Arkansas review – buddy crime caper with 90s flavour and 70s clobber

Clark Duke and Liam Hemsworth climb the sticky drug-trafficking ladder in this meandering drama, graced with superb menswearClark Duke was best known as a peripheral member of that Superbad crew of gauchely charming leading men, along with the likes of Michael Cera and Jonah Hill.

As might be expected, he does a better job of utilising his own talents in his directorial debut, a meandering crime yarn, set in and named after Duke’s home state.Adapted from a 2008 novel by John Brandon, Arkansas is about two unambitious but conscientious crooks, Swin (Duke) and Kyle (Liam Hemsworth), who sometimes idly wonder about the meaning of it all, but mostly get on with the business of trafficking drugs across state lines.

When surprise events force them to pursue a face-to-face meet with their organisation’s mysterious kingpin, Frog, they set about climbing the corporate ladder with old-fashioned American chutzpah.Continue reading.

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