When Ray Jepsen (John Magaro) pulls right into a strip membership parking to blow his brains out, his plans for the remainder of the week are the furthest factor from his thoughts. However that’s one of many many, many downsides of suicide that no one talks about — you create scheduling nightmares for everybody else in your life. And it’s significantly inconvenient when a neighborhood sleazebag erroneously believes that he employed you to hold out a homicide that should be carried out tomorrow.
However that’s simply life in LaRoy, Texas. Shane Atkinson’s characteristic directorial debut takes place in a fictional city the place residents solely have three pursuits: extramarital affairs, blackmailing one another about extramarital affairs, and youngster magnificence pageants. When an impediment hinders somebody’s potential to get pleasure from these treasured pastimes, homicide is the preferred answer.
Whereas suicide is rarely the reply, it’s simple to grasp why Ray is so bummed. He’s second-in-command at his household’s ironmongery store, however his ironically-named older brother Junior (Matthew Del Negro) is set to undermine his selections at each flip. The fixed belittling has primarily turned him right into a powerless hourly worker at a retailer that bears his title. And whereas he theoretically owns 50 p.c of it, he’s fairly positive that his brother is stealing from the corporate and dishonest him out of many of the income. Good occasions.
So when his non-public investigator buddy Skip (Steve Zahn) informs him that his spouse is having an affair, he’s decided to not imagine it. His marriage to former magnificence queen (and present youngster pageant coach) Stacy-Lynn (Megan Stevenson) is the one factor preserving him going. He tells Skip — a bolo tie-wearing, unlicensed aspiring detective whose meager consumer record is the laughingstock of the native police division — to let the matter die.
However Stacy-Lynn’s disinterest in hiding her affair makes that reasonably tough. Her respect for her husband is so low that she has no drawback getting dressed up and leaving for the evening with out even giving him the courtesy of crafting an actual excuse. Left with none wins or anybody to share the losses with, Ray decides to purchase a gun.
His suicide try is minimize brief when a stranger bursts into his truck and palms him an envelope full of money with an tackle on it. This man was supposed to fulfill a hitman within the strip membership car parking zone, however finally ends up entering into the incorrect automobile. Ray initially tries to again out of the misunderstanding, however being mistaken for an murderer is probably the most respect he’s felt in years. He agrees to hold out the hit — if solely to really feel alive for just a few days earlier than he offs himself.
The primary homicide is straightforward sufficient, however Ray quickly realizes that he has stumbled into an internet of infidelity and deception that includes damn-near everybody in LaRoy. His nameless prison patron isn’t glad with simply the killing — he additionally desires $250,000 that was stashed within the sufferer’s secure. Ray has no concept the place that cash is, however he makes loads of new pals when native creeps and deadbeats start rising from the woodwork to demand their minimize of it. Immediately Ray finds himself with a brand new zest for all times and a dozen enemies who need him useless.
It turns into clear that the one manner out of this mess is to resolve the blackmail ring that has engulfed the city and discover the $250,000 that everybody desires. However Ray’s formerly-depressing existence means he doesn’t have a deep bench of pals to name on for assist. He turns to Skip — or extra precisely, Skip blackmails Ray into turning to him — and the 2 incompetent males got down to outsmart the villains pulling the strings in LaRoy.
The twisty crime comedy wears its apparent Coen brothers influences on its sleeve, however a hilarious ensemble of larger-than-life characters retains you so entertained that there’s hardly time to surprise in case you’re watching one thing by-product. The commonly strong plot takes just a few ridiculous turns that require some suspension of disbelief, however watching Skip and Ray search out lust-filled, money-hungry idiots (Brad LeLand’s flip as brash automobile dealership proprietor Adam LeDoux is a selected spotlight) by no means will get previous.
And regardless of some enjoyable stretches of zany motion, Atkinson correctly makes positive his characters by no means stray too removed from the grim hopelessness that we met them in. Watching “LaRoy” is quite a bit just like the seedy motel affairs that each one of its characters appear to be having — two hours of enjoyable, adopted by a tragic feeling of vacancy and a want for a bathe.
Grade: B+
“LaRoy” premiered on the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. It’s at the moment searching for U.S. distribution.
