I’m a fan of a particular type of low-budget movie, the kind we would have once called “direct-to-DVD,” but today might better be described as “straight-to-streaming.” These movies often feature a well-known actor in the lead role (about 50% of the time, it seems, this is Bruce Willis) surrounded by actors you’ve never heard of. But occasionally that formula is reversed: a relatively obscure actor plays the lead while at least some of the lesser parts are played by actors who are better known.
Many of these low-budget movies are espionage thrillers featuring lots of car chases, fight scenes, and gunplay. But the ones I usually like best are less frenetic and more plausible. They are often stories about a crime and the pursuit of justice in some small American town.
I saw a movie like that last night called Small Town Crime, which I’d gotten through my Netflix DVD-by-mail subscription. (Yes, Netflix still does that.)
Everything about this movie was better than you’d expect from a low-budget feature — the story, the dialog, and the performances. John Hawkes, whom you’ve no doubt seen only in off-beat supporting roles, plays an alcoholic former cop. We learn that a tragic incident that happened while he was intoxicated on the job got him kicked off the force and into a life of drunken, apathetic languor. But he’s still a fairly high-functioning guy, and when he discovers a girl by the side of the road who’s been beaten and left for dead, he shakes off his torpidity and tries to figure out who did it. Things get messy.
A few of the supporting roles are played by actors who are better known than Hawkes himself, including Octavia Spencer, Robert Forster, and Anthony Anderson, who stars in the TV sitcom Blackish.
Before Hollywood block-busters dominated the cinema box office, this was the kind of movie you could have gone to see at your local theater. Nowadays, the only place to watch a gem like this is at home.