Capsule Review: LaRoy, Texas (2024) – A Familiar But Darkly Fun ’90s-style Neo-Noir Comedy
Watching LaRoy, Texas is like transporting me back into the neo-noir era of the 1990s. The decade where movies from The Grifters (1990) to The Last Seduction (1994), Bound (1996) and L.A. Confidential (1997) made their marks fulfilling the immoral darkness of the genre. The only thing significantly missing here is the lack of a femme fatale seen in Shane Atkinson’s feature-length directorial debut, who also wrote the screenplay.
LaRoy, Texas gets off to a promising start with the introduction of Dylan Baker’s character picking up a hitchhiker in the middle of nowhere late at night. This pre-credits sequence showcases Atkinson’s directorial flair for imbuing a deliberate sense of sneaky menace, which effectively sets the tone of the movie.
The story then focuses on our main protagonist here — a timid loser named Ray (John Magaro), who has a brother Junior (Matthew Del Negro) who always takes advantage of him at work, even though both of them co-owned a hardware store in the titular (fictional) small town. His former beauty queen wife, Stacy-Lynn (Megan Stevenson) isn’t any better after he learns from a private detective named Skip (Steve Zahn) about her having an affair.
As things are looking bleak for Ray, he decides to buy a gun and plans to kill himself one night. But what follows next is a comedy of errors and let’s just say Ray ends up being mistaken as a hitman supposedly intended for Harry (Dylan Baker), the actual person for the job on the way to the town. As with the tradition of the neo-noir genre, the situation gets worse from here. More characters show up and apparently, it has to do with a briefcase full of money.
It’s hard to see LaRoy, Texas without thinking of the Coen brothers’ works, specifically their seminal Blood Simple and the thematic influence of John Dahl movies seen in the likes of Kill Me Again, Red Rock West and the aforementioned Last Seduction. It’s all familiar stuff if you have seen enough neo-noir movies in the past. Atkinson sticks to the tried-and-tested formula and for a first-time feature filmmaker, he knows how to handle the genre that alternates between the darkly comic and the macabre and at times, some absurd and slapstick moments throughout the movie’s nearly two-hour length.
Atkinson’s knotty screenplay tends to be convoluted but doesn’t veer off course as it all comes together towards the finale. The movie gets a boost from a fine ensemble led by John Magaro, who does a good job playing a naive and pathetic loser. He pairs well with Steve Zahn, whose down-on-his-luck private detective role provides some worthy comic relief (the scene in the office bathroom comes to mind). Dylan Baker deserves equal mention as the no-nonsense hitman and even steals the show whenever he appears on-screen.
The pacing does slack now and then but it’s forgivable. Those who miss the 1990s neo-noir movie should give this movie a chance. Shane Atkinson is a director to watch for and I’m curious to see what he’s going to do next in the future.
