Birmingham, Alabama director Daniel Scheinert serves up a hilarious version of redneck hell in his dramatic comedy The Death of Dick Long. The man who brought you Daniel Radcliffe’s flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man has set out to up his game, and he has succeeded.
Zeke Olson (Michael Abbott Jr.) and Earl Wyeth (Andre Hyland) are the methed-out Bill and Ted of rural Alabama: Confederate flag waving, PBR drinking, pickup truck driving back-country idiots. They are best friends with Dick Long until one night after “band” practice (mostly classic rock, they are terrible, and they cover Nickelback) Earl asks Zeke and Dick if they want to get weird. These boys know how to party, and they take horsing around to a professional level.
“…Confederate flag waving, PBR drinking, pickup truck driving back-country idiots.”
There are a series of quick cuts as they smoke up, drink, shoot guns, and then, without explanation, driving Zeke’s station wagon with Dick unconscious in the back seat bleeding profusely. They drop him off in the driveway of a local ER, grab his wallet so he can’t be identified, and make a mad dash into the woods. Doctor Richter (Roy Wood Jr.) sees the body in the driveway and scrambles to bring him in, but alas, Dick cannot be saved. The trio is now a duo, and we must assume Dick had been the brains of the operation.
The rest of the movie boils down to Zeke and Earl versus smarter, no bullshit women trying to figure what the hell happened and where Dick is. Zeke’s wife and young daughter, Dick’s wife, and two female police officers are all suspicious. Zeke and Earl are outmatched and outsmarted at every turn. Admittedly, the bar is pretty low.
There’s a twist in the middle of the film that changes the whole vibe. If you have a remote, you’ll hit pause and “WTF” for a minute before going on. Scheinert drops the perfect mix of disgusting and funny (and disgusting).
"…"Zeke and Earl are outmatched and outsmarted at every turn.""
[…] city, Alabama-set comedy to be a “delirious and entertaining dumbshit backwoods noir.” And Film Threat‘s Bradley Gibson is impressed by how “Scheinert adroitly conveys both the pathos and the […]
[…] town, Alabama-set comedy to be a “delirious and entertaining dumbshit backwoods noir.” And Film Threat‘s Bradley Gibson is impressed by how “Scheinert adroitly conveys both the pathos and the […]
[…] city, Alabama-set comedy to be a “delirious and entertaining dumbshit backwoods noir.” And Film Threat‘s Bradley Gibson is impressed by how “Scheinert adroitly conveys each the pathos and the […]