2007, 96 minutes
w/ Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon & Harry Connick Jr.
[Ashley Judd gives one of the year's best performances thus far in Friedkin's adaptation of Terry Letts' play, Oklahoma drawl and all. She alone makes the picture worth seeing, bursting with energy but depressingly hopeless and Friedkin most impressively is able to contrast her beauty with lighting and Judd's acting rather than make up. While marketed as a psychological thriller or horror, the film really can't be pigeon holed into any one genre for better or for worse. Believe it or not I never really was in suspense during the picture, just interest, and while building up quite nicely I hate to report that the last act was handled a bit clumsily: Judd and her paranoid partner Michael Shannon twitchily discuss their political conspiracty theories that are the cause for the bug infestation inside Judd's small home, and as intense as it is, at some point it bubbles over the top and while Friedkin employs a clever device for one of the final scenes, it's executed rather cheesily. Obviously not touching his Best Picture winner The French Connection or paranoia classic The Manchurian Candidate, Bug is at least leagues better than the similar Vacancy and the 2004 Manchurian remake.]
**3/4
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