Sling Blade review

 Number 288 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1996 drama 'Sling Blade.'

*Spoilers to follow*

Karl Childers (Billy Bob Thornton) is a developmentally-disabled man who has just been released from a psychiatric institution where he has been held since he was twelve years old. His crime? Murdering his mother and her lover with a sling blade. Thoroughly institutionalised, Karl struggles to adapt to his new life in Arkansas. That is until he befriends the twelve-year-old Frank (Lucas Black) and his mother Linda (Natalie Canerday) But her abusive boyfriend Doyle (Dwight Yokam) soon takes a disliking to Karl. As well as starring, Billy Bob Thornton also wrote, produced and directed Sling Blade.

Billy Bob Thornton won an Osar for writing Sling Blade. However, he was only nominate for acting and not even considered for direction. I think that's a good summary of the film: the acting and direction didn't match up to the Oscar-winning writing.

This isn't to say that Thornton did a bad job, but it certainly wasn't Oscar-worthy. Karl's journey was a predictable one. While predictability isn't a bad thing, Thornton did fail to bring anything new to the medium. Karl - having been institutionalised for most of his life struggles in adapting to life on the outside. He quickly comes to loggerheads with Doyle resulting in Karl murdering him. 

Yes, this was predictable, but a predictable ending can still be good if it was executed well. But this ending was disappointing and anti-climatic. There was too much build-up leading to a damp squib instead of a bang. We get a seemingly-endless montage of Karl preparing to kill Doyle with the latter meekly accepting his fate. It was a sequence devoid of tension.

I also think Thornton's portrayal of Karl was over-simplified. It didn't have the same depth as portrayals of similar characters of the era e.g Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. whereas Gump was a living, breathing three-dimensional character, Karl was little more than a grunting cave man.

I can understand why Thornton won the Best Writing Oscar. Sling Blade certainly had a good story. It's just a shame that the direction and acting didn't match up to the writing.

Mud review

 Number 814 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2012 coming-of-age drama 'Mud.'

Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) are two teenage boys living in rural Arkansas. Upon finding a seemingly abandoned boat, they then meet its owner Mud (Matthew Mcconaughey) a fugitive hiding there after killing a man. The two boys agree to help Mud escape, as well as reunite him with his lost love Juniper (Reese Witherspoon). Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks and Ray Mckinnon all co-star.

This was an impressive film. It was probably one of the best depictions of a lost innocence that I have seen since Stand by Me. Ellis and Neckbone are instantly likeable. Sure, they are innocent and naive like many teenagers, but it's obvious that they are still good kids. Ellis is always ready to stand up for what's right even if that backfires on him.

I also think Mud avoided the pitfalls of many other coming-of-age dramas. Its protagonists aren't cocky little jerks like the Breakfast Club or annoying chipmunk-voiced pre-teens *cough cough* like the Goonies, but it also avoided the cliche of its teenage protagonists having neglectful parents. Ellis' father played by Ray Mckinnon and Neckbone's Uncle Galen (Michael Shannon) are by no means perfect, but they're not down-and-out and baddies either. This is what made them human.

The real baddie was Carver (Paul Sparks) the brother of the man that Mud killed. Sparks was great in a villainous role - in many ways, he was the opposite of the caring Mud.

Mud's characters, in many ways, heralded a transition for Mcconaughey - away from the romcoms he was best known for and into the more dramatic roles that he is best-known for now. It was in 2013 that he won his best-acting Oscar for the Dallas Buyers Club. He's just as good there as he is in Mud.

The cinematography was also spectacular. It conveyed the isolation and remoteness of the small world that our characters live in. In many ways, it is like its own eco-system where Ellis and Neckbone can enjoy their adolescences. Sheridan and Lofland were great in the lead roles displaying a maturity and a great chemistry with one another.

If I were to criticise the film for anything, it would be the inclusion of Reese Witherspoon. It seemed like the only direction she received was to stand around and look pretty. She's won an Oscar. She could have done something more than that. Otherwise, this was an excellent coming-of-age drama that I enjoyed immensely.