Mud: Why were my summer childhood adventures so boring?

I walked out of my final college exam to realise that summer had indeed started, but it definitely didn't feel like it. Gone are the summer days where I had nothing I needed to do and I could do anything I wanted. I sometimes look back at those days and wish I could have done more with them. But the reality is that you can never go back to those days, albeit watching those summer coming-of-age tales are normally a pretty good way to harness some nostalgia, and so it was that I sought out the latest Matthew McConaughey vehicle, Mud.


Set in the Mississippi river area of Arkansas, Mud follows the story of a boy named Ellis and his friend Neckbone as they try to help a fugitive named Mud.  From the first time I heard this premise I was skeptical, I mean it sounds really like an interpretation of Huckleberry Finn, but the beauty in Arkansas native Jeff Nichols directing is that the film seems to fully acknowledge this and build upon it, going places that Huckleberry Finn never thought to go. Mud is not a slave running away from the sort of bondage that befouled this country two hundred years ago, although both characters run from the law. Instead, Mud seems to be running away from certain truths about his own life, and it is here that the movie is such a compelling coming of age tale.

We watch as Ellis finds his perspectives on love, marriage, and even his family's way of life as river-dwelling fishermen challenged time and time again, and actor Tyle Sheridan , who plays Ellis, manages to produce an incredibly stirring performance. In fact, I'd have to look really hard to find a major role in this film that wasn't played to perfection as Reese Witherspoon and Michael Shannon put in equally solid performances.

Matthew McConaughey is fantastic as Mud, a character with just enough spunk and weirdness as to bring out that slightly crazy, edgy, and comedic acting that makes McConaughey so effective. There's a sort of grit that emanates from the man that is perfectly replicated in all other aspects of the movie, including its setting. It seems that Nichols has made the river-dwelling way of life as much a character in this film as anyone else. It is on, by, and through the river that so much of the film's plot moves forward.

 Mud's destiny in particular , seems to be tied to the river's ebb and flow with the plot, and we can't help but hope that he succeeds, making one final escape from all life's problems and those of the river, out to sea.