The Dirty South

From the authentic performances, beautiful scenery, fantastic music, and relatable storyline, I was wonderfully surprised. First time director Matthew Yerby orchestrated this stellar cast to create real life performances not characters. Dermot Mulroney is fantastic as the big bad in the story. It's an age-old question where families are constantly struggling to save the house they grew up in, or the farm they tilled for generations, or the business that the family owned for decades. In this case, it's a bar on a bayou in north Louisiana run by Sue Parker and her lazy alcoholic father Gary. A bartender with a heart - and scruples - Sue puts in a full night until 3 a.m. And then gets up to take care of her 10-year-old brother and get him to school. Their father is not much help. In fact, the father is far behind in payments on the bar, and local land baron Jeb Roy is threatening to buy the place unless they can come up with $30,000 in 72 hours. Into the pub walks a mysterious guy with two women who work the bar for lots of loose wallets. Sue watches as they pick-pocket the customers and steal their money. Outside, Sue confronts this mysterious stranger who introduces himself as Dion. She wonders if he can help her get $30,000 in that short amount of time. She knows the area, and she knows the people on the other side of the tracks who have all the money in the world. But, how far will Sue go for it? And will she help with the scams.

I thought this movie was really boring the soundtrack moved it a long. But why someone would start a crime spree with a stranger who comes into town, she first sees as a pickpocket, to save a bar, is beyond me. There's the disagreement between 2 grown men over a woman that occurred decades ago. I was a part of a small town, there was some crime but this was stretching it. It's got the small town cliches that I just wasn't interested in. There was nothing new or exciting. I don't know what some consider action but I didn't think there was much in this movie. Ya, the characters were kind of likable but not worth watching this.

This film is a fantastic example of telling interesting, underserved stories from places like the American South and Midwest. I'm absolutely sick of films about the one percent class living in massive cities on the coast with trivial, "rich-people-problems." This was a huge breath of fresh air, and a truly entertaining step into the gritty and dirty, yet magical world of the south. Yerby has talent for making seemingly archetypical characters into deep, relatable humans. This most likely like had a decently small budget compared to most films - but not a second of it felt cheap or compromised. Kickass story. Kickass soundtrack. If you didn't enjoy this, that's your loss. Can't wait to see what Yerby does next.

Absolutely loved The Dirty South!

From the authentic performances, beautiful scenery, fantastic music, and relatable storyline, I was wonderfully surprised.

First time director Matthew Yerby orchestrated this stellar cast to create real life performances not characters.

Dermot Mulroney is fantastic as the big bad in the story. My favorite character from My Best Friend's Wedding was nowhere to be seen.

Shane West was perfect as the dreamy drifter grifting his way through small towns.

Willa Holland was amazing as the female lead.

I'm used to seeing Willa in spoiled rich girl roles and her character Sue Parker is the furthest one could get from that. She is a badass without the cliche that generally accompanies this type of role.

Highly recommend!

So right away, this movie was not easy to come by for a French Canadian like me. Not available on any digital platform either as a rental or "part of a subscribtion", the only way was to import this on physical media from the USA at full price. And forget about a french audio track.. this movie has none at the moment of writing this.

Its not normally the type of movie i watch. I prefer action movies, even when they are lower budget, as long as there is decent hand to hand combat and/or gun fights but this movie is not really about this. There is a few "fights" but its really a story driven movie.

The reason why i wanted to see it is because of Willa Holland, wich i really liked in Arrow, otherwise i wouldn't had bother to watch it, probably not even on Netflix, solely based on synopsis and cover.

That said it surprised me ! The story was kinda dark in places but without being overly dark to the point of being depressing. I was invested enough in the characters to want to see where it would go. Willa in particular was pretty good in her role. I have not seen her in a lot of movies, but thats a very different role from Arrow.

Even tough its a story driven movie and it does not pack a lot of action, i never felt bored. The characters being interesting enough, the music rather good, the color scheme fitting well with the tone of it, i just enjoyed it.

Now would i watch it again? Probably not. Because what interested me was seeing how the story would go, and i know now. So i don't think its a movie to "own" really, but its a pretty decent rental for sure, especially if you like Willa as i do.

So i would definately recommand that, a rental, if you are able. Hopefully for Canadians, it get a release here at some point and maybe even a french audio track, altough i fear it will be handle by VVS and their "B-team" aka the same 7-8 peoples who dub every low budget release, no matter how fitting the voice are to the characters or not.

And when i say low budget, i really mean as this movie probably didn't cost a ton to make, base on locations, special effects etc. But everything is well done, so it does not feel cheap like for instance a Steven Seagal movie of modern times.

Give it a chance if you can.