Think ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ was wild? I watched this director’s early crime movie

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film that took people by surprise. The absurdity, humor, and slickness of the film made it a success, and it ended up grossing $143.4 million at the box office. Written and directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, the film ended up taking home seven Oscars out of its 11 nominations.

A lot of people feel that it's the wildest film, but I recently saw one of its director's earlier films, which is more unhinged than anything. This black comedy film is called The Death of Dick Long and it came merely three years before their Oscar winner.

The Death of Dick Long is crazier than Everything Everywhere All at Once

Daniel Scheinert, who is one of the Daniels duo, made a film a few years before Everything Everywhere All at Once. That film was the black comedy drama The Death of Dick Long and it had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It was eventually released on September 27, 2019, by A24.

Here's the official synopsis, which provides a glimpse into a film more bizarre than Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Dick died last night, and Zeke and Earl don’t want anybody finding out how. That’s too bad though, cause news travels fast in small-town Alabama.

If the synopsis did not reveal much, let me explain. Dick Long meets with his friends one evening and they decide to hang out. But the circumstances lead to his death, and the story takes on another level of unhinged-ness. The film reminded me of a lot of Coen brothers' stories, and Scheiner has stated them as his inspiration.

As the friends are trying to dump Dick Long's dead body, I realized that the situations are super serious. But everything is presented within the shell of dark comedy. The film then continues to get deep into situations and scenarios that are borderline absurd, bizarre, and are dialed to a hundred when it comes to going all out. One of the reveals in the film has parallels to a real-life bizarre event revolving around a man who tried to have int*rcourse with a horse. If this sentence made your head spin, you need to watch the whole film. It came out before the explosion of Everything Everywhere All at Once and has sadly been forgotten.

The Death of Dick Long was written by Billy Chew and produced by Melodie Sisk, Jonathan Wang and Daniel Scheinert. Here's a list of its cast members:

Daniel Scheinert as Dick Long
Michael Abbott Jr. as Ezekiel Olsen aka Zeke
Virginia Newcomb as Lydia Olsen
Andre Hyland as Earl Wyeth
Sarah Baker as Officer Dudley
Jess Weixler as Jane Long
Roy Wood Jr. as Dr. Richter

In a Screen Rant interview, Daniel spoke about his inspiration for the film. He said,

"There's a bunch. It gets compared and gets called “Redneck Fargo,” which isn’t inaccurate. You know, Billy and I are obsessed with the Coen's work and with Fargo in particular. But also, the other day I jokingly said it was Gummo meets Moonlight."

"You know, we're inspired by kind of abrasive, weird stuff. And, at the same time, really deeply humanist stuff that’s really kind of poking at taboos. Billy's obsessed with the book Lolita and had me read it a few years ago; it kind of blew my mind. Big fan of David Gordon Green and, as a kid, watching southerners make weird movies about weird people, with poetry kind of infused in there – that really spoke to me."

If you have enjoyed Everything Everywhere All at Once, you will surely like this film too.

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Edited by Ayesha Mendonca

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Think ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ was wild? I watched this director’s early crime movie – and it’s even more unhinged

The Death of Dick Long is crazier than Everything Everywhere All at Once

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