Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 30 May

Jeff Nichols / USA / 2012 / 130 min

Jeff Nichols’ Mud, is immediately familiar. It recalls two classic cinematic tales of lost innocence (Stand by Me and Whistle Down the Wind), as well as Mark Twain’s literary icons of American childhood, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It’s a tale of two friends, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) whose initiation to the harsh realities of adulthood is unwittingly presided over by the eponymous fugitive (Matthew McConaughey).

It’s a simple and somewhat contrived plot but that doesn’t diminish its power. The underlying themes of love and loss, fathers and sons, trust and deceit, and the opposing lures of freedom and revenge are universal and, for the most part, deftly explored. The acting is exceptional throughout, with a magnetic and faintly menacing McConaughey giving a career best performance and Sheridan astonishing as the sensitive Ellis. Mud also parallels Twain in the key role played by the rural landscape. Set in the wilds of Arkansas, it offers a snapshot of a dying way of life amongst the houseboats and subsistence fishermen who eke out a living from the land. The setting makes for a stunning and authentic view of America, and delivers two of the film’s recurring motifs: the freedom of the open water is an irresistible lure, but the risk of deadly snakes is never far from the surface.