Frank Grillo makes being a one-man army seem too simple in the Little Dixie review, which was initially featured on Ready Steady Cut.
There are no spoilers in this Little Dixie review. a site-friendly person
Frank Grillo once left a comment here, and I’ll never let anyone forget it is as trustworthy as it gets when it comes to a certain type of muscular B-movie, typically one about daddies and their daughters, a strain of action DNA that has been passed down through the various illegitimate offspring of Taken, the 2008 film about Liam Neeson’s special abilities that were never that good, to begin with.
Little Dixie review and plot summary
Little Dixie ought to thank him for the fact that Grillo isn’t Liam Neeson. Neeson is a fantastic performer, but he’s also 207 years old, which makes it challenging to shoot and edit action scenes with him in them (may we never forget that bit in inTaken 3 when it took about 17 cuts for him to clamber over a fence and face-plant in the dirt.) You can absolutely buy Grillo as, say, an ex-Special Forces tough guy who, with a Glock 19 and a glower, could conceivably wipe off an entire Mexican drug cartel in an afternoon. He is a vampiric 57 with washboard abs and a granite jaw.
But This Contributes to The Issue.
John Swab, a longtime collaborator with Grillo and writer-director of the action film Little Dixie, cares so passionately for his star that he neglects to even slightly endanger him throughout the entire picture.
Although Grillo’s character, Doc, doesn’t appear particularly bothered by those either, the rationale would be that this is also a very gloomy species of thriller that is as much about the moral issues of action heroism as it is about the physical hurdles.
The overall premise is that Doc acts as a go-between, a connection between Governor Jeffs (Eric Dane), an old Army friend, and the ruthless Cartel, which secretly supported Jeffs’ political campaign in return for benefits that Jeffs, in some ways naively, was unaware of.
This is partially intentional. He buried his head in the sand while Billie (Annabeth Gish), a shady political strategist, did all the moving and shaking to get him elected. But it also has much to do with his own conceit and desire.
After getting a Cartel triggerman executed for killing three innocent bystanders, Jeffs makes a show of being tough on crime, which the victim’s brother, Lalo (Maurice Compte), naturally perceives as a slight.
Lalo responds by dispatching his psychotic half-brother Cuco (Beau Knapp, here delightfully deranged) to deal with Jeffs. In order to accomplish this, he kidnaps Doc’s daughter Nell (Sofia Bryant), forcing Doc to kill Jeffs and producing gruesome evidence of the crime. Doc concurs and finds the rest of the process considerably simpler than you might expect.
Is Little Dixie good?
Little Dixie’s perspective on politics, crime, morals, serving in the military, relationships, sexuality, and a few other topics is notably pessimistic.
It completely ignores the connection between American politics and underhanded transactions with Mexican criminals, holds that a story’s hero need only act in his own self-interest rather than courageously, and spends little time defending its plot twists or musing on its ideas.
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For instance, Doc is scarred from his time spent in the military and worn down by a resentful ex-wife who is desperate to keep him away from Nell, but little focus is placed on how American soldiers reintegrate into society or the dangers of divorce court and custody arrangements. The unwavering affection Nell has for her father seems to be a secret code.
This serves to emphasize the severe forward motion, particularly once Little Dixie gets going after the setup phase and focuses solely on Doc double-tapping everyone in his vicinity. The action is straightforward, effective, and clear—not overly showy or planned.
However, the majority of the movie looks at the part since Grillo also looks at the part and knows how to sell the material. However, there are occasions when we’re expected to think guns are firing when they clearly aren’t, which can give away some of the movie’s cheapness.
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However, Knapp is who I keep going back to. I understand that many people may dismiss his enforcer persona as overacted, but I found his blatant psychopathy, unresolved pain from being half-American, the bastard kid of a white prostitute, and self-loathing to be rather interesting.
There is a scene that is solely there to call attention to the fact that he is gay, which is superfluous and makes an ugly comparison that I hoped we would have gone past by now. Nevertheless, there is something in the summer of his performance.
He is a good Doc foil for the majority of the film, but the climax lacks the time or the will to use the analogies that the rest of the writing established in a meaningful way. The whole conclusion is similarly hurried and, in the end, unsatisfying, leaving the spectator to ponder if Doc’s crusade was worthwhile—for him or for us.