Jim Mickle’s COLD IN JULY Trailer

Check out the trailer for IFC Films’ COLD IN JULY, Jim Mickle’s dark and dirty Southern noir starring Michael C. Hall, Don Johnson, Sam Shepard and Wyatt Russell.

How can a split-second decision change your life? While investigating noises in his house one balmy Texas night in 1989, Richard Dane puts a bullet in the brain of a low-life burglar, Freddy Russell. Although he’s hailed as a small-town hero, Dane soon finds himself fearing for his family’s safety when Freddy’s ex-con father, Ben, rolls into town; hell-bent on revenge. However, not all is as it seems. Shortly after Dane kills the home intruder, his life begins to unravel into a dark underworld of corruption and violence. Twists and turns continue to pile up as the film reaches its inevitable destination: a gore-soaked dead end.

Michael C. Hall brings a shell-shocked vulnerability to his portrayal of Dane that contrasts perfectly with the grizzled “badasses” portrayed by Sam Shepard and Don Johnson.

Directed with an excellent eye for the visual poetry of noir, this pulpy, southern-fried mystery is a throwback to an older breed of action films; one where every punch and shotgun blast opens up both physical and spiritual wounds. COLD IN JULY is hard to shake as an east Texas summer.

In theaters on May 23rd, Mickle said, “We will be premiering COLD IN JULY a year to the day that WE ARE WHAT WE ARE premiered at Sundance last year. It’s been a wild year of celebrating one film while making the next. It’s an honor to return and to have a film recognized for bucking the status quo of mainstream genre storytelling. Last year they gave us the confidence to make this film and I hope to continue that tradition.”