Skip to main content
Arkansas
*** If you know Clark Duke only as the bespectacled fourth wheel of the Hot Tub Time Machine movies, you might not assume he has a Southern noir in his bag, much less one with the crime-movie literacy of Donnie Brasco and a Flaming Lips soundtrack. Duke's directorial debut, a Lionsgate release redirected to VOD this month, fields a stacked cast of Arkansas drug runners: Liam Hemsworth and Duke as our two flunky protagonists, and Vince Vaughn, John Malkovich, Vivica A. Fox and Michael K. Williams as compelling higher-ups. And what this adaptation of John Brandon's 2009 novel lacks in production value—shot with the overly digital flimsiness of so many streaming originals—it more than makes up for with well-tuned dialogue and acting that embraces a Southern gentility right up until it's bashing those good manners over the head. Replacing the near-gothic seriousness of a True Detective is the loony banality of drug-smuggler movie nights, sweaty man buns, fireworks emporiums and Vince Vaughn spending probably half the movie's budget on flamboyant Western button-downs. Despite an epic structure that jumps through time, Arkansas remains light on its feet and successfully normalizes criminal life by presenting the same unreliable co-workers, thankless chores and finite shelf lives of any other profession. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime, iTunes, On Demand.
