Film: Mud

Director: Jeff Nichols
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: PG-13
Location/Format: Raleigh Theaters
Grade: A-

Mud might be the most "Hollywood" of Nichols' three films, but that doesn't stop one of my favorite up-and-coming directors from creating a film bursting with heart and the ever more elusive authenticity that made his first two films so excellent as well. Nichols' films all deal with men and their problems, but here he explores the idea of love from the perspective of boys. Matthew McConaughey may get top billing and the title role, but this is Tye Sheridan's film, and his Ellis feels real--someone midwestern male viewers can probably place on a spectrum between Huck Finn and themselves. As Ellis sees love disintegrating all around him--most noticeably in the marriage of his parents, Mud gives him something to hold on to--a role model of how perfect love can overcome all barriers. 

But of course, real life isn't that simple, and Ellis has to face whether love is really one of those childish things that has to be put away when entering adulthood. Because after all, this is a coming-of-age story, like Twain's Huckleberry Finn before it, filled with shysters and scalawags and all sorts of acts of cruelty. It's also a magical world, though, where boys can find boats stuck in trees and find benevolent criminals waiting nearby. It's as fantastic as it is authentic, and that's a hard trick to pull off.

That's part of what I love about Nichols. He seems intent on re-enshrining the South in film--not the Hollywood-ized South of so many films, but a more (and here I use that word again) authentic representation of the blue-collar white experience. Ellis's family lives on the river, for example, and whether that lifestyle can and should continue is one of the film's threads, and hearkens back to a similar question in Shotgun Stories. His films tend to be pretty white, but they also depict a slice of life that is often ignored in mainstream films, and I'm excited to see him finding an audience.

Mud didn't hit me with quite the same impact as Shotgun Stories or Take Shelter, and I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why--perhaps McConaughey and Witherspoon, both excellent here, distract me. But I still fell under its spell. As far as I'm concerned Nichols is batting a thousand.

Alternate Film Title: "Two Things: This Shirt and This Pistol"