Directed by:
Shane AtkinsonScreenplay:
Shane AtkinsonCinematography:
Mingjue HuCast:
John Magaro, Steve Zahn, Dylan Baker, Galadriel Stineman, Matthew Del Negro, Brad Leland, Emily Pendergast, Bob Clendenin, Megan Stevenson, Rio Alexander (more)Plots(1)
Ray Jepsen (John Magaro) is a humble co-owner of a hardware store who still can’t believe he managed to marry local beauty queen Stacy-Lynn. When his private investigator friend, Skip (Steve Zahn), reveals to Ray that Stacy-Lynn is having an affair, Ray decides to kill himself. He secures a gun and goes to a seedy motel parking lot to do the deed, but before he can pull the trigger, he is mistaken by a stranger for a low-rent hitman (a sinister Dylan Baker) and given an envelope full of cash and an address. Desperate to win back his self-respect and his wife, Ray decides to take the job — but soon wishes he had just killed himself. Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Shane Atkinson, LaRoy is a quirky black crime comedy filled with eccentric characters, memorable performances, and wild twists. Well-crafted and deftly paced, this strikingly odd and menacing tale of betrayal, greed, and sacrifice will stick with you. (Tribeca Film Festival)
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Reviews (2)
LaRoy, a backwater in Texas that smells slightly of the Coens, but don't look for the famous directing duo this time. Shane Atkinson comes through with a strong feature debut, where you can see the inspiration from other black-humor crime films, but his own voice doesn't waver in the process, as he holds his script firmly in hand. I found myself while watching it just waiting for the comedy-crime to get unleashed, only that nothing like that happens. There are no dead ends or dragging. On the contrary, there are elements of a novel buddy movie with an original neo-western ending. Maybe that's why this first feature was nodded by a bunch of quality actors who often only play sidekicks for Hollywood stars, but whose faces you remember damn well (Steve Zahn, John Magaro and especially Dylan Baker).
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Choosing the right tool. A slightly self-promotional motto, which given its proponent cannot be debated, but what if you make a mistake in the selection? A sleepy neo-noir about a naive weakling trying to show off his cojones. But when the current fodder for flies is presented to the queen, won’t it be cold soon? It aimed to approach the Texases and Minnesotas of its more famous counterparts, but Shane Atkinson hasn’t yet mastered those characters in varying degrees of corruption with the same fatal and tragicomic touch. I understand that the killer played by Dylan Baker was meant to deceive with his elderly appearance, but the author might as well polish a bomb to a slaughterhouse pistol based on the initial recommendation in the comment.
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