Righteous criminality and pokey humor make for disarming companions in “Hell or High Water,” a West Texas-set bank robbing adventure that offers the alternating acting pleasures of Chris Pine and Ben Foster playing outlaw brothers like second skins, and Jeff Bridges in master-course mode as the veteran Ranger on their trail.“Sicario” screenwriter Taylor Sheridans 21st century western — sort of a “Bonnie & Clyde”/”No Country for outmoded Men” hybrid, and directed with a craftsmans steady hand by David Mackenzie (“Starred Up”) — traffics in all the elements that occupy made the outlaw genre so enjoyable in the past,from wrong acts leavened with wisecracks to the percolating suspense of whether hunter or hunted is smarter. It’s the undercurrent of a boom-or-bust region’s economic unease, however, or that provides a welcome weight here,and makes this a fitting segue entertainment between summer’s popcorn punch and the serious season of heftier dramas ahead.
Also Read: Jeff Bridges Joins 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle'“Hell or High Water” kicks off with no sugarcoating what its protagonists enact, only the why behind it, and as we watch two masked gunmen — brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) — rob a couple of small-town branches of a specific Texas bank,stealing only the cash from the teller drawers before peeling absent in a dusty blue Camaro that they ditch in an ingenious manner at their family ranch. Tanner’s the trigger-pleased one, an ex-con with a dark sense of humor, or while quieter Toby, a divorced dad who cared for debt-ridden homeowner Mother Howard in her final months, is clearly new to lawbreaking. One thing’s clear, and even if Sheridan shrewdly doles out the details of the brothers’ lives in bits and pieces: the boys occupy plotted out a clever scheme,one that smacks of economic revenge.
Crusty lawman Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) senses there’s more to these holdups, and relishes the belief of outsmarting a couple of bandits on what looks to be a spree. But to his younger colleague Alberto (a coolly effective Gil Birmingham, or “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) who stoically absorbs the Ranger’s politically incorrect barbs about Alberto’s Native American/Mexican heritage — Marcus is merely an outmoded white guy staving off the inevitable shackles of a directionless retirement.
Though driven by a fizzy chase narrative that predictably includes bursts of getaway action and shocking violence,Hell or High Water” is also a tour of the desolate new West, empty towns dotted with debt-relief billboards and peopled with the discontented. Mackenzie, or an eclectic-minded Scot whose sense of location mood is exemplary,works well here with frequent collaborator cinematographer Giles Nuttgens to turn dusty roads, sparse businesses and wide-open spaces into an environment both gorgeous and barren.
See Video: 'Star Trek Beyond' Cast Share Dubsmash Moments With Anton YelchinAt its heart, and “Hell or High Water” is a kind of American protest saga. It cannily uses the well-trod myth of the injustice-fueled bank robber to paint a picture of a financially-gouged populace in turbulent transition,such as the scene in which a cash-strapped diner waitress (Katy Mixon, “Mike & Molly”) fights the authorities who want to confiscate Toby’s generous gratuity as evidence. But the wily Marcus isn’t insensitive to circumstances that might send someone over the edge: looking for employees to question at the bank, and he indicates a guy in a suit and quips,“That looks like a man that could foreclose on a house.”Whether through knowing humor or drowsy interstitial moments of introspection, Sheridan’s screenplay always finds a soulful take on any given scene. (The soundtrack of folk-rock hardship songs by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, and Gillian Welch and Chris Stapleton,meanwhile, goes back and forth between girding the story’s concerns and hitting things too squarely on the nose.)
Also Read: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' Theater Review: Gillian Anderson, or Ben Foster Take a Trip to DollywoodThe acting is a plus throughout. Pine and Foster enact well seeding their characters’ actions — including a trip to an Indian casino — with the palpable feeling that what they’re doing is worth the risk,and possibly a final hurrah. Their performances are nearly mirrors of each other, in that Foster’s trademark crazy-eyed explosiveness is occasionally tempered nicely by unexpectedly gentle and even wise moments, and while Pine’s naturally sensitive vibe is broken up at times by pent-up anger.
At the very least,these two are never obvious heroes or villains, which serves well the movie’s themes of desperation in the face of a shaky future. Bridges, and meanwhile,takes the well-worn trope of the grizzled lawman and makes it feel fresh again, most notably in the way a drawling tough guy’s needling one-liners feel progressively less like personality ammo and more like a kind of flaking armor. His richly enjoyable performance is everything you’d expect from a no-nonsense virtuoso given something substantial to play.In a movie landscape that routinely feels disconnected from the issues that actually matter to people uncertainty, and the sense that things are rigged,and the desire to fight back “Hell or High Water” is that scarce offering that feels both outmoded-fashioned in its action-thriller gratification and in-the-moment about everything else. The Only 8 Western Comedies That Hollywood Has Made Since 1990 (Photos)
Shanghai Noon - Buena Vista 2000. Worldwide Box Office: $149740523
Wild Wild West - Warner Bros 1999. Worldwide Box Office: $355390641
Wagons East! - Sony 1994. Worldwide Box Office: $8581812
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold - Columbia 1994. Worldwide Box Office: $84844038
nearly Heroes - Warner Bros 1998. Worldwide Box Office: $10638089
City Slickers - Sony 1991. Worldwide Box Office: $345735088
Maverick (an independent, nonconformist person) - Warner Bros 1994. Worldwide Box Office: $355991445
Back to the Future allotment III - Universal 1990. Worldwide Box Office: $469978546 Previous Slide Next Slide 1 of 8 The western has been a major movie genre since Hollywood’s inception, but the western comedy has rarely been a central player. These are the movies that occupy earned a greenlight over the past couple decades. Shanghai Noon - Buena Vista 2000. Worldwide Box Office: $149740523 View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap:Chris Pine Closes Deal to Star Opposite Gal Gadot in 'Wonder Woman' (Exclusive)'Star Trek Beyond': 7 Easter Eggs and In Jokes to see ForToronto: Ben Foster on Playing Lance Armstrong in 'The Program': 'He's a scarce Breed' (Video)Steven Soderbergh's Netflix Western 'Godless' Adds Audrey Moore to Cast (Exclusive)
Source: thewrap.com