Likely a tiny budget film, Small Town Crime brings the subject matter of its title to life, featuring ex-cop Mike Kendall (Hawkes) waking up with a hangover, opening his garage and seeing his 1970 black Chevy Nova partly on the lawn having blown through his own fence. Time for a morning beer and workout. And maybe a quick vomit mid-set. Good times. Mike is looking for a new chapter in his life.. Written and directed by the brother team of Eshom and Ian Nelms, Small Town Crime sounds like the kind of movie at least one other brother team could conceivably make.
Small Town Crime is so engrossing in its optimistic darkness that it screams for the further pulpy adventures of Mike Kendall. Hawkes imbues him with the beat-down appeal of a Sam Spade or a Jim Rockford.. A genre exercise, the detective movie "Small Town Crime" relies on the usual time-tested ingredients: the boozy loner lawman, the beautiful female victim and the reliably mysterious.