Small Town Crime (2018)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Mike Kendall (John Hawkes) is a drunk. He lost his police job after a drunken shootout with a criminal. He finds a woman left for dead on the side of the road. He brings her to the hospital but she passes away soon after. He kept her phone and gets a call from a crass man who he believes to be her pimp. He decides to investigate her case on his own.This is an indie crime drama with some very impressive character actors. I don't know if it's the presence of Robert Forster but I get an Elmore Leonard vibe. Granted, it's not quite the same. Hawkes is a great character actor and his elevation into the lead is very commendable. He is a compelling actor with real empathy. I like his character's redemptive story arc. That's why the money is unwanted. Getting paid diminishes his selfless act. The two henchmen are great. The movie is filled with great character actors. There is pulpy goodness here.

To the few reviewers who gave this a low score, the only thing that impresses you is yourself. After a few minutes I almost didn't continue watching this movie, considering the sad sack main character, but I am SO glad I did! It's a dark comedy and a who-done-it, populated with some great performances, especially John Hawkes, whom I was unfamiliar with, and including Robert Forster, Clifton Collins Jr. and Anthony Anderson. Considering the vast amount of garbage available to watch, don't miss this film, watch it! You'll be glad you did!

Looks like reviewers have seen a lot of bad movies to think this movie is good. Wasted my time by trusting a 6.7 rating. What a load of rubbish

John Hawkes plays an alcoholic ex-cop in "Lost on Purpose" writer & directors Eshom Nelms & Ian Nelms' gritty melodrama "Small Town Crime" who finds himself up to his ears in a multiple homicide case involving blackmail. This 92-minute thriller goes down easy thanks to Hawkes' believable performance and a seasoned cast featuring Robert Forester, Clifton Collins, Jr., Don Harvey, Michael Vartan, Anthony Anderson, and Octavia Spencer. Mike Kendall (John Hawkes of "American Gangster") amounts to a worthless drunk who dreams that the local police department will reinstate him following a shootout where a fellow officer died. The officer had ordered Kendall to remain in the car while he pulls over a speeder. No sooner has the officer approached the driver's door than shots rang out, and the cop keeled over dead. The shooter exited the car and opened fire on Kendall. The dead officer knew that his partner was drunk and didn't want him to exercise poor judgement. Nevertheless, things rapidly got out of hand, and Kendall bails out of the police cruiser as bullets shatter the windshied. Kendall returns fire. Not only does he kill the suspect, but also his bullets penetrate the trunk of the car. Later, the authorities discover the body of a female victim bound and gagged in the back of the suspect's car. She has died from Kendall's bullets that tore through the rear of the vehicle. Unfortunately, Kendall has heard nothing from anything for over a year. Kendall's day-to-day routine sees him getting smashed and then pumping iron in his garage. Nobody in his neighborhood likes him when he cruises the streets in his souped up Nova that sounds like it has no muffler. Mike has led an interesting life. As a child, his junkie parents kicked him around until human services farmed him out to a loving and compassionate family of African-Americans. In part, this bi-racial upbringing accounts for our Caucasian protagonist having an African-American (Octavia Spencer of "Hidden Figures") as his sister Kelly. Kelly is married to Mike's best friend, Teddy Banks (Anthony Anderson of "The Departed"), and Teddy is a recovering alcoholic like Kelly. No matter what kind of job that Mike applies for, he doesn't get because he shares his history of alcoholism. One day he finds himself in a pasture after having tied on a real bender. Mike staggers back to his Nova and careens back onto the highway. No sooner has he gone a short distance than he spots the blood-splattered body of a young girl on the side of the road. He races off with her to the local emergency room and later learns the following day that she has died. He takes his Nova in to a car wash to clean off the blood. The owner cleans it up and hands him a flip-phone that he found under the seat. As it turns out, the phone belonged to the dead girl. Suddenly, Mike finds himself taking an interest in the demise of the girl. He learns her name, tracks down her family, and poses as a private investigator so he can learn what happened. "Small Town Crime" lives up to its name. As Mike embarks on a mission of self-redemption, he decides to work with some of her former police buddies. Along the way, he learns that the girl was no-good from the get-go. She was hooker, and she had been part of an unsavory scheme to blackmail some important people. Those people dispatch a pair of hardcore assassins with ice water in their veins who are intent on killing anybody who had anything to do with the blackmail. Mike winds up working with a pimp and the grandfather of the girl. Mind you, it's nothing big, but it is well-made, extremely well-cast, and it doesn't wear out its welcome.