In the new film “The Deputy”, Toby Sawyer doesn’t leave the most flattering first impression. He comes off as a hapless irresponsible deadbeat, plagued by selfish ambition and poor judgement. Toby has big dreams of becoming a full-time sheriff’s deputy. So much so that he accepts a low-paying part-time job at the Norman County Sheriff’s Department rather than better paying work at a nearby fertilizer plant, much to the chagrin of his frustrated girlfriend. But Toby gets the chance to prove himself to everyone over the course of one wild, violent, and unpredictable night.

That’s the basic premise for director Matt Sukkar’s feature directorial debut, “The Deputy”. Written by Carlo Bernard, this black comedy crime thriller is based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Victor Gischler. It’s a movie that leans into its rundown small-town setting. It relies heavily on the quirky and colorful community. And it tells a story that is equal parts gritty, grounded, and goofy. It doesn’t always find the right balance between them. But it keeps our attention, and it routinely surprises us in some entertaining ways.

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Early one evening, Toby (played with quiet sincerity by Duke Nicholson) is called in to work by Sheriff Frank Krueger (William H. Macy). He’s told the matter is urgent, so he clips his holster onto his flannel sleep pants, pins his badge on his ripped up t-shirt, heads out of his beat-up mobile home and heads into town. There he learns that a man named Luke Jordan has been shot and killed, his body left lying on the pavement next to his pickup truck.

With his chief deputy still not there, Sheriff Krueger tasks Toby with watching over the body until the coroner comes while he drives out to inform the Jordan family of Luke’s death. It shouldn’t be that hard of a job for Toby. But a couple of really dumb choices lead to Luke’s body disappearing and Toby wondering who took it. Chief Deputy Billy Banks (Stephen Dorff) finally arrives, and after hearing of Toby’s debacle, angrily sends him home.

But Toby’s night is far from over. Before long he finds himself trapped in a web of human trafficking, dirty money, violent Mexican coyotes, and small-town corruption. To complicate matters even more, Toby’s girlfriend Doris (Billie Lourd) takes off, leaving him with their infant son. Ultimately Toby is forced to step up, take responsibility, and fight for his life and his little town as the violence escalates to near comical extremes.

Sukkar has a blast maneuvering his unlikely protagonist from one difficult scenario to the next. He does so with an ample amount of thrills and some shocking jolts of violence, often when you’re least expecting it. Even more, he routinely injects moments of pitch-black humor to ensure things never get too heavy. But best of all, Sukkar always keeps us guessing. He throws us one curveball after another. And while they don’t all hit their mark, the story’s unpredictability is a welcomed treat.

All of that said, it does feel as if chunks of the story are missing. It’s not a significant enough issue to completely undermine the central narrative. But it left me with too many fairly obvious questions that I couldn’t answer – questions that I’m sure were answered in the book. The movie also introduces several themes that it essentially does nothing with. Still, “The Deputy” is a pulpy, character-rich genre cocktail that never ceases to entertain or surprise its audience.