The dialogue is hard-boiled and the cast includes reliable tough talkers: John Malkovich, Vince Vaughn and Michael K Williams.

| Aug 22, 2022

Feeling like a relic from the wave of '90s crime ensembles that followed in Tarantino's wake, Arkansas not only squanders some good talent, it's a tragic waste of a fine book.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 14, 2020

As a collection of smart-mouthed southern ne'er-do-wells, Arkansas amuses, but as a showcase for colourful 70s menswear, it excels.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 10, 2020

With its brooding tone of tired inevitability, his Arkansas knows exactly how to find drama and sentiment in what could otherwise just be a dour path to the inevitable.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 12, 2020

It's quirky, lively, and diverting for a little while, but then it really just drags.

| May 12, 2020

[Clark Duke] shows some promise as a director and maybe even more so as a screenwriter, but it goes on too long, it is unevenly paced, and it seems to end a few times.

| May 12, 2020

Somehow it does have a sort of distinctive tang... It doesn't quite add up to a full meal despite being overlong, but it has a kind of ambling, affectionate weirdness to it.

| May 12, 2020

Less a mob thriller than a ruminative drama about a life built around orders and betrayals, the movie takes an unusual perspective on a familiar genre but is weighed down by its dull, uneven pace.

| May 7, 2020

[M]ost of all it is unexpectedly fun, drawing you through its world of not-very-good-at-this criminals, low-lifes and people who want little more than to just hang about with verve and panache. And that makes it a place worth visiting.

| May 7, 2020

While Arkansas is a promising and often very entertaining first feature, Duke doesn't combine these borrowed ingredients-excellent though they are-into a fully realized original story, with its own personality.

| Original Score: B- | May 7, 2020

No matter the size of the screen or the corniness of dialogue, Arkansas proves that strong acting from game performers can make even the most harebrained of endeavors brim with vitality and necessity.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 6, 2020

If narrative drive is your thing, steer clear of Clark Duke's trifling whatzit about drug-dealing deadbeats, but pandemic-weary audiences might just revel in a southern-fried, comic randomness that becomes the film's saving grace.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2020

Not everything here works, including some lead casting. But this daylight noir should please viewers willing to roll along with a crime meller more interested in character quirks than action thrills.

| May 5, 2020

Arkansas doesn't usually look like much (lots of music video lighting), and is often over-edited.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 5, 2020

The film's insistence on keeping the stakes low throughout is probably its key strength.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 5, 2020

"Arkansas" doesn't break the mold on cheeky, stylish, low-life movies; rather, it worships it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 5, 2020

While it's hard to watch "Arkansas" and not see its debt to the Coen brothers, Duke finds a voice of his own in quiet, deadpan absurdities and southern-fried eccentricities.

| May 4, 2020

Underwhelming, despite a surprising abundance of talent.

| May 4, 2020

Most of "Arkansas"... just falls flat, despite individual scenes here and there that work.

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 3, 2020