Movie Review: Small Town Crime

Small Town Crime *** / *****

Directed by: Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms.

Written by: Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms.

Starring: John Hawkes (Mike Kendall), Anthony Anderson (Teddy Banks), Octavia Spencer (Kelly Banks), Robert Forster (Steve Yendel), Clifton Collins Jr. (Mood), Jeremy Ratchford (Orthopedic), James Lafferty (Tony Lama), Michael Vartan (Detective Crawford), Daniel Sunjata (Detective Whitman), Don Harvey (Randy), Stefanie Scott (Ivy), Caity Lotz (Heidi), Dale Dickey (Leslie), Michelle Lang (Tina), Stefania Barr (Kristy), Victor Medina (Fredrico), Sean Carrigan (Julian), Adam Johnson (Oliver).

 

The new neo-noir film Small Town Crime stars John Hawkes as an alcoholic ex-cop, who will eventually decide that maybe becoming a private investigator would be more his speed. That way he can drink to excess, and not have to obey any of those pesky laws cops are supposed to follow. The film honestly feels almost like a pilot episode of the type of cop show you may see on AMC or FX or HBO – and may well be very good. Hawkes, in particular, is very good in the movie – he’s pretty much the whole reason to see the film, which otherwise feels rather one-dimensional, with a case at its core that frankly isn’t all that interesting or tricky to figure out. Still, if they announced today that yes, this really was just a pilot, and a new show was debuting soon – or that this was going to launch a series of Mike Kendall mysteries movies with Hawkes, I’d gladly watch the result.

 

Hawkes’ Mike Kendall is a drunk, who we first see passed out in his house, while outside his hot road is parked on the lawn, having mowed down the white picket fence surrounding it. All Kendall wants to do is get back on the police force – but that isn’t likely to happen, as he was drunk on duty when an shooting ending up killing three people, and while its debatable as to if the result would be different if he were sober, it’s still not a good look. He will happily keep cashing his unemployment checks and go drinking every night – especially since his adoptive sister Kelly (Octavia Spencer), and her husband (and Kendall’s drinking buddy) Teddy (Anthony Anderson) are willing to help cover the mortgage.

 

But things change early one morning when Kendall wakes up in the desert, and as he’s driving back to town, finds a young woman who has been brutally beaten, and left at the side of the road to die. He takes her to the hospital, where a couple of former colleagues thank Kendall, but tell him to stay out of the way of what becomes a murder investigation. Kendall, of course, will not – and eventually makes friends with the girl’s rich grandfather (Robert Forster), who isn’t happy that his granddaughter is dead, even if she had become a drug addicted prostitute. Eventually, Kendall will come in contact with more and more unsavory people, and a bigger conspiracy than he realizes.

 

To be honest, most of the plot of the movie seems to be on autopilot – a dead prostitute means eventually we’ll be introduced to other prostitutes, at least one pimp, and sooner or later, the rich men who want to keep their dalliances with said prostitutes quiet. You know the drill, and Small Town Crime doesn’t deviate from it. There are also characters here that don’t seem to make a lot of sense, and are often jettisoned for large chunks of the plot – like Octavia Spencer, too good for her pretty much meaningless, small role. The film, written and directed by brothers Eshom and Ian Nelms has an interesting character at its core, and not a lot else.

 

But that character is interesting, and in the role, John Hawkes delivers a fine performance. Hawkes has been around for years now – often playing morally compromised characters that you still feel a degree of sympathy with. He’s one of those guys who makes me think of Roger Ebert old Walsh/Stanton rule that said that “any movie that featured either M. Emmett Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton cannot be all bad”. We should probably hate Kendall, but we don’t – mainly because Hawkes keeps him so interesting. The rest of the movie is a by-the-numbers, indie neo-noir – well done as far as it goes, but nothing too exciting. Hawkes makes it better than it really has any business being.

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Movie Review: Sweet Virginia

Sweet Virginia *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jamie M. Dagg   

Written by: Benjamin China & Paul China.

Starring: Jon Bernthal (Sam), Christopher Abbott (Elwood), Imogen Poots (Lila), Rosemarie DeWitt (Bernadette), Jared Abrahamson (Paul Anderson), Odessa Young (Maggie), Darcy Laurie (Marty Petrowne), Joseph Lyle Taylor (Tom Barrett).

 

Jon Bernthal has one of the most relaxed screen presence I can recall – making him perfect for a movie like Sweet Virginia, a combination of noir and western, set in contemporary Alaska. Bernthal plays Sam – a former rodeo star, who now owns and operates a local motel – and it’s to his credit, that I can easily imagine Bernthal being any of those things. In fact, in almost every role I see Bernthal play, I can often imagine him doing, quiet, normal guy labor – it’s one of his charms. The same is kind of true for Rosemarie DeWitt - who here plays Bernadette, who is having an affair with Sam behind her husband’s back. The two have an easy chemistry together, and share one of the most natural sex scenes I can recall. They are perfectly suited for each other – and this movie.

 

Because this is a noir though, we know things are going to be happy – in fact, we know that before we meet either Sam or Bernadette. The film opens in a bar, where a stranger – Elwood (Christopher Abbott) shows up, and continually tries to order the breakfast special, despite being told by the three men in the bar that they are closed. He leaves, but comes back quickly – shooting, and killing all three men. It turns out that Elwood is a killer for hire, hired by Lila (Imogen Poots), the wife of one of the men killed – because she wants his money. She’s horrified that Elwood killed two other men – including her friend’s husband (her friend being Bernadette). Lila needs her husband’s money (which turns out to be non-existent) in order to pay for his murder – so as she tries to stall Elwood, he stays at the motel owned by Sam – and the two kind of bond – although that’s mainly because Elwood won’t leave Sam alone, and Sam is too nice to complain.

 

Abbott has become an interesting actor in the last few years – but admittedly, sometimes he needs to calm down a little bit. Here, he plays a bundle of nervous energy – and ratchets the intensity of his performance up a little too much. He would likely be the prime suspect in the murders just for being weird, let alone the fact that he seems to be the only person around not everyone knows (it is a small town, of course) – but no one seems to notice him (to be fair, I don’t think the police factor in the movie at all – so they clearly don’t notice anything). Abbott here is clearly trying to contrast himself to Bernthal and his relaxed performance. He could have relaxed just a little bit though – and delivered an even better performance.

 

The film was directed by Jamie M. Dagg, who prefers his movies dark – literally – as most of the film takes place at night, much of the time in rooms where no one has though to turn on a light. It works for this type of story, and really does help to build the atmosphere. We know from the opening scenes where the film is going to end up – this is very much a classic noir setup, and has a classic noir payoff as well. It doesn’t really do anything new in that regard. But it does everything so well, that you don’t really care. And when the film focuses on Bernthal a DeWitt together, it actually builds one of the most quietly believable relationships I’ve seen in a movie this year.

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