Mud

Mud is a 2012 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Jeff Nichols. In the film, Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland portray a pair of teenagers who encounter the eponymous Mud (Matthew McConaughey), a fugitive hiding on a small island, and agree to help him evade his pursuers. Sam Shepard and Reese Witherspoon also star. Mud competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013. It opened on April 26, 2013 with a limited release in select theaters, before having a wide release on May 10. Mud performed well at the box office, grossing $32.6 million on a $10 million budget, and received critical acclaim. Plot Ellis and Neckbone, two teenage boys living near DeWitt, Arkansas, are excited to find an abandoned boat on a small island in the Mississippi River. However, the boat is already inhabited by a man named Mud, whom the boys encounter a short time later. Mud, a disheveled but charismatic vagrant, tells the boys he grew up nearby and asks for some food, promising them the boat in exchange once he's gone. Returning with food, the boys ask Mud why he is hiding out. Mud is waiting for his girlfriend Juniper, whom he describes as beautiful, with distinctive nightingale tattoos on her hands. The boys later spot Juniper in town. Ellis falls for an older girl named May Pearl.