Mud

An extraordinary coming-of-age film that explores love, chivalry and masculinity to beautiful effect. It all feels so organic and comes together so naturally - Nichols has a gift for storytelling that always puts character first but never obscures his themes. McConaughey once again demonstrates that he's the most interesting star working right now.

The lasting appeal of Nichols previous works just rubs off on the film and its uniformly excellent cast, their absorbing narrative and vivid imagery having been streamlined into an agreeably well-paced, tender coming-of-age tale. His next film is being described as a "government chase film with a sci-fi bent"; I'm sold.

It's slow-paced but beautiful, with the scenery pretty much being a character by itself. Luckily Mud and Ellis are compelling leads, and the rest of the cast fleshes out the rest of the backbone of the movie. McConaughey gives a wonderful performance (and still manages to take off his shirt), and when the shit hits the fan at the end, it's more intense because of the tone of the rest of the film. It's hard to not feel something by the end.

You know a movie has you under its spell when you sit in silence for hours mulling its meaning through your mind. Mud is a spellbinding experience that plays like a Terrence Malick version of a Mark Twain story. There is a lived-in quality to the film that lends it a feeling of authenticity, and its penetrating look at the definition of love is both invigorating and disturbing. The cast is uniformly great, but towering over them all is a mesmerizing McConaughey, with his best work as an actor.

A modern day Huckleberry Finn displayed through a mild Southern Gothic filter. Nichols seems to love this setting, beautifully photographing life on the river, warts and all. The story is a simple enough fable and generally doesn't feel too heavy-handed in its coming-of-age messages, though I don't feel like the ending works quite as well as the earlier material, tending to be a bit too over-the-top. The performances from the kids are surprisingly good and McConaughey continues his hot streak.