With the runaway success of True Blood, swamp trash have become if not fashionable exactly, at least absurdly popular. Consider Beautiful Creatures or trucker hats. Couple the overheated pulp of Peter Dexter’s novel to Nicole Kidman’s overheated performance and The Paperboy takes hold like a starving vampire in the dead of night.

Ward (a career defining Matthew McConaughey) and Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) are sons of a regional newspaper man; the former is a reporter based in Miami, the latter a budding writer. Investigating a bungled murder in his home town, Ward's probing unleashes a string of horrific events that are as provocative as they are compelling under the scorching direction of Lee Daniels (Precious).

Jack’s infatuation with a white trash local (Nicole Kidman in superior form), who is herself infatuated with the psychopath Ward is interviewing (John Cusack), complicates matters that take an even darker turn when Ward is brutally beaten in a bar and the killer goes on a rampage. Watching events unfold (somewhat inexplicably) is the Jansen’s put upon maid (Macy Gray).

The Paperboy dropped under the radar after its Cannes launch last year. Surprising, given this roller-coaster pot-boiler divided audiences who were uncertain where the ride will take them, or if they wanted to go there at all. It's as if they lost interest which is a mystery if you consider the steamy plot-line, McConaughey’s compromised journo, ‘toxic’ Nicole's promiscuity, Zac’s lusty, tight-white advances and formidable performances from all concerned. Let's not forgetting the black, English reporter running his own agenda.

While this lacks the precision of Precious and Daniels' seems fairly uncertain where he's going most of the time, he gives his entire cast memorable roles in a film that is disjointed at worst, fiery at best and in all regards compelling. Do you need any more reasons? For all its faults, The Paperboy is one to watch.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at The Palais, Cannes Film Festival on Thursday 24th May, 2012
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