MovieStyle: 'Mud' in your eye

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Finally, Little Rock native Jeff Nichols’ long-awaited third movie, the Arkansas-shot Mud has arrived in theaters. And, according to our critic Philip Martin, it’s a “indisputably one of the best films of its rare type, a thoughtful and accessible movie that, even with a little spasm of violence near the end, might be enjoyed (and even cherished) by all ages.”

Martin perceives the movie as being “about relationships that are tenuous and inescapable, desperate and fraught with misplaced romance … about facing up to a world indifferent to your wishes, about awaking from the dream of childhood and discovering limitations in the people you love — and loving them anyway. It is a boys’ adventure story graced with magical realism and touched up with some gritty Southern naturalism.” Also, Cheree Franco talks to director Nichols about his film, and the way he went about making it.

Adding to what is likely the best movie weekend of 2013 so far is the opening of Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, another coming of age movie, albeit one set in 1962 London, and Robert Redford’s unapologetic political thriller The Company You Keep, in which the Sundance Kid and several of his contemporaries play their own ages. There’s also the very indie Gimme the Loot (an entertaining shaggy dog story about Bronx-based graffiti artists that our Karen Martin admired).

Read Friday's MovieStyle section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full reviews.

For reviews of Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain and the comedy The Big Wedding, check out www.blooddirtangels.com.