The life of a political 'fixer' becomes violently intertwined with a malicious and mysterious hit man in the upcoming film, Little Dixie. Director John Swab follows up his excellent Candy Land with a slick thriller that reunites him with Frank Grillo, who previously starred in Swab's Body Brokers and Ida Red. The official synopsis reads as follows:
Frank Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year) and Eric Dane (Euphoria) star in this action-packed revenge thriller. When a deal goes wrong between a corrupt governor and a ruthless drug lord, ex-special forces operative Doc (Grillo) is caught in the crosshairs. Now, with his family in danger, Doc must take down the Mexican drug cartel and do whatever it takes to protect the one good thing in his life - his young daughter, "Little Dixie."
Grillo is a lean, mean, killing machine named Doc in Little Dixie, who is forced to carry out some truly nefarious work after a hit man for the drug cartel, Cuco, kidnaps his daughter as leverage. MovieWeb has an exclusive clip below.
A Psychotic Hit Man Takes Frank Grillo's Daughter in Little Dixie
In just 50 seconds, this clip is indicative of the aesthetic style of Little Dixie — stylish and cool but kind of weird; mysterious and character-driven, but intimidating and uncomfortable. Here, the ruthless hit man Cuco stops at a sad dive bar as a bit of respite from his kidnapping and murder. Beau Knapp plays Cuco with a bounty of personality, and he remains enigmatic and ambiguous throughout the film, sometimes, monstrous, sometimes funny, sometimes pathetic. One thing's for certain, though — he can and will kill you at any moment he'd like.
Grillo's character Doc must become similarly morally ambivalent, pushed to carry out a political assassination in order to get his daughter back. As a former special forces officer who knows his way around a gun and then some, Doc had ingratiated himself into a secretive, high-stakes world of political dark money and drug gangs. As his profession starts to fall apart because of one politician's decision to engage in the war on drugs, Doc is left with no recourse other than to become a veritable force of nature, violence incarnate.
Little Dixie is representative of Swab's assured, hip style, which is able to do quite a lot with a comparatively low budget. The film hearkens back to some of the more stylistic, sometimes wordless thrillers of the past, like Le Samouraï and Point Blank, but with much more intense and realistic violence that isn't for the faint of heart. Little Dixie also nods to the great Sam Peckinpah film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, as Doc is literally tasked with bringing the politician's head on a silver platter to the drug lords.
The film alternates between Doc and Cuco, with their morbid trajectories violently crashing toward one another. Eric Dane, Annabeth Gish, Sufe Bradshaw, and the great Peter Greene also star, but it's Grillo and Knapp and their deadly dance that steals the show. Produced by Roxwell Films in association with Three Point Capital, Paramount Pictures is releasing Little Dixie in select theaters, on digital, and on demand February 3, 2023.