Directed by Lee Daniels • 2012 • United States
Starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey
Lee Daniels’s follow-up to his breakthrough feature PRECIOUS is a deliciously pulpy, swamp-steamy slice of Southern gothic delirium featuring an all-star cast led by Matthew McConaughey, playing a reporter who returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death-row inmate (John Cusack) and stumbles into a hotbed of lust, crime, and racial tension. Costarring Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray, this fascinatingly perverse hothouse noir has continued to divide audiences ever since its notorious Cannes premiere.
Up Next in Southern Gothic
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Wild at Heart
Directed by David Lynch • 1990 • United States
Starring Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Willem DafoeDavid Lynch throws pulp melodrama, THE WIZARD OF OZ, surreal-kinky violence, and Elvis into a cauldron and brews this nightmarish soap opera in which outlaw lovers Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura...
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Written on the Wind
Directed by Douglas Sirk • 1956 • United States
Starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert StackThe Technicolor expressionism of Douglas Sirk reached a fever pitch with this operatic tragedy, which finds the director pushing his florid visuals and his critiques of American culture to their sub...
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The Long, Hot Summer
Directed by Martin Ritt • 1958 • United States
Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson WellesSex, pyromania, and epic family drama heat up this southern-gothic scorcher adapted from three works by William Faulkner. In his first screen pairing opposite his soon-to-be wife Joanne Woodward, P...
