Dunsmore

A brawny, devil-may-care bully named Ronny Roy Pritcher (Earl Brown) terrorizes the residents of the small town of Dunsmore. But very quickly into the plot, the bully gets gunned down outside the local tavern. Enter Walter Taylor (Kadeem Hardison), representative of the State's Attorney General's Office, to try to figure out what happened. Most of the plot centers on Taylor's investigation of the locals: deadbeats, hillbillies, trailer park ladies, and other stereotyped characters.

The script asks viewers to think about a couple of rather weighty issues. Is it right for someone to dispose of a bully when local law enforcement is ineffective? Is it right for a law enforcement outsider to intrude into a small town that seems able to handle its problems on its own?

Aside from the film's thematic value, I just didn't much care for this film. For one thing, the locations are all generic. The town of Dunsmore is not set in any particular state; we never learn what "state" Walter Taylor's Attorney General's Office represents. There's a conspicuous attempt to remove the story from any real location. With such a coy script, the film forgoes a sense of realism.

Further, the script has too many flashbacks. And the TV "news" coverage scenes, and scenes of TV reporters trying to get a story, are super, super annoying. Such a film cliché reeks of lazy scriptwriting. Kadeem Hardison phones in his performance, which is dull and lifeless. On the other hand, Jeannetta Arnette gives a really fine performance as the trailer park wife of Ronny Roy.

Overall, aside from deep themes implied in the story premise, I found this film to be mediocre at best. It gets off to a good start with some atmospheric suspense. But the plot goes nowhere; the ending disappoints, along with other elements. And I could have wished for some other actor to play the role of Walter Taylor.

Well told story of an interesting event .

No the most cinematically brilliant but one of those small time movies well worth watching.

I rented this movie on a whim because I had seen almost everything else at the video store and I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a film of terrific extremes, from very in-your-face violence and language to real moments of subtly. Basically its about a very small town, DUNSMORE, with a really nasty bully, Ronny Pritcher, played by W. Earl Brown from 'Deadwood,' who is gunned down one night on Main Street by unknown killers. It then follows a Citizen Kane – like structure when an investigator, played by Kadeem Hardison, comes to find out what happened. As the investigation proceeds we see that Ronny was really a small town terrorist with a lot of enemies. What makes it particularly interesting is how close to the vest the filmmakers tell it. You have a feeling you know what's going on but nothing is really given away and just when you think you know where it's going it takes you somewhere else. I was also impressed by the acting. W. Earl Brown is every bit as menacing here as he is in Deadwood. Kadeem Hardison is surprisingly credible in a serious role, nothing at all like the Dwayne Wayne character he played on 'A Different World.' Jennetta Arnette, from 'Boys Don't Cry,' is perfect as Ronny's put-upon older wife – he has two of them at he same time – his second, younger wife, played by Alicia Lagano, is one of the least introspective teens I've seen since the movie 'Thirteen,' but then has a great moment of self-realization as she talks about Ronny in death and seems to sense that she has lost more than her husband, but her youth and innocence as well. Talia Shire, from Rocky and The Godfather, plays the local schoolteacher and tells an absolutely chilling story about this bad guy as a child. Barry Corbin gets the good-old-boy-sheriff of the year award as the only person willing to take Ronny on on his own violent terms, and Rus Blackwell, the sleazy cop from 'Monster,' plays the friendly town Sheriff with the same subtly and understatement as a Chris Cooper. It's obvious this film had a modest budget, but neither the production nor the story suffer from it. There is also a lot of dark and sometimes twisted humor. Finally, the one thing that makes this movie stand out for me, unlike other small-town murder mysteries, is that for all it's in-your-face intensity it raises really thoughtful questions about morality, capital punishment, good versus evil and other issues of right and wrong and actually leaves you with something to think about when it's over. I'm still thinking about it days after having seen it. I'd recommend checking it out.

This movie is a heck of a lot of fun!!!

Here's how it breaks down:

The death of a feared and hated man leads to a conspiracy of silence in this drama. Walter Taylor (Kadeem Hardison) is an investigator from the state attorney general's office who is sent to a small Southern town to investigate an unusual murder. Ronny Roy Pritchett (W. Earl Brown) was a town bully who could intimidate just about anyone into giving him what he wanted until he was found outside a local tavern one night with 40 shots in his body and no witnesses who would say they saw or heard the attack. With the help of cheerful but ineffectual Sheriff Miller (Rus Blackwell), Taylor begins questioning citizens about Pritchett, including his two wives (Jeanetta Arnette and Alicia Lagano), who have decidedly different memories of their late husband, and Mildred (Talia Shire), the wife of a local pastor who was murdered a few weeks before Pritchett. In time, Taylor begins to piece together a picture of Pritchett's REIGN OF TERROR in the town, as well as his brutally violent relationship with former Sheriff Breen (Barry Corbin). Directed by Peter Spirer, who previously made several respected documentaries on hip-hop culture, including Beef, Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel -- The Life of an Outlaw, and Rhyme & Reason, Dunsmore rocks out like rockstar!

Bottom line: you'll want more, more, MORE of Dunsmore!

After a violent opening and a setup to let you get to know the characters, the movie keeps building momentum as we realize that nothing is really what it seems to be. In the end it makes you think about right and wrong without preaching at you. I highly recommend it.