A small Texas town, a broken sad-sack husband, an over-the-top detective, a hometown beauty pageant queen, a professional hitman – mix in some sleazy businessmen, a stripper, and a safe full of money…what could go wrong?
This is LaRoy, Texas, where you can almost hear the tumbleweeds rolling across the dusty landscape. Ray (John Magaro) works at his family’s hardware store with his brother, Junior (Matthew del Negro) and the only thing Ray cares about is making his wife, Stacy Lynn (Megan Stevenson), happy. But there are only two things that make Stacy Lynn happy-one, you’ll find out when you watch the movie, and the other is the idea of owning her own salon. Ray is broke but promises he will somehow get the money for her salon.
Parked in the parking lot of a seedy hotel, feeling low and likely about to do himself in, a stranger gets in his car and mistakes Ray for the hitman this he is supposed to meet up with. Ray decides to play the part so he can get that salon and make his wife happy. What follows is a crazy neo-western, dark comedy with characters who don’t trust each other, others who want redemption, and still others needing to prove themselves or find something worth living for.
Premiering at the Tribeca Festival, Shane Atkinson’s debut film is both drama and comedy; an homage to the Coen brothers, filled with hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments and unexpected tragedy. The cast is perfect, especially Steve Zahn as Skip, the outrageous cowboy (complete with cowboy hat and bolo tie), private detective who befriends Ray as they team up and try to uncover all the secrets and mysteries surrounding the safe and the money and all the people involved in the underlying seediness of this small town.
Steve Zahn as the positive, funny, wanting-to-do-the-right thing hero is a role he excels at and might be my favourite character that he has ever played. John Magaro is great, of course, as the somewhat pitiful protagonist, a role he has played in past performances, and Dylan Baker, playing the role of Harry, never disappoints. His character is the epitome of functional insanity and ruthless killer. Perfection. My only complaint is that he is not in this film nearly enough—at least not for me.
This film was a solid 8/10 for me and I can’t wait to see what Atkinson does next because I know it will be something special.
Thank you so much to Strike Media for graciously providing Moviehooker with the screener.
- Digital Release Date: April 12th
- Director / Writer: Shane Atkinson
- Cast: John Magaro, Steve Zahn, Dylan Baker, Megan Stevenson, Matthew Del Negro & Brad Leland
- Run Time: 110 Minutes
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