With its houseboats, skyboats and characters sustained on Beanie Weenies
from the Piggly Wiggly, Mud - the movie and the character - could not be more
of its place. Whilst contemporaneous, the use of walkie-talkies and telephone
books gives the place and pace a retrospective feel, with visual and narrative nods
to 80’s coming of age movies.
Two boys on the cusp of manhood befriend a mysterious father-figure as a
substitute for their own respectively emasculated and absent parent. They
are drawn in to helping him to both evade the authorities and other pursuants
and reconnect with his true love. Mud is
littered with the shells of men who feel confused and betrayed by the women
that have left them behind. It’s a heartfelt and ultimately fruitless plea of
masculine understanding. Whilst a little clunky on the metaphor of original
temptation and serpents, Mud succeeds through the sheer bravado of the
character development and the journey of the young protagonists. It sits
perfectly in its own skin and draws out some fantastic performances.
Constantly underplayed it shifts incongruently in the last reel but
manages to get away with it because we’ve invested in the ending we want for
these characters.
All together now... "There's nothing quite like it..."
8/10
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