Directed by David Mackenzie
Written by Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Dale Dickey, Buck Taylor, Katy Mixon, Kevin Rankin
Soundtrack: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
West Texas is poor, banks are bad, and Shiner Bock and Lone Star Beer are good (not to mention Pabst Blue Ribbon).
I don’t think it’s cliché to say we don’t really get major films like ‘Hell or High Water’ much anymore. You know, a movie with an original script, a few big name actors to carry the load, a budget that’s more than a few dollars but less than a hundred million, and a compelling story rather than a series of scenes leading from one schlock action set piece to the next.
It’ll inevitably be compared to ‘No Country for Old Men‘, which is fair, given that they’re set in the same general vicinity and both center around cash, but I’d call ‘High Water’ less surreal than your typical Coen Brothers affair, and more forthright with its sense of humor (plus, it’s not based on a book).
Much of ‘Hell or High Water’ is straightforward, including the plot. A pair of brothers, Toby and Tanner (Chris Pine and Ben Foster), start robbing banks in order to raise enough money to wrangle control of their mama’s land back from the bank, and it’s up to Texas Rangers Marcus and Alberto (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) to put a stop to it.
It might seem small time in comparison to other heist films, but part of what makes ‘Hell or High Water’ so fascinating is that it does feel down-to-earth and quite plausible. Yes, it’s entertaining and it’ll make you laugh, but it doesn’t rely on a whole lot of flash; just a tightly written story and some top notch performances. If you really want to be critical, you might say Jeff Bridges is just doing a rehash of his “Rooster Cogburn” from ‘True Grit‘, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say they are distinct characters, plus the interplay between him and Gil Birmingham is fantastic.
As far as our brothers go, Chris Pine and Ben Foster really dig in as a couple of poor cowpokes with their eyes on a prize. Outlaws they may be, but they’re still very much the heart of the movie, and the tension of whether they’ll get away with it or not is very much set in the nature of who they are individually.
If I have one legitimate criticism of the film, it’s that some little bits of dialogue are muffled by the thick accents (which I don’t normally struggle with), but I guess it comes with the territory.
Other than that, I don’t want to say much more. Like ‘The Nice Guys‘ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople‘, ‘Hell or High Water’ seems bound to be in the top 5 of 2016. It’s definitely slower-paced than usual, so be prepared for that, but I’d never call it boring. There’s too much tension for things to ever fall flat.
This is one you don’t want to miss.
Rating: ★★★★½
P.S.
Shades of ‘Breaking Bad’? Absolutely.