On the bottom rung of the southern fried drug gangs, crime can sometimes be a career choice
Arkansas Cert TBC; digital download from July 13
This week brings two films based around the ever-relevant topic of why young men turn to crime. Clark Duke’s directorial debut deals with the subject in a somewhat light-hearted fashion and it works on a lot of levels, especially its impressive cast.
Some have described it as a little slow; I feel that the issue is more that not quite enough happens. However, I did very much enjoy a lot about this original take on an old story.
The film opens on Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) explaining in voiceover that his philosophy is not to have a philosophy. Almost immediately, we witness one of the first accidents that will define his future and see him promoted to the bottom rung of a drug-dealing ladder in Arkansas.
Kyle is under no illusion about the glamour of either his role or the environment in which it happens. A southern crime family is nothing like a crime family anywhere else, he explains, it’s just a lot of criminals out for themselves.
The first of five chapters begins with Kyle and his new and unchosen partner in crime, Swin (Duke), who is as wise-cracking as Kyle is surly. They have nothing in common other than wondering about the identity of their mythical boss, Frog. On their first run, they are stopped by Park Ranger Bright (John Malkovich), who works for Frog and is their new boss. They will live in the park, masquerading as junior rangers, and do their drug runs from there, via another intermediary called Her (Vivica A Fox).
The next chapter takes us back 30 years to explain how Frog (Vince Vaughn) got into his role as drug kingpin, and the rest of the story is told back and forth until the two time-frames meet.
Kyle and Swin are both lucky and unlucky with the series of events that befall them, and a lot of what we expect to happen, thanks to the tropes of this genre, does not happen. A small example is that it is not the beauteous Hemsworth who gets the girl (Eden Brolin).
A lot of it works — but there is not really enough plot to make the story feel meaty; certain parts stretch a bit thin, and that can feel slow. But the performances are great and overall, I enjoyed the vaguely Logan Lucky atmosphere of this interesting debut.