Andre Hyland, left, and Michael Abbott Jr. in The Death of Dick Long (A24)

There is definitely talent behind The Death of Dick Long. The film aspires to be a something of a dark screwball comedy. Its actors are more than capable of handling such material and do so with aplomb. Visually, there is a distinct portrait of backwoods Alabama, and the director has a sure enough hand to shape the material and hold our attention, whether or not we are ultimately persuaded by his vision. Everyone involved deserves a good movie, but they are failed by the script, which plummets to the earth until the entire film unravels. It’s not that individual lines of dialogue or the construction of scenes don’t work; it’s that the film’s engine, so to speak, is so unintelligent that the whole enterprise collapses under its weight.

The film opens in a basement in which Zeke (Michael Abbott Jr.), Earle (Andre Hyland), and Dick (Daniel Scheinert, the director) are at band practice. When Zeke’s wife, Lydia (Virginia Newcomb), heads upstairs, the boys decide to go a little crazy: they crack open a few more beers and hit the road. The next thing we know, Dick is bleeding in the back of the car, and his two friends grab his wallet and hastily deposit him in front of the hospital, run back to the car, and hit the accelerator. Dick dies in the night, and the rest of the plot concerns his two friends as they try to cover their asses. Both are terrible liars, and the situations they find themselves in become increasingly absurd, as do the results of the autopsy of Dick, until Zeke and Earle realize they are unable to rejoin society and forced to hit the road.

There are certainly laughs. Zeke and Earle, along with all the supporting players, are quirky and sharply defined, and there is certainly humor to be found in their horrible lies, their inabilities to confront their incomprehensible situation, and in the bluntness of Zeke’s daughter, Cynthia (Poppy Cunningham).

Still, it’s hard to talk coherently about this film without spoiling anything—so consider yourself forewarned. For much of the story line, we know that an enormous quantity of semen has been found in Dick’s body, and it’s presumed that he was raped, and viewers are wondering for much of the time whether or not this was committed by his fugitive friends. There are many jokes about what happened to Dick, and the filmmakers place a lot of faith that we will be able to find rape funny until we know what really occurred. Pushing buttons can be compelling, and queasiness can be a fascinating tool for artists to use, but in this case, it’s done in such a blasé’ fashion that the jokes sound more like something from Family Guy than anything else.

I won’t reveal what really happened to Dick, except to say that it’s extremely taboo and elicits more of an exasperated reaction than one of shock or laughter. None of the weird poignancy that the director created in 2016’s Swiss Army Man is here, though there are hints of it. In one scene, Earle says to Zeke in so many words that the two of them are screw ups and Zeke needs to accept it and stop running. This is about as poignant as the film gets. Instead of an arresting exploration of something taboo, like Edward Albee’s play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, the plot’s big revelation feels like another dumb joke, and yet the entire film is structured around it.