Over the course of 2019, A24 had found their own little groove making dramas based around true events. Whether it’s visiting a dying relative in The Farewell (2019), or about a rehabilitated Nazi in Skin (2019), they have found ways to make difficult subject matter into entertaining cinema. Even in the echelon of heavy subjects, nobody could be prepared for The Death of Dick Long (2019): a film whose very subject is rooted in hiding a shameful secret. As the title suggests, death is involved, but this is far from a fond farewell. It’s one packed with stupid pranks and Nickelback. It is the type of story that is so unclassifiable that only someone like A24 could release it, and it makes sense once everything has been revealed.
The story begins in July 2005. To briefly summarize, Kenneth “Mr. Hands” Pinyan was a man who was involved with zoophilia. He sold videotapes of acts he did with horses. During one act, he suffered a perforated colon that ultimately killed him. It was said that his friends abandoned his body in front of an emergency room. This lead to Washington passing legislation to keep others from doing similar acts, classifying it as a Class C felony punishable for up to five years in prison. This lead to the documentary Zoo (2007), which won awards when it premiered at The Sundance Film Festival.
Among those perplexed by this narrative was writer Billy Chew. Starting around 2010, he began to craft an original story around the premise. His goal wasn’t to write a story that simply humiliated Dick Long, his version of Pinyan, but explore the complicated emotions that arise from this act. It is still treated as something ridiculous and offensive, but it becomes a story about masculinity and the difficulty of being pressured to hide secrets. While the story would have ebbs and flows, he wanted to create a sense of relativity to the characters, helping to paint them as more than dumb rednecks doing reckless behavior.
Chew had been friends with filmmaker Daniel Scheinert for years when he shared the script. Scheinert claims that he had seen various drafts for over a decade, seeing the story slowly come together. Meanwhile, Scheinert had partnered with Daniel Kwan as “The Two Daniels,” who mostly worked in the field of music videos, but had gained acclaim for their A24 film Swiss Army Man (2016). Together, they loved to tell stories that were bizarre or different, needing to present something new and exciting every time they got behind the camera. For Swiss Army Man, they advertised it as a film where the first fart joke would make you laugh and the last one would make you cry. If nothing was reflective of how subversive they planned their careers to be, that was it.
Scheinert claims that the reason this isn’t a film by The Two Daniels is that they were working on a different project. At some point, Chew came to Scheinert and mentioned that he was his biggest fan and that he should direct the movie. From there, they began to craft a sense of realism. Scheinert didn’t want to just make a redneck movie, claiming that media representation was often terribly wrong about southern culture. He cited Sweet Home Alabama (2002) as being an egregious example not only because the accents were wrong, but because it was shot in Georgia. He wanted to paint a vision of the south that actually felt lived in. Given that several of the key crew members were from Alabama and had a strong sense of the area, it’s where they decided to shoot the film.
One of the more striking details was that Dick Long as a character was intended to be played by Channing Tatum or Justin Timberlake. Scheinert claims that Timberlake’s agency refused to show him the script, as it would require him to perform dangerous stunts. Scheinert eventually played the role himself, admitting afterward that it was a relief that he did it as there were fewer financial costs to worry about. Also, he believed that casting largely unknown actors helped to add authenticity, where the biggest name was The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. (himself a local celebrity from his days doing radio).
Another significant detail was that Scheinert altered the vision following The 2016 Presidential Election. As the culture shifted, he recognized how faulty it would be if every character was a white male. It’s what inspired him to create other divides with the characters by having Dick Long’s friends hold secrets from women. Scheinert claims that because the script dealt with masculinity and hiding something shameful, the meaning came to be something different for every actor. Given that Chew also felt inspired to comment on interpersonal relationships, the film held more weight than its central death. It was about the crumbling of connection and insecurity.
This isn’t to say that Scheinert designed it as one strict genre. He has noted that he enjoys audience members who think it’s a drama and find it funny, or think it’s a comedy and find it sadder. Early reviews suggested that it was a redneck Fargo (1996), which Scheinert both enjoys but finds a bit misleading. He once joked that it was Harmony Korine’s Gummo (1997) meets Moonlight (2016). Given how absurdist it comes across, that description is strangely apt. The film would also embrace a sense of oddity. This wasn’t done by making elaborate gags, but by driving around Alabama and finding things that were “real.” For instance, a man riding an exercise bike while smoking on his front porch is said to be based on a real sighting.
The film would have its premiere at Sundance in 2019. The reviews emphasized that it was a wacky and dark comedy. Many hid the secret during press reports, believing that it was a film built on suspense. With that said, Scheniert intentionally made it so that the big reveal wasn’t the end of the film, but somewhere in the middle. This allowed for it to shift focus around actions having consequences, which he disliked other movies like The Hangover (2009) for doing. It also helped to emphasize the comedy and drama of the piece a lot clearer. While The Death of Dick Long didn’t win any awards at Sundance, Scheinert was a nominee for NEXT Innovator Award. During its release, the director claims that he once met a woman who had raised ponies and figured out the twist five minutes in.” She would show up later with a shirt that said “I try to be the woman the horses think I am.”
Reviews for The Death of Dick Long took an interesting turn. While the story may be read as being difficult, citing walkouts or complaints, critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes shows a different story. While it has critics giving it 74%, the audience score is 86%, making it one of the few A24 films on the website with a higher audience score. Amy Nicholson of FilmWeek leads the acclaim, suggesting “A lovely film about what you do when you've done something that is unforgivable.” Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine/Vulture shared the sentiment when noting “You can feel your brain melting away as you watch it, and that's not always a bad sensation.” Andrew Lapin of NPR was one of the few who disagreed when saying “Dick Long often doesn't seem to know what it's doing from scene to scene, and it's hard to say if that's by design.”
Love or hate, The Death of Dick Long was another evidence that A24 took risks, making stories that were original, shocking, and challenging in tone. It was a perfect set-up for later 2019 films that were considered more commercial, notably The Lighthouse (2019) and Uncut Gems (2019). Still, it was evident that with or without his partner, Scheinert knew how to make provocative cinema, finding humanity in the darkest, dumbest places. His next film will find him reuniting with Kwan for Everything Everywhere All at Once which currently is described on IMDb as “It’s about a 55-year-old Chinese woman trying to finish her taxes.” With Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis leading the cast, it’ll be interesting to see how they spin this yarn.
For their next film, A24 would take a break from the dark and troubling stories of reality and go for something more lighthearted. It’s a story about searching for treasure on Jersey Shore during the summer. Sounds like a perfect way to pass the time, right?
Up Next: Low Tide (2019)
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