Rating: R | Runtime: 105 minutes
Release Date: February 3rd, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director(s): John Swab
Writer(s): John Swab

I came here to send a message.

If you decide to run for office and hire a quality fixer to put you over the top, maybe avoid telling them that you don’t want to know just how shady their behind-the-scenes string pulling is. Governor Jeffs (Eric Dane) learns this lesson the hard way when his attempt to look strong on crime in the aftermath of putting a Mexican drug cartel leader’s brother to death ends up guaranteeing his own demise.

It’s not like Billie (Annabeth Gish) didn’t warn him. She simply didn’t quite elaborate enough to force him into listening. Some things unfortunately go beyond the extensive scope of their friend and hired muscle Doc Alexander’s (Frank Grillo) undeniable badassery.

That doesn’t mean John Swab’s Little Dixie isn’t still all about Doc proving scope is an illusion once events are made personal. The moment Cuco Prado (Beau Knapp) takes his daughter (Sofia Bryant’s Nell) hostage amidst a revenge rampage, Doc is all-in on going above and beyond no matter the consequences to get her back.

It leads to some nice shoot-em-up sequences and a mostly welcome sense of pragmatic understanding when death arrives between people in the game who accepted the risk of that participation long ago (with Thomas Dekker lending some comedy by conversely pleading for his life). Add some eccentricities like Doc talking to a decapitated head in a bowling bag for a third of the runtime and it’s easy lose yourself to the film’s darkly entertaining sensibilities.

Because let’s be honest. You chose this particular genre flick with a desire to watch Frank Grillo casually take out a high number of nameless antagonists while pursuing mostly justified (if immoral) acts of violence. It’s what he does and what Swab and company deliver.

Some moments are maybe too over-the-top, but that’s how legends are made and why Nell never wavers in her belief that she will be saved. Her mom can divorce Doc for drinking away his military-based PTSD and his penchant for the gray areas of life can make it so his W-9 bears no resemblance to his actual day-to-day activities, but he’ll never stop being her idol and biggest champion. The extensive collateral damage must simply embrace its sacrifice to that cause.

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Frank Grillo, Sofia Bryant, Beau Knapp in LITTLE DIXIE; courtesy of Paramount Pictures.