The Deputy centers on a bumbling slob who is inept at his job as a rookie deputy in a small town, yet somehow, despite all his faults, you find yourself rooting for him in this black comedy crime thriller from first-time feature film director Matt Sukkar.
The Deputy stars Duke Nicholson (Us), William H. Macy (Train Dreams), Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Stephen Dorff (Blade), Billie Lourd (American Horror Story) and Julia Fox (Uncut Gems).
Written by Carlo Bernard (Narcos, Narcos: Mexico) and based on the 2009 novel by Victor Gischler, the story follows Toby (Nicholson), who is awakened during the day and tasked by Sheriff Krueger (William H. Macy) with watching over the body of a murder victim outside a bar. The rookie deputy shows up in a tattered T-shirt and pajama pants after the sheriff tells him to rush to the crime scene as is rather than change into his uniform. Toby takes him literally.
The opening events of The Deputy leave you scratching your head, wondering whether this screwup is really the protagonist of the crime thriller. The sheriff and his main deputy (Dorff) aren’t fazed by the murder and instruct Toby to keep watch until morning. However, the husband and father abandons his post for a booty call, and when he returns, the body is missing.
Toby is initially presented as a meandering boob, seemingly sleeping his way through life in a sleepy town. The movie starts off slow as heck, and some viewers may not stick around long enough to see where it’s headed. Eventually, though, Toby’s humanity and goodness emerge through his actions as he’s forced to take charge and deal with mysterious strangers and locals hunting him down.
While the action is predictable, Nicholson gradually rounds out Toby into a more compelling character. He eventually earns his place as the protagonist, becoming a man in the process.
And that is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of The Deputy: watching a unbearable oaf stumble his way into becoming the unlikely hero of the story.
The Deputy is now playing in movie theaters, On Digital and On Demand.