Reading the title of The Death of Dick Long, it’s easy to assume you can guess what it’s about. The pun at the end suggests a bro-y comedy, perhaps à la Weekend at Bernie’s, and the poster–of a man with fireworks shooting from his crotch–supports that theory. And while the film has its share of stupid bro humor, it’s mostly a crime thriller that’s unfortunately done in by the mystery at its heart.
Directed by Daniel Scheinert and written by Billy Chew, the titular Dick dies fairly early. The first thing we see after the opening credits are Dick’s friends and fellow bandmates, Zeke (Michael Abbott Jr.) and Earl (Andre Hyland), leaving his bloodied body in front of a hospital. We don’t know then how the night of drunken debauchery that played in montage under the film’s credits turned so deadly, but those darkly comedic opening scenes set the tone as we follow Zeke and to a lesser degree, Earl, on the day after Dick’s death.
Though we don’t exactly have the sunniest picture of Zeke’s character, there is something both hilarious and charming about watching him bumble his way through hiding what happened from his wife Lydia (Virginia Newcomb) and daughter, Cynthia (Poppy Cunningham). When Zeke hides the blood splattered all over his car with blankets and sheets only to realize they don’t stop the blood from seeping onto his daughter’s clothes on the way to school, there’s something perversely funny in it. Zeke may have done something bad, but Abbott Jr. plays him as so stupid and remorseful that he tricks the audience into rooting for the character in an almost Psycho-esque way.
That said, as often as the film’s humor works, it just as often falls flat. Though Earl as the ultra-bro dunce rapidly wears out his welcome, it’s the police characters who are the film’s biggest failure. While Sheriff Spenser (Janelle Cochrane), with her cane, low key drinking problem and spiky hair initially seems rife for comedy mostly makes little impact despite a few good lines and a serviceable performance from Cochrane. Rather, it’s rookie cop Officer Dudley (Sarah Baker), a clear riff on Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson from 1996’s Fargo, who does most of the detective work. Unfortunately, unlike Marge, Dudley isn’t very clever, basically needing clues to be thrown in her face to make connections and even then often not understanding until another character makes it explicit.
While some of that behavior can be excused on keeping the film’s dramatic tension going as long as possible, the simpler explanation is that it treats the characters largely as risible fools. Fargo also made fun of its small town (in North Dakota as opposed to Alabama here) rubes, but the approach feels far more mean-spirited here. They like Nickelback for God’s sake. However, the true pinnacle of the film’s condescension and perhaps outright disdain for the characters comes thanks to the reveal about Dick’s death, a truth so ridiculous that it basically blows the whole film apart.
Without spoiling it, it’s difficult to explain why the reveal is so damaging, but suffice to say that it is so shocking and outrageous that the film would need to fundamentally shift its tone in order to justify it. Instead, it charges on ahead and all the weirdness that worked before suddenly doesn’t seem extreme enough. Where Zeke and Earl seem like harmless fools pre-reveal, watching them sloppily cover up their crimes just isn’t as fun without exploring the mental and emotional reasons behind what they’ve done. Where Lydia’s initial reaction to finding out the truth is precisely as hysterical and upset as it needs to be, the later scenes where she seems close to forgiving him feel completely out of character.
There will undoubtedly be viewers who watch The Death of Dick Long and see its insane twist as nothing more than an escalation of the film’s already absurd tone. After all, these characters are mostly clowns for the audience to ridicule, why not throw them into the most extreme scenario possible and watch them flounder. However, for many viewers, that twist will be a bomb so devastating that no amount of thoughtful acting or impressive cinematography will be able to put it back together.
