Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Juliankennedy23 — 26 Mar 2017

Hell or High Water (7 out of 10) is a very good film overall and is certainly worth a watch. I wanted to get that out of the way because I have a serious complaint about this film. Hell or High Water spends most of its time in a realistic place. It paints a picture of two brothers who have a realistic life with believable relationships with both each other and the world around them. It also paints a realistic scenario that, while not without holes, certainly gives a purpose behind the bank robbing and other shenanigans. Hell and High Water is also a fable. Not quite of the Magic Realism kind that one easily could have seen this film drift into but of the wish fulfillment kind. The kind one would expect in a children's adventure. In other words the ending of The Goonies. Now one could easily argue if The Goonies ending worked for well The Goonies but it simply doesn’t strike true to a film that admittedly was getting looser with reality as it went along. Upon reflection one certainly, could imagine that the writer or director was well aware that they were drifting into fable territory and simply loosened the rules of the world of the film as events progressed. I certainly am willing to give this finely crafted film this. The ending just seemed too clean for a film so otherwise grounded. The equivalent of a ghost pirate ship drifting in the background.

Speaking of endings souring an otherwise fine experience. The inclusion of a blasting Black Sabbath song at the end of the first Iron Man worked because well it's and Iron Man movie and it's an Iron Man song. This film is drifting quietly into the sunset and suddenly we are blasted with this loud obnoxious country rock song (Outlaw State of Mind by Chris Stapleton) that doesn’t fit the scene, or mood and honestly at that point doesn’t fit the film. The film overall is great, The acting is more than solid all across the board and the film spends the vast majority of its running time in a good place. Like I said a very good film overall.