t wait to see the great debate continue as more and more people see it.

PS I have not read Jim Thompson’s novel, but have spoken to people that have here at Sundance and they say the movie IS the book, which should appease Thompson’s die hards out there.

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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