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ARKANSAS
Director: Clark Duke Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Vince Vaughn, Clark Duke, John Malkovich, Eden Brolin, Michael Kenneth Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Chandler Duke, Brad William Henke, Jeff Chase MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:57 Release Date: 5/5/20 (digital & on-demand; DVD & Blu-ray) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 4, 2020 On a story level, Arkansas is about several things—two low-level drug dealers rising through the ranks via accidents and coincidences, the history of the cartel's mysterious leader, juxtaposing those two tales in the buildup to a final series of confrontations. In terms of tone, though, the movie is about one thing: attitude. Co-writer/director Clark Duke is dead set on a very specific attitude for his debut feature, and it's the distinct feeling that everyone is too cool for everything going on around them. The screenplay by Duke and Andrew Boonkrong (based on John Brandon's novel) presents a few challenges in the way it tries to juggle multiple characters and timelines throughout a story that, on the surface, seems character-focused—even if it just relates a string of events. The movie's decisively nonchalant tone only adds another, miscalculated, and ultimately too-distancing layer to that story. The main plot involves Kyle (Liam Hemsworth), who traffics drugs for a crime ring in the South, and fellow trafficker Swin (Duke). The two end up working out a state park, overseen by Bright (John Malkovich), a ranger who also works for the syndicate. After accidentally leading a rival home, the two men become de facto within the operation, although they have no clue if the big boss knows, approves, or wants them dead. The central gag here is that this regional brand of organized crime "isn't very organized." Meanwhile, through flashbacks, we learn how Frog (Vince Vaughn), the current head of the drug operation, came into power. The dynamic between these two narrative threads—the two guys being mostly passive successes and Frog being an active one—is theoretically intriguing. There's also a potentially suspenseful piece of dramatic irony in knowing how close Kyle and Swin are to the man who could determine their fates. It all exists, though, as a series of loose ideas. There's an admirable level of confidence in Duke's dedication to a specific tone, his willingness to allow the narrative to ebb and flow at its own idiosyncratic pace, and his attention to the characters, as shallowly quirky as they may be, in the midst of so much plot. The overriding feeling of Arkansas, though, is of watching a bunch of things happen to and around a group of people who don't seem to care too much about any of it. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for
violence, language throughout, drug material and brief nudity)
