Saturday, May 04, 2013

Movie review: "Mud" a highly-recommended river tale starring McConaughey and Witherspoon

"Mud" is a new Matthew McConaughey-Reese Witherspoon movie set on a river much like the Red, in the woods much like those of Bossier and Caddo. A compelling adventure reminiscent of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, the movie features 2 well-directed teens and a cast of characters evocative of people in and around Shreveport.

McConaughey is superb as "Mud," a guy who, for all his warmth and wisdom, has maybe 50% of life down tight.

The young teens, Ellis and Neckbone, are somehow as characterful as the adults.

For many the movie "Mud" will be a vivid reminder that unvarnished stories about redneck life in the hackberry and sycamore woods of NW Louisiana can be powerfully affecting. Of course, the key to making valuable entertainment, whether the tale takes place under the Dupont Fish Market or is set in and around the Hilton, is the writing.

The young writer-director of the movie, Jeff Nichols, is a lad that, said the NY Times, "Came into an undergraduate program having read almost all of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy." Nichols apparently knows his Mark Twain and Eudora Welty inside and out, too.

Highly recommended.

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