Small Town Crime

The movie was written and directed by brothers Ian and Eshom Nelms, who must have thumbed through a few Elmore Leonard paperbacks in their day; their movie offers a similar mix of cagey plotting, easygoing character comedy, and punchy violence.

The movie's tone never quite gels; it's too outlandish and cartoony to convince, but not so outlandish and cartoony that it takes off into a realm of over-the-top exhilaration.

There are enough nice touches and details along the way - including Clifton Collins Jr. as an old school R&B-loving pimp - to make up for its shortcomings.

Engagingly anchored by character actor John Hawkes, "Small Town Crime" is a satisfyingly quirky serving of frisky pulp fiction.

This is well-made entertainment, pure and simple, with enough surprises along the way to avoid being strictly formulaic. What's more, it accomplishes all this in just under an hour and a half.

Small Town Crime is so engrossing in its optimistic darkness that it screams for the further pulpy adventures of Mike Kendall.

If you’re a fan of The Long Goodbye but wish everything about it was broader and more bland, then Small Town Crime surely is for you!

It's the kind of movie that pays heed to the conventions of noir stories while still carving out a space all its own.

A judicious balance between humour and the deadly narrative propelling the film forward ... ensures that the comedy never cheapens or undermines the storyline's impact.

As the body count grows, the film becomes considerably darker, resorting to incongruous sequences of violence that simply don't match the bits of humor that pepper the start.