The Dirty South (2023) User Reviews

Good soundtrack, boring movie

[ilovefreddiem · 5/10 · 16 January 2024]

I thought this movie was really boring the soundtrack moved it a long. But why someone would start a crime spree with a stranger who comes into town, she first sees as a pickpocket, to save a bar, is beyond me. There's the disagreement between 2 grown men over a woman that occurred decades ago. I was a part of a small town, there was some crime but this was stretching it. It's got the small town cliches that I just wasn't interested in. There was nothing new or exciting. I don't know what some consider action but I didn't think there was much in this movie. Ya, the characters were kind of likable but not worth watching this.

Every Character Was A Smoodge Rag

[calebcalebwhitney · 1/10 · 19 February 2024]

This film deserves zero stars. Literally every character was a POS. The main characters, Sue and her boyfriend Dion are bottom of the barrel, small time, inept criminals, stealing from people and murdering them. Amazingly, the filmmakers try to sell them to us as heroes. As the story moves forward, we're shown the hopes and dreams of these theiving murderers, which is intended to make them sympathetic characters. F U to the milk face idiots who thought we'd be cool with two scumbag losers murdering and stealing and having the film treat these acts as though they're justified and praise worthy. Speaking as someone who has associated with small time low life criminals on a professional basis, I find it disgusting. Only filmmakers raised in a privileged, protected bubble are silly enough to try and justify stealing from and murdering innocent people as righteous acts of downtrodden proletarians. They even get a happy ending. I'd give them a happy ending alright. If I could choose the ending, I'd give them cancer, then have someone curb stomp them and drop a deuce in their mouth. This film is total effing garbage. GTFOOH with this BS.

Good film, worthwhile.

[bombersflyup · 7/10 · 29 January 2024]

In The Dirty South, a heartbreaking bartender takes extreme measures to keep her family's bar, when the small town big shot goes after the deed.

I quite liked this, it's engaging and gritty from go to whoa, with a likeable lead performance by Willa Holland. Not perfect by any means and doesn't do anything particularly unique or memorable, but a good film nevertheless. I'd say also what holds it back a bit, is detail missing and moving on to the next scene without visually resolving the current one. Maybe that helped the flow, but loses its impact that way. One example's near the end, when Mark says he came back for her and wants to take her away all this, we don't see the end of that conversation. We just hear her thoughts, that he's not the one for her. I'd assume Mark would be willing to do anything and she'd have to flat out say no, you had your chance. Film has good music too.

Not worth a watch.

[Robot_Chikn_n_a_Biscuit · 2/10 · 1 April 2024]

Smarmy thieving dude with a classic car meets up with normal, respectable gal (from the wrong side of the tracks).

Normal gal needs $30,000 dollars to save the family honky-tonk because her dad is no good and spends all their money on wine, women, and drugs.

Normal gal and smarmy thief hatch a plan to steal the money she needs, while he gets even richer.

In the meantime, they kill two people and dump the bodies in the trunk of his classic car. (Say what?)

In the end everything works out for the best (?) as smarmy thief and previously normal girl get together and become a pair.

That sums up the whole movie, in a PG-13 fashion. This is simply not worth a watch.

You Left the Door Open.

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 22 November 2023]

The film centers around Sue Parker (Willa Holland) who supplies us with first-person narration to let us know how a one-horse town operates. She works at the Point Place Marina on a lake in Louisiana. She runs the place and works for tips. Her dad Gary owns it. It is a drug user and this life is getting old fast. Turns out he is behind $30,000 in payments. They need the money in three days or else Jeb Roy (Dermot Mulroney) will buy it at auction. Jeb is the evil rich guy. He dislikes Gary because they he once dated his wife 30 years ago in High School. He doesn't want his son Mark (Andrew Vogel) to be involved with Sue whom he dated in High School before he left for 8 years at Princeton. Needing a lot of money fast in steps Dion (Shane West) from the subplot. Dion knows how to steal things. Sue is desperate and knows where all the goodies are in town. Things get all twisted.

