Hell or High Water
2016, R, 102 min. Directed by David Mackenzie. Starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, Chris Pine, Gil Birmingham, Katy Mixon, Marin Ireland.
REVIEWED By Marjorie Baumgarten, Fri., Aug. 12, 2016
This West Texas crime movie barrels in with the force of a full-gale dust storm over the flat, dry plains of our parched movie summer. Hell or High Water is a good but not great movie with sensational lead performances that elevate it to enjoyably memorable status. Add to that a pleasing soundtrack composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and stunning cinematography by Giles Nuttgens, who has made several previous movies with David Mackenzie (Young Adam being the standout), and Hell or High Water has what we need to quench our summer cinema drought.
We’ve seen all the tropes before: the bank-robbing brothers (Foster and Pine), the bloated Texas Ranger (Bridges) who’s due to retire in a few weeks, the Mexican-American partner in law enforcement (Birmingham) who bears the brunt of his superior’s casual racism, the Indian casinos, the loyalty to family, and signs everywhere of widespread poverty, underemployment, and the greed of bankers. The screenplay by Taylor Sheridan calls to mind his previous film Sicario, a crime drama embedded in the American Southwest in which the endemic racism is part of a deeper study of the cultural milieu. In both films there is a sense that the storytellers could have mined even deeper veins. Misgivings, maybe, but the go-for-broke performances by Bridges, Foster, and Pine are just so damned enjoyable that little impedes the fun while the movie is unfolding.
See our interview with the filmmakers, August 12.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Richard Whittaker, Aug. 12, 2016
Marjorie Baumgarten, Aug. 14, 2009
Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie, Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, Chris Pine, Gil Birmingham, Katy Mixon, Marin Ireland