It is a coming-of-age story, but it is more. There is the Mississippi, you are 14 again, you live with your parents on this house boat. Your father is a fisherman. You don´t know what love is about, it´s still a dream, a far away vision, but you observe it as livechanging, everywhere. And there is your best friend, Neck, he´s cool, as you are (maybe you are a little bit more), although he has this motorbike. And you both can handle a motorboat. Neck discovered an old boat on one of those islands outside, it stucks on a tree, it could be your hiding place, but there turns up this guy with crosses in his footprints. Neck considers him a bum, you dunno (one of your favorite expressions), but your sudden feeling says he´s all right. You like his face, admire his body, and how he moves. There is this wolf´s eye sewed in his shirt which protects him from his prosecutors. You can call him Mud. And there is Junifer, his love for ages, birds tatooted on her hands. You meet her and once, in this shabby motel room, she kisses you on your forehead. Sometimes you wish Mud would be your father or your very older brother, but mostly you want to be his friend. You supply him with food, it´s scary how he eats green beans out of the can you brought from the kitchen at home. You trust him, step by step, you do what he wants, for the sake of friendship and love. And there is this life changing book Neck lends to you. “The confident confidant. Communication with the opposite.” Sometimes communication is violence (not recommended by your book). Trespass. You dunno what´s all about. You stay cool, try to. You never know who listens, you never know who´s thinking of you.
„Mud“, a film by Jeff Nichols