It’s that weird time of year in the movie world where we transition from big summer blockbusters to the more serious Oscar contenders. The summer movie season is currently gasping for air, as people who still haven’t seen “The Dark Knight Rises” are catching up with that film, while “The Expendables 2,” “The Bourne Legacy,” and “The Campaign” pick up the table scraps that remain, hoping to climb above that crucial $100 million mark.

Traditionally, there’s nothing too much to get excited about during the last weekends of August. This week sees the release of “Hit & Run,” a Dax Shepard-directed action film featuring Bradley Cooper with the worst white dreadlocks since John Travolta’s hammy Psychlo in “Battlefield Earth.” This film has been described as “moronic.”

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Another big studio release this weekend is “The Apparition,” an “awful” PG-13 ghost story that borrows liberally from tons of better films and stars Ashley Greene from the “Twilight” movies.

Liberty Hall is opening “Safety Not Guaranteed,” an indie flick starring Mark Duplass, Aubrey Plaza (NBC’s “Parks & Recreation”) and Jake M. Johnson (FOX’s “New Girl”) that approaches time travel from a unique perspective. Since it’s not a big-budget film with lots of special effects, it’s really about “lost individuals … looking for meaning in a world that’s done it’s best to beat the hopefulness out of them.”

However, one studio film that doesn’t necessarily soar but is a fun little diversion for 90 minutes is “Premium Rush,” a movie that I like to call the “Top Gun” of bike messenger flicks. Like the rebellious fighter pilots of that iconic 80s movie, “Premium Rush” glorifies a specific societal subset. New York City bike messengers have their own subculture in this breezy film — and even hang out at a bike messenger bar. (Of course they do.)

Bike messengers get off on how dangerous their work is. They take pride in being faster than everyone else, and treat every delivery as a personal challenge. Of course, the reckless Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the best of the best. Sound familiar?

Wilee takes pride in not having a suit-and-tie desk job. He’s happy risking his life every day ignoring traffic laws on the busy streets. In addition to a dumb rivalry with another messenger, Wilee’s also got a dirty cop, played by Michael Shannon, chasing him down to steal his latest delivery.

The movie is at its best during exciting action scenes while Wilee’s on the run and during the twisty backstory of his valuable envelope. Once its contents are revealed, it’s a bit heavy-handed, but when the film isn’t taking itself seriously, it’s easy to overlook big coincidences and plot holes–especially when Michael Shannon is onscreen.

Shannon’s villain is a hoot — all jerky movements and random outbursts. Like Jeffrey Jones in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” this imploding bad guy is somewhat of a threat, but mostly exists to highlight how together our hero is. Shannon gives his run-of-the-mill dialogue an unusually campy kick and single-handedly keeps “Premium Rush” entertaining when it could have been routine.

The real discovery of the week, however, is an NC-17 movie that’s only showing in Kansas City right now. Let’s hope it makes its way to Liberty Hall soon.

Adapted from Tracy Letts’ play by the playwright himself, “Killer Joe” is a dark comedy neo-noir that crosses the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” (keeping the half-baked money scheme but ditching frigid northern country for the deep-fried south) with Elia Kazan’s “Baby Doll” (although abandoning Tennessee Williams’ underage lust-fantasy innuendo in favor of a more direct approach), and presents characters so stupid and morally repugnant that you start rooting for a stone-cold killer.

As the title character — a Dallas detective who moonlights as a killer-for-hire, Matthew McConaughey is startling. His usual smooth delivery is instead honed sharp and deadly, like his facial bone structure. There are hints of lewdness beneath his menacing veneer, but it’s all couched in confidence and good manners. Even though the movie is dark, violent, and disturbingly funny, I’d love to see this performance remembered come Oscar time next year.

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Besides being an overheated redneck soap opera, “Killer Joe” also emerges as a true edge-of-your-seat thriller, but not for the reasons you might expect. It isn’t an intricately plotted puzzle that unfolds at the perfect pace for suspense. Rather, it establishes an unsettling air of frenzied anarchy; a feeling that anything can happen at any given moment. The plot subverts traditional suspense and normalcy is way out of reach–like two key characters to the plot that are almost never seen onscreen at all.

It’s a trashy, pulpy guilty pleasure for sure, but “Killer Joe,” directed by William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) upends convention at every turn. It isn’t afraid to employ shock tactics and joyfully roll around in the mud.

Not only does it give you the depraved, campy kicks you didn’t know you needed, but it might even work on a whole different level, reaching some bizarre brand of actual poignancy by the end.