“Laroy, Texas” is a little comic noir which reminds us again of that old genre lesson: the world always wins no matter how much you try to win by any means necessary. Clearly reminiscent of its senior noir films such as the Coen Brothers’ “Blood Simple” (1984), the movie provides us a fair share of twists and turns along its increasingly complicated narrative, and it also shows some pity and understanding to some of its mostly pathetic main characters.

At first, the movie establishes its hero’s pitiful daily existence in a little Texan town named Laroy. Ray (John Magaro) has run a local hardware store along with his older brother, but he has been usually disregarded by not only his older brother but also his pretty wife who was once a beauty queen. Nevertheless, he still wants to support his wife’s rather unrealistic hope of having a beauty salon someday as much as possible – even after his old schoolmate Skip (Steve Zahn) informs to him that she is actually cheating on him behind her back.

And then there comes an unexpected opportunity for him to get the money for his wife’s future business. When Ray happens to be outside a local motel which has been a spot for her extramarital affair, somebody suddenly approaches to him, and we quickly gather that this stranger in question mistakes Ray for some professional killer, who is incidentally introduced to us during the prologue scene. Ray is not so pleased when he is instructed to kill someone, but then he is eventually pushed to take the job just because of being called a pushover, and he becomes quite tempted because of the money given to him in advance.

What follows next is Ray’s clumsy attempt to locate and then eliminate that target in question – and how he belatedly comes to realize that he is in a situation way over his head. It later turns out that the target is involved with a serious matter surrounding a bigger amount of cash which happens to be gone missing, and then there is also that professional killer who was supposed to do the killing. Because of his strict professional principles, the killer is willing to get to the bottom of the circumstance, and it goes without saying that things will be very unpleasant for whoever happens to stand on his way.

Getting cornered more and more, Ray eventually comes to seek for help from Skip, who is certainly eager to prove his professional worth at last to many others including those local police officers. Not so surprisingly, he turns out to be as woefully clumsy as his schoolmate, and there is a morbidly comic scene where he attempts to squeeze some information from some guy even though he terribly botches that job more than once to Ray’s horror.

As they clumsily bounce from one spot to another along the story, Ray and Skip come to learn a bit more about what is really going on around them, and the screenplay by director/writer Shane Atkinson doles out a series of well-written scenes driven by the colorful personalities of various figures popping here and there around Skip and Ray. In case of one certain supporting character who gladly explains them more about their increasingly confusing situation, the mood becomes surprisingly poignant as Ray comes to see more of himself from that supporting character, and we are not so surprised by his sudden unexpected choice around the end of the story.

And the movie comes to show more care and compassion to Ray and Skip, who are still pathetic as before but come to us as two understandable losers who have had each own fair share of hope and desperation just like many other noir movie characters before them. Even though he is reminded again and again of how much he has been oblivious to all the daily deceptions around him, Ray still desperately sticks to the possibility of getting his wife back in the end. No matter how silly and hopeless he is as a private detective, Skip still wants to believe that the case will lead him to more recognition and respect, and that is the reason why he is willing to take more risk for his schoolmate later in the story.

John Magaro, who also co-produces the movie, and Steve Zahn are pitch-perfect in their comic acting which gradually anchors the film as generating a considerable amount of gravitas. While Magaro, a likable character actor who has steadily worked during last several years since his substantial supporting turn in “The Big Short” (2015), holds the ground with his low-key performance, Zahn, who is no stranger to playing goofy characters, often functions as a showy counterpart to his co-actor, and their resulting chemistry keeps things rolling even when the movie seems to trudge from time to time.

Atkinson surrounds his two lead performers with a bunch of engaging performers including Megan Stevenson, Matthew Del Negro, Darcy Shean, Brannon Cross, Emily Pendergast, Brad Leland, Galadriel Stineman, and Dylan Baker. Baker is often chilling as slyly letting us get some glimpse into his character’s ruthless qualities hidden behind a seemingly uncharacteristic appearance, and he certainly generates enough tension for the story whenever he appears.

Overall, “Laroy, Texas” is a solid genre piece which not only keeps us engaged to its twisty storytelling but also manages to give us a satisfying ending where almost everything in the story is fatefully resolved. Although it does not surpass its many seniors that much, it did its job fairly well on the whole with enough mood, style, and personality, and that is certainly enough for me.