Review: Arkansas

If you can look past the obvious influences and get into the film’s slow pace, Arkansas is a southern-set neo-noir that is an overall good time. With a bevy of good performances, a fun non-linear structure, and enough violence to keep you on the edge of your seat, you could do a lot worse in your search for interesting new releases during quarantine. 

When a low-level drug dealer named Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) is promoted, he finds himself paired up with an odd character named Swin (Clark Duke). Together they work under a shady park ranger (John Malcovich) running drugs across state lines. All three of these men work for a mysterious kingpin named Frog (Vince Vaughn) whose criminal origins we see in the movie’s nonlinear flashbacks. Kyle and Swin are given strict instructions to keep to their work and themselves; however, Swin soon strikes up a relationship with a local nurse named Johnna (Eden Brolin). After a deal goes horribly wrong, Kyle and Swin are left on their own and have to figure out how to stay alive without any contact from the rest of the organization. The two’s attempts to stay afloat and Frog’s years of experience are on a crash course. In a world full of scumbags and villains, no one knows what any other person is thinking, and you can’t trust anyone. 

I knew next to nothing about this movie going in. All I did know was that Liam Hemsworth was in it, it was a crime film, and Clark Duke (predominantly known as a comedic actor) co-wrote and directed it. After watching, I’m quite pleased I went in blind, because I had a lot of fun. It’s a quality little neo-noir, with fun characters and pacing. 

The movie’s central relationship between Kyle and Swin unexpectedly worked. I could see the potential set up when they first met; they’re a mix-matched pair. I knew that’s where we were headed, but to my surprise I found myself liking them and the two of them together. As their situation spiraled out of control, the way they handle things together endeared them to me in a way. They never turn on each other and devolve into boring arguing and blaming. They shoot straight with one another, and I appreciated the lack of unnecessary faux-tension. Half of the movie operates as a buddy film and a pretty decent one at that. 

I enjoyed the movie’s non-linear, novel-esque structure. Yes, the movie wears its influences on its sleeve rather proudly. You can particularly throw Tarantino near-abouts the top. But, I don’t count this against it too much though. While it owes a lot to previous movies, it does enough with a structure and genre that we’ve seen before that I can look past its hero worship. It can be blatant at times, but overall, it felt more inspired to me, as opposed to ripping things off wholesale. 

The movie floats back and forth between Kyle and Swin’s story and the Frog’s beginnings in the 1980’s. Each chapter alternates between the two. While Kyle and Swin are likeable, I don’t really think they could have sustained an entire movie, at least with the plot they are given. The lynch-pin of the whole film is Frog. Even when he isn’t around, his presence is felt. Sure, you could chalk this up to him being the unseen heavy, but I attribute a lot of that to Vince Vaughn’s performance. His work was standout here. He has been on a recent streak of heavier parts, and I hope he keeps it up. Seeing how he rose from a small-time shop owner to a criminal power player was really engaging. The lessons he learns along the way are paralleled with our two other protagonists. This was a bit obvious, but I enjoyed the interplay. The point of the film is sort of touched on through this. There’s a short shelf life for this sort of work, and you don’t have to do anything wrong to get killed. It could all just be a misunderstanding or the wrong place at the wrong time. The one thing that’s for sure is that someone will always be there to take your place. Someone will always keep the operation moving. That cycle of people replacing each other was interesting to me, and it felt like a natural evolution of each character to move up the ladder. It was an inevitability. 

Arkansas is a slow burn, make no bones about it. It has the capacity to test an audience’s patience. On the whole, I liked how slow and methodical it was. It really let me sit with the characters and get to know them. It’s the film equivalent of a southern drawl. The reason it can get away with this largely lies with the characters too. John Malcovich’s over-pronouncing park ranger, a sadistic man child (Chandler Duke), a drug dealer named Almond (Michael Kenneth Williams), a middle-man named Her (Vivica A. Fox), a pair of rough and tumble twins (Brad William Henke & Jeff Chase) — these are the sorts of people you’ll be spending your time with during the movie. It has to be noted that the film does drag at times still. Even though I enjoyed the slow pacing, there were times when I felt that not enough was moving forward with the plot, especially for Kyle and Swin. This can largely be felt in the second half of the movie. I think it could stand to lose a decent chunk here. Some streamlining could have helped propel us into the conclusion with a bit more urgency and tension. 

In fact, the movie’s finale is not without fault either. The flashback edits in the midst of the final scenes worked and failed in equal measure. I suppose the problem was bringing the two halves of the story together. Yet, while some aspects of the ending don’t fit together as completely as one would hope, the running themes of the movie remain intact, and I felt satisfied when it was over, despite it being a little predictable. 

Arkansas is a strong debut from Clark Duke. It’s a reasonably polished first feature, and I’m excited to see what he does next. Hopefully, he doesn’t stray away from the world of gritty, dark subject matter. I would be interested to see how he applies what he learned here on another film.