The film is opening in two
markets on April 25 (New York and Texas) and holds elements of the Coen brothers’ filmmaking flare, but also has a touch of
the quirkiness one usually finds in a Barry Levinson
production.
Dirt is the story of two Texas brothers (Michael
Covert and Tracy Fraim) whose mother has just passed away. The
film starts up as the two are riding through the desert,
looking to bury her on a mountainside. They take the zipped up
sleeping bag she is rolled up in (in the back of the truck)
and take her to the designated spot they wish to plant her. At
the same time, some offbeat humor is attached pretty superbly
and thanks to the writing involved (that sort of winks to the
Coen’s style) we as the audience get to know these two
brothers fairly quickly. They’re either cold-blooded killers
or loving sons, and we get pretty clear answers of that query
as the story progresses.
The point of the movie surrounds their task of locating a
new mother. Without a presence like hers, their lives are not
the same as they are disorganized and can’t really fully take
care of themselves. This influences them to go out and try to
find their new mom. But in the book of film rules, everyone
knows the procedure doesn’t go as planned, leaving some twists
and turns in the way that result in quirky fun and
occasionally some good laughs. In their attempts to find
themselves a new mother, the two brothers end up kidnapping a
female grocery mart clerk whom holds a baby under her belt,
and one of them also falls for a bank teller in the process of
their robbing. Where it goes from here I will leave to a
secret, as while once it gets to this point of the story it
can seem slightly predictable and run-of-the-mill, the plot
actually rolls out some nifty turns and points from there to
the end.
From the beginning stretches, Dirt carries along a very
engaging storytelling method that easily draws the viewer into
these two guys’ lives. The cinematography is a strong point to
the film, as well as the acting, which for our two
protagonists is very fine. After a while, the two brothers
reminded me of the duo involved in Levinson’s Bandits with
Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton. In that caper comedy,
Willis played the slick robber while Thornton was the more
comically nervous/serious guy. In Dirt, that pattern is
somewhat put to use but instead of feeling like cheating (the
audience) or unoriginal substance, the material involved and
the performances given by both leads leaves the duo to be one
great entertaining ride.
The film has a very comical edge that for me generally came
off more as fun than literally humorous, but one attribute the
picture does hold is being truly enjoyable. It’s not overly
profound even though it could’ve been, but it’s more of a
strong theatrical diversion. Dirt is
probably what would result if the Coen brothers and Barry
Levinson joined in both the writers’ and directors’ chair. The end of the picture was one of
my complaints in terms of the story, as it’s pretty simple and
doesn’t take much brain use to see it coming as the third act
is in gear. The fact that we can see it coming doesn’t take a
huge effect away from the movie’s overall experience, but it’s
definitely not an original turn of the story.
Dirt also offers some nicely performed cameos by Jennifer
Tilly as a hooker, as well as a surprisingly good and witty
delivery from Patrick Warburton, who plays a local sheriff
named Vincent who’s tracking the two bandits’ tails. The two
leads, Michael Covert and Tracy Fraim, supply some really
winning acting executions that are just about on the lines of
flawlessness. The love situation for them is not as
triangle-like as that of Bandits, but the pull-off of such is
rewarding regardless, and again, fun.
The pace is also just right, pulling the
audience right into the story right away and keeps interest
with its quirkiness and the interesting and unique characters
that fall into play. It doesn’t do a huge character breakdown
outside of our two main personas, but an adequate amount for
us to know who these people are in character. Dirt’s very
enjoyable, but it’s also very well told via the script and
well directed (Covert and Fraim co-directed).
It has the feel of a small movie that may need word of
mouth to grow once released, but if audiences take the journey
they should end up being pleased. And for anybody who’s a fan
of the two other filmmakers mentioned (Coen’s and Levinson),
Dirt should be a greatly entertaining trip that passes an hour
and a half very solidly.