Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Rathael — 09 Sep 2016

HELL OR HIGH WATER.

Its been a while since a movie like this came out. A movie that is so simple in its execution, yet so layered and tense at the same time. Hell or High Water is a movie that is almost completely dependent on the cast and the chemistry between them. This movie has a cast of four living characters and two characters that are as important, even though they have no lines in the movie.

On the surface, it seems like a simple heist/hunt movie, but the movie is actually a study of friendship, brotherhood, neighbors, and the city and state coming together. Movie is set in two states, states of Texas and Oklahoma. Both of those states were portrayed so perfectly in the movie, that they became a fifth character. The ambient in the movie is so well portrayed that one could simply get lost in the beauty of the two states by itself. Music and the support cast, that lives in this environment, are as important as the main cast, to if you haven't noticed I haven't gotten to yet. Reason for that was, I wanted to explain, that everything in this movie is so interconnected, it is so difficult to focus on the just main characters.

Now that I have set the premise for this review lets talk about the main driving force of this picture.

THE CAST.

The main cast of this movie entails of : Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham as the Texas Rangers and Chris Pine and Ben Foster as the bank robbers. The main thing to say in this review is to say, it is really hard to establish exactly who stole the show in this movie. The entire cast had such fantastic chemistry on the screen.

Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham's scenes portray that these are the people that knew each other seemingly their entire lives. The friendly jabs toward each other, they way they deal with situations, everything is portrayed so smooth, you forget these are the actors, especially since they truly show you how different their characters are, and how they would approach certain things. It is still early talk about Oscar Nominations, but everyone in this movie at least deserves up most consideration, especially Jeff Bridges.

On the other hand we have the brothers.

Ben Foster and Chris Pine. Without spoiling any of the movie, but just to establish my point here, the movie right away focuses on these characters, and their chemistry, their reasoning and their genuine love for each other. For any doubters out there that Chris Pine cannot act, those fears are completely unfounded here, as I would say he brings the possibly career changing role in this movie. Ben Foster is equally brilliant in the role, and as I have mentioned and I keep bringing this point home, as it is well deserved, the movie ultimately works because of the chemistry between the characters.

This type of movie, its an experience, it is not everyone's cup of tea, its not super action packed with ongoing explosions, no superheroes or tornadoes or aliens, or natural disasters. It's a classic movie, that I mentioned before they don't make anymore. Actually, I should rephrase that, that mainstream studios don't make anymore. And I am going to do something that's going to pull some hate, but this movie I would declare BONNIE AND CLYDE for the 21st century. It is just that good.

4 out of 4 stars.