Movie Review - 'The Killer Inside Me'

The Killer Inside Me Starring Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba Directed by Michael Winterbottom Rated R

For a while, it's hard to know for sure which Lou Ford is the real one, the guy beating a hooker three-quarters to death with leather-gloved right crosses to the face or the man apologizing to her all the while, saying meekly when the assault is mercifully over, "I love you." It isn't the first time Ford has shown a violent streak. His entire relationship with the prostitute this deputy sheriff was only supposed to escort out of town stems from a back-and-forth punch out. For a while, Joyce could give as she gets, but this is obviously different. And so is Lou. Of course, the real Lou Ford reveals himself in due time, but even though the name of the film is The Killer Inside Me, it's a testament to Casey Affleck's performance that you even have moments of hesitation. He certainly does. He can't be the hero, but depending on your perspective, Ford is either the main character or the villain of this new adaptation of the pulp novel by Jim Thompson, often called "The Dimestore Dostoevsky" during his career. Most of his novels are rough around the edges and for mid-century readers, had to be among the darkest stories around. Hollywood has taken chances on Thompson's books before; you are probably familiar with The Getaway or The Grifters or both. He also worked on screenplays for Stanley Kubrick, writing two of his early classics, The Killing and Paths of Glory. This book was adapted once before, back in the 1970s, but obviously there's less hiding from Lou Ford's depravity 35 years later. Ford is a sad, twisted man who, unfortunately, enforces the law for a living. Even in the Central City, Texas, which is smaller than it even sounds, Lou Ford is the wrong kind of man to have behind a badge. What's worse is, on the clock, he's exactly who you'd want doing the job - focused, intelligent, decisive. But by the time he slugs Joyce, which is only part of his offense that night, the fuse is already lit and there's not much time left before the deputy explodes. The race against time surrounds Ford. His steady girl (Kate Hudson) suspects the affair, his fellow peace officers know something is up, and Ford finds himself retreating into his own head, where his fascination with blurring the lines between sex and violence began. That's not exactly therapeutic for him, either.

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John Hillcoat Remaking Film Noir 'Le Cercle Rouge'?

Director John Hillcoat probably didn't get a fair shake with the release of The Road. The Weinsteins never put it in more than 400 theaters in the US, and even though it didn't cost that much - $25 million - that's about all it brought in worldwide. Hillcoat certainly didn't get a fair shake with Promised Land, which saw financing dry up even though he had acquired Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Ryan Gosling, Shia LaBeouf, Paul Dano, and Michael Shannon.

But it looks like he's rebounding rather nicely, grabbing Christian Bale for The Revenant, which he'll start shooting soon, and now The Playlist says he has another film lined up, this time a remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 French film noir, Le Cercle Rouge. The original is a heist picture, but it doesn't really follow the traditional formula. It is, however, a great opportunity for a remake, which is why this isn't the first stab anyone's taken at revisiting it. John Woo, who is a huge fan of the film, was set to do a remake a few years ago, and another version was to star Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson. Both fell apart.

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New 'Killer Inside Me' Poster and Trailer

If you missed it over the weekend, we shared a storyabout director Michael Winterbottom's views of the violence in The Killer Inside Me, due on VOD and in theaters on June 18th. Now there's both a new UK poster and a US trailer, and I recommend you take a couple minutes and check them out.

Click to Enlarge Empire has the the new poster, and if you think there's a menacing look in Casey Affleck's eyes there, watch the trailer. Odds are, if you're a semi-regular reader of The Big Picture, you're up to speed on what this is all about: Affleck's a small town sheriff in Texas who abuses not just his power but women, as well. The knockaround of Jessica Alba in particular drew a hostile Q & A crowd at Sundance. Winterbottom didn't shy from the conflict in the film or in the audience, and I think he has a very relevant point, as does German master of the uncomfortable Michael Haneke, when he makes a film like this. Why are we OK with massive amounts of violence at a distance, but fewer victims up close sounds the alarm?

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Director Defends Graphic 'Killer Inside Me' Violence

One of the summer movies I'm looking forward to the most is The Killer Inside Me. Some of that's personal; I went to high school in Tulsa, where much of the film is shot, and which has one of the finest collections of standing art deco architecture in the country, featured throughout the movie. It's also where I found the book when I was a kid, by the great pulp novelist Jim Thompson.

Beyond that, though, I really admire director Michael Winterbottom. I don't love his films as a general rule, but I certainly think he makes them differently than most people, and he refuses to fit inside a little box about what contemporary film should be. This one contains, from what we've heard, almost unspeakable violence. I believe part of the reaction to the movie is because it's violence against women, the same way we'd cringe if we saw children or dogs being beaten in films. When it's a fairer fight, people tend to care less about the bloodshed. In an interview with The Guardian, Winterbottom defended his film. Rachel cooke, who spoke to the director, lays out the case against the movie's violence, detailing the now-infamous slugging of Jessica Alba by Casey Affleck. Cooke calls it, "a sickeningly protracted scene in which, so far as I can recall, facial bones crunch repeatedly to the sound of classical music and Lou's girlish, high-pitched voice ('Hold on, sweetheart,' he murmurs soothingly, as he hits her. 'It's almost over.')"

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Dark New Trailer for 'The Killer Inside Me'

There was a brutal five-minute promo for The Killer Inside Me that debuted a few months ago. All you need to know if you didn't see it is that Jessica Alba can take a punch, over and over again. Yes, it's just Casey Affleck, but it was still a tough thing to sit through.

The new trailer for a very twisted story - and from the Sundance reviews, a twisted film, as well - goes the other direction completely. While you never trust the crazy look in Affleck's eye, you surely don't see the same shocking footage from the previous video. Having said that, it looks great, I think, and director Michael Winterbottom seems to draw quite a bit out of his two leads and maybe something out of Kate Hudson we haven't seen in a while, too. Great music, great editing - I think this one has just identified itself as being a little different.

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