With the bank closing in and a flask of whiskey usually within arm’s reach, Tommy O’Dell (Walton Goggins) and his brother David (Eddie King) find a savior in the most unlikely form: a mysterious, nameless, beer-chugging Accountant (Ray McKinnon) who arrives like a Southern Gothic ghost in a beat-up car.

If you only know Walton Goggins and Ray McKinnon from their recent turns in Fallout or Deadwood, you need to take a trip back to 2001. This isn’t just a short film; it’s a 40-minute masterclass in Southern Noir and a blueprint for the brilliance this duo would later bring to the screen together.

Produced by Goggins and written/directed by McKinnon, The Accountant feels like a lost Flannery O’Connor story that stumbled into a pack of Camels and a case of PBR. McKinnon plays the titular figure with a frantic, twitchy genius. He doesn’t just crunch numbers; he treats the tax code like a weapon of war, downing beers with a speed that would make a frat boy weep while explaining how the syndicate, a web of corporate conspiracies, is out to kill the American farmer.

As he works to save the O’Dell farm from foreclosure, he takes the brothers on a booze-fueled crusade, preaching his gospel on the decline of the family farm and his personal quest to preserve the dying embers of Southern culture through some truly unconventional (and legally dubious) methods.

McKinnon and Goggins have a shorthand that feels lived-in. Goggins plays the desperation of a man losing his legacy with a raw energy that perfectly anchors McKinnon’s high-wire, philosophical act. It’s darkly hilarious right up until the moment it breaks your heart. One minute you’re laughing at the sheer volume of beer being consumed, and the next, you’re staring at the crushing reality of generational poverty and the big machine grinding the little guy down.

The Accountant won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short and it’s easy to see why. It’s a dense, literary piece of filmmaking that manages to be wildly entertaining without ever feeling like a lecture. This movie also went on to celebrate a Dirve-By Truckers’ song, “Sink Hole:

“I’ve always been a religious man
But I met the banker and it felt like sin
He turned my bailout downThe banker man lit into me
And spread my name around

He thinks I ain’t got a lick of sense
‘Cause I talk slow and my money’s spent
I ain’t the type to hold it against
But he better stay off my farm

‘Cause it was my daddy’s and his daddy’s before
And his daddy’s before and his daddy’s before
And a loaded burglar alarm

Lots of pictures of my purdy family
In the house where we was born

House has stood through five tornadoes
Droughts and floods and five tornadoes
I’d rather wrastle an alligator
Than to face the banker’s scorn

Cause he won’t even look me in the eye
He just takes my land and apologize
With pen, paper and a friendly smile
He says the deed is doneThe sound you hear is my daddy spinning
Over what the banker done

Like to invite him for some pot roast beef
And mashed potatoes and sweet tea
Follow it up with some ‘nana pudding
And a walk around the farm

Show him the view from McGee Town Hill
Let him stand in my place and see how it feels
To lose the last thing on earth that’s real
I’d rather lose my legs and arms

Bury his body in the old sink hole
Under cold November skies

Then damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday
Look the preacher in the eye”

You can get this from MVD.