Rating: NR | Runtime: 112 minutes
Release Date: April 12th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Brainstorm Media
Director(s): Shane Atkinson
Writer(s): Shane Atkinson

Because it’s important to finish things once we start them.

Ray (John Magaro) suspects nothing. Literally. His wife (Megan Stevenson’s Stacy-Lynn) leaves almost every night without inviting him. His brother (Matthew Del Negro’s Junior) is constantly buying new and expense things despite saying their company doesn’t have the resources to give him a raise. Everyone he loves is screwing him and he’s too much of a pushover to even consider the truth let alone do something about it. If not for a joke of a private detective (Steve Zahn’s Skip) recognizing Stacy-Lynn while staking out someone else at a seedy motel, Ray would have simply continued sleepwalking through his life.

Skip’s decision to be a Good Samaritan and provide Ray the unsolicited photos he took is the spark that gets Shane Atkinson’s LaRoy, Texas going. And it’s truly as mind-boggling and funny a scenario as it sounds considering Ray has no clue who Skip is despite the latter believing they had a connection via school and his brother years prior. Ray wishes Skip would have just minded his own business and not told him. Not that he’s going to actually confront Stacy-Lynn about it. He’s too much of a coward for that. So, he buys a gun instead, hoping to kill himself in the motel parking lot before she exits her room.

That’s when fate intervenes in the form of a bag of cash. You see, someone has hired a hitman (Dylan Baker’s Harry) to take out a lawyer so he can steal the quarter of a million dollars in his safe. Believing that Ray is the man he hired, Tiller (Brannon Cross) gives him the payment and address instead. And since Ray is at a crossroads of identity, he takes both to force himself to see what he’s really made of. Can he kill a man? Can he stand-up and honor his promise to get the money Stacy-Lynn needs to open a salon? Can he win her back? Cue the avalanche.

While LaRoy, Texas‘s almost two-hour runtime is a lot and the pacing does tend to drag when the melodrama of a delusional man who still thinks he can put his life back together takes over, it does remain entertaining throughout. Credit Magaro and Zahn’s rapport for maintaining that interest because their odd couple pairing gets unhinged once they unintentionally fall into “good cop/bad cop” shenanigans. Stevenson and a supporting cast that includes Brad Leland and Darcy Shean shine in the over-the-top caricature nature of their performances and Baker really rounds everything out via a quietly menacing turn.

And I must admit that I enjoyed Atkinson’s decision to never fully lean into the humor when fleshing out his conclusion. The film might not get as dark as it potentially should after a very effective prologue, but the bleak nature of the finale’s “justice” does what it can to provide closure for the characters and the tone. The comedy is mostly born from the actors and small-town buffoonery of their roles rather than the scenario itself anyway, so it’s nice that the cost of doing violent business stays as high as it must. The end result won’t necessary wow anyone or alter the genre, but it’s a worthwhile ride to take on a rainy day.

---

John Magaro and Steve Zahn in LAROY, TEXAS; courtesy of Brainstorm Media.