Hell or High Water (R16)
102 mins One thing the underwhelming Magnificent Seven remake didn’t take on board is something that cinema’s very best westerns know all too well: it ain’t about the shootin’ – it’s about the people.
Hell or High Water is at its heart a story of men: two brothers fighting to keep their heads above water during a financial crisis, and two men of the law who are hot on their heels in pursuit once the road trip of criminality ensues (the film is also by definition a story of men by dint of there being zero lead female characters – another inevitable Bechdel Test fail which we ignore because some stories just aren’t made to be about women, and with westerns that’s particularly so. At least the brief supporting roles are toughtalkin’ broads who more than hold their own).
It starts, as the best movies do, with a bank robbery. The smoothest of long takes tracks a car to its dusty, desert town destination where Tanner and Toby Howard, two working-class fellas struggling to save their maternal home, resort to low-level violence and intimidation and take only the cash from the drawers – not, as it turns out, because they are too stupid to steal properly, but in order to avoid the bank’s ink-bombed money.
Thus begins a mini crime-spree which sets Marshals Hamilton (soon to retire) and Parker (Native American and the butt of Hamilton’s racist jokes) on their tail.
Hell or High Water feels like a small, unflashy movie which sneaks up on you from behind then subdues you with its terrific provenance, coming as it does from the pen of Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan and starring Chris Pine (Star Trek), Ben Foster (most notable as Lance Armstrong in The Program) and Jeff Bridges, now graduated into mature, old-timer roles for which his languid gruffness is perfectly suited.
The Sicario factor is particularly relevant, that being one of the best films of last year, since Sheridan’s script effortlessly combines the traditional crime caper (reminiscent at times of Thelma & Louise) with the depiction of warm but realistic male relationships: the tough lawmen exchange witty unpleasantries in that way that tough men do affection, while the brothers – one a seasoned ex-con, the other a law-abiding, divorced dad – are as loyal and long-suffering as two orphaned boys can be.
Although polite and sensitive, it’s a rougher role with more depth than we’ve seen from Pine, while the chameleonic Foster gets all the best lines and is a revelation.
It doesn’t hit the Sicario level of breath-holding excitement, but with the backdrop of a heavily signposted financial meltdown, this tale of the little guy taking on the banks in order to survive makes for the thinking man’s action-bromance. And don’t worry – there are also plenty of guns. – Sarah Watt