LIGHTYEAR BLU-RAY RELEASE: Randy and the Mob (2007)

Most people know Ray McKinnon as the tortured preacher from Deadwood or the guy who created Rectify. Most people know Walton Goggins as one of the most electric character actors of his generation. But before they were icons of the new Prestige TV era, they were two guys from the South making some of the weirdest, most soulful, and downright funniest indie cinema of the early 2000s under their Ginny Mule Pictures banner.

Randy Pearson (Ray McKinnon) is a good ol’ boy who is perpetually one bad decision away from total disaster. This time, he’s stepped into it deep by borrowing money from the Mob. When the bill comes due, and the Italians come knocking in rural Georgia, Randy has to turn to the only people left who haven’t completely written him off.

This leads to McKinnon pulling double duty, playing both the hapless Randy and his estranged, gay twin brother, Cecil. It’s a performance that could have devolved into a cheap caricature in lesser hands, but McKinnon gives it a surprising amount of heart.

But let’s be real: the movie belongs to Walton Goggins as Tino Armani. Imagine a modern-day prophet who obsesses over high fashion, cooks high-end Italian meals in the middle of the woods and has a supernatural knack for making money appear and disappear. Goggins plays Tino with a flamboyant, mysterious energy that feels like he stepped out of a Fellini film and got lost in a Cracker Barrel. Throw in the late, great Lisa Blount (Prince of Darkness) as Randy’s long-suffering wife, and you’ve got a mafia comedy that is way more interested in character quirks than hits and heists.

There’s even an uncredited Burt Reynolds in this.

This special edition release also includes the Academy Award-winning The Accountant and a making-of feature. You can order this from MVD.

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