A lot can happen when left without a responsible and capable chaperone. That in itself is the initial push that sends the characters into disarray the hilarious new whodunnit, “The Death of Dick Long.”
“It always stuck with me as a movie I’d want to see someday,” – “The Death of Dick Long” director, Daniel Scheinert
The film, directed by Daniel Scheinert from a script written by Billy Chew, follows the events that happen after a night of drinking between three friends goes horribly wrong. After a night of band practice in Zeke’s basement — Pink Freud, hammering out a sloppy cover version of “It’s Been Awhile” by Staind — Zeke, Earl and Dick crack cans into the night in an attempt to “get weird” after Zeke’s wife says goodnight. We then cut to Zeke and Earl frantically driving their friend Dick to the hospital as he is losing a considerable amount of blood in the backseat of Zeke’s car. To preserve their “anonymity,” Zeke and Earl decide to leave Dick in front of the hospital so they will be free and clear of any trouble. The only problem is, Dick doesn’t make it through the night, and now they need to get their story straight on what happened.
The film takes you through an offbeat and viciously funny ride through a slow and charming part of America guided by two bumbling yet lovable fools who ultimately mean well but can’t seem to lie well enough to hide their horrible and shameful secret. When the truth is inevitably revealed, it’s a twist that will stick with you. That is guaranteed.
“It’s my favorite script that I’ve ever read,” says Scheinert, who is most famously known as part of directing duo known as “The Daniels” who were responsible for the cult classic, “Swiss Army Man.”
“It made me laugh a lot but it also made me sweat from nervousness,” he added. “It always stuck with me as a movie I’d want to see someday.”
The film’s heart and soul is represented by the friendship between Zeke and Earl — played by Michael Abbott Jr. and Andre Hyland, respectively. Zeke is a sloppy family man who desperately tries to keep his transgressions secret from his wife Lydia, played by Virginia Newcomb, and his young daughter Cynthia, played by Poppy Cunningham. Earl, on the other hand, has no real ties or responsibilities. While perpetually sending out plumes of vape smoke, he packs up his truck with all of his belongings, but before he can leave town, he gets pulled back in as the two friends’ secrets begin to unfurl.
“They reminded me of people I knew growing up but also I feel like in a parallel universe, I could have been Zeke and Earl, for sure,” says Sheinert of the two Nü metal loving buffoons who just can’t seem to get things right. “I enjoyed laughing at them when I read it. But, I also empathize with them because I’m [also] terrible at lying. If I had just a few more bad friends like Earl, I would have ended up in an unhappy marriage in Alabama, sneaking off at night to ‘get weird.’”
Scheinert, who also plays Dick Long in the film, grew up in rural Alabama and wanted to both poke fun at the touchstones of his old stomping ground, but also show the beauty in the eccentricity of the people who reside there.
“Early on, we decided that I wanted to approach this movie differently than most of the stuff I’ve made so far with other Daniel [Kwan] and do, like, an anthropological journey into a really specific place but with a sense of humor,” he explains. “I was nervous about how people in the town that I grew up in would think I was portraying them [or] if I was making fun, you know? But, people are hilarious anywhere you go. The hope was to make a movie that was a love letter to interesting, funny people. Not something that was dealing in tropes for comedic effect. Hopefully the fact that we loved this place and these people bled through in the film, and created a kind of dissonance where it’s like, ‘I’m laughing but this feels loving.’ I always love those kind of movies more than a full-on love-letter movie or a full-on satire. It’s fun to do both.”
