Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Axet — 18 Aug 2016

High hopes for this in the worst summer for movies of all time. Unfortunately it does not deliver. What a let down considering the great word of mouth, solid cast and welcome genre. Jackass critics over-praise yet again here doing nobody but the makers and themselves a favor! The idiots obviously grade on a curve. Do they give this mild effort a break only because everything else is so piss poor? They're unfit to be giving their worthless opinions on anything.

Jeff Bridges is a very fine actor and one of the great contemporary movie stars. Lifelong fan and he's in my top three favorite movie stars. He's good here and all the funny lines are delivered by his character, but that's about all that's good in this film. The script is weak on story. Low stakes, high boredom with contrived characters in cliché circumstances that have been put on screen countless times. The motivating family backstory is not going to be bought by a thinking audience. Obviously the writer and director were trying to comment on the modern West (actually its Texas here) with their dissertation in the forefront, and the lame story taking the backseat. Major mistake and it never works. If you want to do that then go make a documentary, write a book or become a painter because Hollywood movies should always be about strong narrative. Any kind of message on the nature of things should be sub-text, always! The audience needs a good story and the rest can filter through sub-consciously or even overtly, but the priority must be on story. The rookies behind this either don't get that, or just couldn't come up with the goods. ("Sicario" was a pretty phony and thin movie for that matter.) The tone and craft of this movie are fine and that's what the sheep critics are all flocking around because they are very easily fooled. It's a slow slog building up to nothing much.

Also there is a ridiculous logic flaw in the plot, what little plot there is. And not a flaw but maybe more troubling is a lack of moral subjectivity by the authorship of the film. The anti-hero is nothing new. What is are today's Leftist amoral filmmakers who don't pass judgment on extreme violence but show it matter of factly which is more realistic (except for the ubiquitous blood splatter now in shows and movies which is not realistic most of the time and in some ways the old code movies completely devoid of it are actually more realistic), however less reasonable for an audience looking for meaning. The tone shifts from buddy joking to cold blooded killing by characters the filmmakers intend you to like. That's not the problem. The lack of more of a moral payoff is. The danger is a culture heading for a complete lack of morality in the arts.