THE PAPERBOY: TENNESEE WILLIAMS ON STEROIDS
The audience walking out of a recent screening of Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy” didn’t know WHAT to think. Some were repelled by the white trash vulgarity of the oversexed sweaty characters and others were mesmerized. Some seemed EMBARRASSED to admit they liked it! In the movie, it’s 1969 in Florida and Matthew McConaughey plays a reporter with a lurid dark side and Zac Efron is his sex-obsessed younger brother. John Cusack plays the most revolting character of all – a deranged prisoner who might be innocent of murder. Nicole Kidman is the desperate floozy who wants to marry her prison pen pal. Mix all this up with thick southern accents (especially Macy Gray the narrator) swamp dwellers, and racial tension, and you have a poisonous stew. But the movie is funny at times, surprisingly compelling, and you cannot take your eyes away. Some might call it lowbrow, but it’s entertaining.