Mud

MUST SEE: Jeff Nichols' Mud (US, 2012) - A conventional narrative may be a rarity in Cannes competition this year, but Jeff Nichols’ Mud makes no apologies for its classic storytelling. A confident, nuanced, richly satisfying coming-of-age story which is part Huckleberry Finn, part Badlands, the film is another illustration that Nichols is becoming one of the most assured US auteurs at work today. / If "Take Shelter" embodied man's crushing inability to cope with forces beyond his control, and "Shotgun Stories" examined a blood feud from the side of those in the wrong, then ascending writer-director Jeff Nichols blends the turbulent waters of the former with the dirty dealings of the latter to make "Mud." Confidently expanding his inquiry into the essence of American masculinity, Nichols' latest pressure-cooker pastoral conjures a wily figure of endangered Southern chivalry whose name is … you guessed it. Sturdy turns from Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon should support a wide release, curbed somewhat by pic's unhurried pace and heavy regional temperament. 2012CANic, 2013SUN. RATING: 8.