One might be forgiven for forming very low expectations for this crime flick given its poster’s generically moody imagery showing star Seann William Scott holding a gun with an electricity pylon in the background. What a nice surprise to discover this is in fact a comedy, better yet one that’s actually often funny, in a blokey, improv sort of way.
The conceit is that in the tiny Tennessee town of Colt Lake a man is murdered in the street, run over by a car so many times that he looks like meatloaf. Clueless but kindly local cop Sam Evans (Johnny Simmons) and his deputy DJ (Chance Perdomo) make a feeble stab at investigating, but are soon upstaged when special agent Bobby Gaines (Scott) suddenly shows up, representing a statewide taskforce, and takes over the case. Gaines’ methods may be a little on the violent side and not strictly by the book, but he gets confessions amazingly quickly and soon he works his way up the (admittedly) short crime food chain until he finds the main bad guy. There are a few twists but the crime plot is of much less significance than the southern-fried backchat: a constant patter of men insulting each other, maligning one another’s manhood, and generally describing each other as small town failures.
Onscreen text at the beginning says that this 2008 story was based on actual events, but that may hold as much water as the claim at the start of the original Fargo film. And who knows, maybe one of the villains really did have a girlfriend (Destiny, played by Jett Wilder) who strolled around during showdowns playing the banjo, and that Sam had a sweet spot for Izzy (Lovi Poe), the major’s daughter, and her gorgeous collection of brioche-knit sweaters. But the weird details around the edges give the film flavour, regardless of whether they’re based on anything real, and director Michael Diliberti and his editor have a knack for snipping in just the right place to drive home a joke. The last few miles of the screenplay are more than a little predictable, but this isn’t at all bad for a directorial debut.
• Bad Man is on digital platforms from 22 September.
