Mud Reviews

All the women in this movie are shrews, liars and/or emasculators.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

Mud is as unmoving as it is because it doesn't aspire to be anything other than a competent anti-fairy tale in which the paint-by-number morals are enforced by equally obvious main protagonists.

Full Review | Original Score: C

What sounds like Huckleberry Finn on the page, however, ends up like a stock melodrama onscreen.

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Other than pacing problems that needlessly stretch the film past the two-hour mark, 'Mud' slings the dirt and sweat with the best of them, as it both mourns and celebrates a way of life that's all but disappeared.

Full Review | Original Score: B

Every scene, moment and shot of Mud is spot-on, necessary, and adds to the whole, making for a satisfying film experience that will please many a varied filmgoer's taste.

Full Review | Original Score: A

The disappointing denouement is far outweighed by the overall strength of the journey to that resolution.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Buy a boat in a tree, and you'll buy anything. And so we do in "Mud," Jeff Nichols's yarn about a charming outlaw on the run, drizzled with Tennessee Williams lyricism and Huck-and-Tom adventure.

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Jeff Nichols writes characters with depth, nurtures strong performances form his cast and allows the screenplay's backwater setting to effectively create tone and texture.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

The film ultimately succeeds thanks to small details, from its deep-fried lingo and the swampy texture of its location photography to its uniformly expert cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

I so wish I had the "Wrap It Up" box from Chappelle's Show, because if I could have hit it around the hour and forty five minute mark during Mud, it would have added another star onto my review.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

The movie, like adolescence, is a rich and emotional experience that jolts and jangles with a sense of wonder, mystery and discovery.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

It's rare that films manage to capture the actual experience of what it is like to be a child, but 'Mud' seems to nail the ethos.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

Though it is unlikely that Mud will live up to the expectations of those who were floored by Jeff Nichols' last film Take Shelter, it is still a powerful film in it's own right.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Mud is a captivating drama with well-rounded characters and fantastic performances from its three leads.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10

Thank you Joe Nicholl for reminding me that I don't just love movies for wookies and capes and guys in iron suits. Still pumped for IM3 though.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Mud is, perhaps, a little longer than it needed to be, but few sensitive viewers will begrudge Nichols his indulgence. This director is the real thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

This is American cinema at its very best as Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me.The two boys are terrific and McConaughey is sensational as Mud, dazzlingly frazzled as the hunted and haunted man on the run.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

A stripped back approach to tracking the process of growing up, but lacks the faith to see the plan executed to the end

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

There's an argument to be made that there's a calculated degree of cliché to this sweet, Southern-fried fairytale, that Nichols is paying tribute here to his more mainstream inspirations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

McConaughey, of course, is excellent.

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