If anything can connect the ambitious young oeuvre of writer-director Jeff Nichols, it’s the sense of angst and dread permeating flyover country.
The filmmaker behind Shotgun Stories, set amid a sibling feud in Arkansas, and the extraordinary Take Shelter, about a doomsday prepper in Ohio, Nichols is back in Arkansas for his third feature, Mud, an appropriate title for a grimy crime opera set around a snake-addled riverbank and the salt-of-the-earth denizens who have moored precarious houseboats there.
“Mud” is also the name of a character played by Matthew McConaughey, whose work here has earned the highest praise of his career. He’s introduced as a vaguely threatening, vaguely charming vagrant residing in a mid-sized boat perched improbably, but not implausibly, in a tree in the woods (the result of a massive flood, we’re told).
McConaughey has developed a reputation for playing rakish, dirty rogues — he’s always looked more comfortable with wild, unwashed hair and four-day stubble than with a button-downed business suit and a CEO haircut. But even the more uncouth characters of his past look kempt next to his gnarly Mud. An earthen figure with straggly, tousled hair and serpentine tattoos slithering across his upper chest, he seems chiseled from nature — like he’s never seen the inside of a shower, let alone a dining room, but that he came from the sea, delivered from the oceans at a mitochondrial level.
He’s discovered there by two 14-year-old boys — the naïve romantic Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and the jaded wiseacre Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), who believe the tree-boat to be theirs. Mud promises them they can have the boat, provided they bring him back some food. His presence raises many more questions than answers, and Neckbone has the horse sense to disengage. But Ellis, whose father is a stern powder keg of potential abuse and whose parents are in the process of separating, finds a kindred spirit in the older man, striking up a friendship that will soon reveal itself (no spoilers here; it’s all in the basic plot description) to be that of fugitive and accomplice.
Mud belongs to that limited tradition of small-town coming-of-age thrillers, alongside Stand by Me, River’s Edge and especially David Gordon Green’s Undertow, one of the most underrated films of the Aughts. Nichols has a lived-in grasp of his environment, effectively conveys a milieu that is, for Ellis, simultaneously wondrous and threatening: where it takes a punch to the face of bullying high-school senior to win the affections of local girl May Pearl (Bonnie Sturdivant). Where his relationship with Mud is one of both genuine, necessary friendship and callow exploitation, and where poisonous snakes writhe in the bowels of life-changing settings.
The film seems to falter a bit at the tail end of its sprawling 2-hour-and-20-minute narrative, stretching to make obvious parallels between the bipolar love lives of Ellis and Mud, further linking characters who already are sufficiently connected in the grand cosmos of life. In particular, May Pearl, the cute and gangly girl who’s taken a shine to Ellis, inexplicably transitions from fascinated love interest to downright hostile enemy in a manner that is too extreme, even for a fickle teenage girl.
I also would have liked to see more of Michael Shannon, hilariously cast as Neckbone’s uncle and caretaker, a man who appears, at various times, to play the role of hardworking pearl diver, struggling punk-rock musician and sexual deviant. He’s far less complete than other peripheral characters (like Sam Shepard’s isolated, taciturn neighbor), and I got the impression a lot of his contributions were left on the cutting-room floor.
McConaughey’s work here is worth the praise, though. He delivers an intense, uninhibited performance, perfectly capturing his character’s chiral duality in a winning follow-up to a sterling 2012 track record that included Magic Mike and Bernie.
But it’s the boy, Tye Sheridan, who is the real discovery here. The way he connects to Ellis’ emotions is a master class in subtlety, and he has no greater moment than his successful first date with May. He uses few words to win her over, but he’s brought her a gift of pearls from Neckbone’s uncle, and he seems to be doing everything right, because she kisses him.
Shot in tight close-ups, you can see the suppressed joy in his eyes and barely upturned lips as he absorbs this adolescent breakthrough like he’s totally cool with it, another day at the office. If we weren’t completely sold on this kid, we are now, and when anger finally explodes later on, it’s utterly real.
Even when Nichols’ story choices don’t always feel accurate, Sheridan grounds the film, providing its anchor of credibility — its haven from the snakes.
MUD. Director: Jeff Nichols; Cast: Tye Sheridan, Matthew McConaughey, Jacob Lofland, Sam Shepard, Reese Witherspoon, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Joe Don Baker; Distributor: Roadside Attractions; Rating: PG-13; Now playing at Muvico Parisian 20 in West Palm Beach, Cobb Jupiter 18, Regal Delray Beach 18, Regal Shadowood 16, iPic Theaters at Mizner Park and Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton, the Classic Gateway Theater in Fort Lauderdale, AMC Aventura Mall 24, Regal South Beach 18, AMC Cocowalk 14, and AMC Sunset Place 24 in South Miami.