Decent story. Decent acting. The soundtrack was good too. It was a slow burn that I felt never caught the fire it should have.

Guide: F-word. Sex. No nudity.

Entertaining and Smart

[darnelldepalma · 10/10 · 29 January 2024]

Absolutely loved The Dirty South!

From the authentic performances, beautiful scenery, fantastic music, and relatable storyline, I was wonderfully surprised.

First time director Matthew Yerby orchestrated this stellar cast to create real life performances not characters.

Dermot Mulroney is fantastic as the big bad in the story. My favorite character from My Best Friend's Wedding was nowhere to be seen.

Shane West was perfect as the dreamy drifter grifting his way through small towns.

Willa Holland was amazing as the female lead.

I'm used to seeing Willa in spoiled rich girl roles and her character Sue Parker is the furthest one could get from that. She is a badass without the cliche that generally accompanies this type of role.

Highly recommend!

Loved it

[buttercup_ljf · 10/10 · 5 December 2023]

I think this movie was great!!! I loved the story line and the feeling of the movie... Everyone is doing wrong, but you're cheering for the one doing it for the right reasons... Definitely a movie I can watch more than once... I loved seeing the Natchitoches Christmas Festival of Lights in the movie especially since it is something my family has always enjoyed attending... The music was also fantastic and fit very well... the actors did a great job portraying the characters... the accents were on point and sometimes that's hard to get right for movies about the south... I definitely recommend giving The Dirty South a watch.

gritty, swampy, backwoods trailer wreck of a horse tale

[kyrenaika · 8/10 · 29 January 2024]

The soundtrack halfway saves this what coulda been great, but fell a bit short little indie film, if you like gritty, swampy, backwoods tunes with a bit of polish. The two leads are good and credible, except in spots. DM fails completely and a less experienced actor could easily have done better. I've seen him act before, but here? Meh. It's as if the script needed a few punch ups and the cast would have done well to have spent some time in a small town for a couple months to learn a few things. It would also have behooved them to spend a little more time in rehearsals. Money issues, perhaps? Desperate people do desperate and ill-advised things. That happens. Things turn out as you would expect. The story is credible until the hollywood quickie ending, but gloomy ends rarely sell tickets. All said, worth a watch. Back to the music. Atmospheric and appropriate for the setting, particularly Sittin' Still by Spencer Brunson (the guy in the bar playing guitar), Gun in My Hand by Dorothy and the vamped up version of Shchedryk near the end (Carol of the Bayou) by Tyler Forrest, who wrote most of the rest of the music. Worth it for that alone.

The Dirty South

[tpsimpleman · 10/10 · 3 March 2024]

From the authentic performances, beautiful scenery, fantastic music, and relatable storyline, I was wonderfully surprised. First time director Matthew Yerby orchestrated this stellar cast to create real life performances not characters. Dermot Mulroney is fantastic as the big bad in the story. It's an age-old question where families are constantly struggling to save the house they grew up in, or the farm they tilled for generations, or the business that the family owned for decades. In this case, it's a bar on a bayou in north Louisiana run by Sue Parker and her lazy alcoholic father Gary. A bartender with a heart - and scruples - Sue puts in a full night until 3 a.m. And then gets up to take care of her 10-year-old brother and get him to school. Their father is not much help. In fact, the father is far behind in payments on the bar, and local land baron Jeb Roy is threatening to buy the place unless they can come up with $30,000 in 72 hours. Into the pub walks a mysterious guy with two women who work the bar for lots of loose wallets. Sue watches as they pick-pocket the customers and steal their money. Outside, Sue confronts this mysterious stranger who introduces himself as Dion. She wonders if he can help her get $30,000 in that short amount of time. She knows the area, and she knows the people on the other side of the tracks who have all the money in the world. But, how far will Sue go for it? And will she help with the scams.