Criminosa do Sul

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.

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!

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.

Great acting by Willa Holland, Wayne Pere and Shane West. Willa and Wayne really carried the movie. Some kissing, heavy petting, no real nudity. Some violence. The songs were great as well with artists like Jovin Webb, Spencer Brunson, Dorothy, Kori Lynn, Tyler Forest, Mus Gillum and Andrew Vogel. Many scenes felt real....human emotion. As in all movies, even 'based on true story' genre, suspension of disbelief helps yet real life is often stranger than fiction. The real downside is no mention of JESUS as the answer. Otherwise, believable tale of folks doing the best they can the best way they know how with what they have. Desperate measures for desperate times. Would watch it again.

So right away, this movie was not easy to come by for a French Canadian like me. Not available on any digital platform either as a rental or "part of a subscribtion", the only way was to import this on physical media from the USA at full price. And forget about a french audio track.. this movie has none at the moment of writing this.

Its not normally the type of movie i watch. I prefer action movies, even when they are lower budget, as long as there is decent hand to hand combat and/or gun fights but this movie is not really about this. There is a few "fights" but its really a story driven movie.

The reason why i wanted to see it is because of Willa Holland, wich i really liked in Arrow, otherwise i wouldn't had bother to watch it, probably not even on Netflix, solely based on synopsis and cover.

That said it surprised me ! The story was kinda dark in places but without being overly dark to the point of being depressing. I was invested enough in the characters to want to see where it would go. Willa in particular was pretty good in her role. I have not seen her in a lot of movies, but thats a very different role from Arrow.

Even tough its a story driven movie and it does not pack a lot of action, i never felt bored. The characters being interesting enough, the music rather good, the color scheme fitting well with the tone of it, i just enjoyed it.

Now would i watch it again? Probably not. Because what interested me was seeing how the story would go, and i know now. So i don't think its a movie to "own" really, but its a pretty decent rental for sure, especially if you like Willa as i do.

So i would definately recommand that, a rental, if you are able. Hopefully for Canadians, it get a release here at some point and maybe even a french audio track, altough i fear it will be handle by VVS and their "B-team" aka the same 7-8 peoples who dub every low budget release, no matter how fitting the voice are to the characters or not.

And when i say low budget, i really mean as this movie probably didn't cost a ton to make, base on locations, special effects etc. But everything is well done, so it does not feel cheap like for instance a Steven Seagal movie of modern times.

Give it a chance if you can.