“Come Friday you got to be at the bank come hell or high water!!!”
By Nathan Wilson
This review is spoiler free.
Hell or High Water is this film that kind of went through a development hell. Note for the reader look up the blacklisted treatment that seem you only see with films that are linked with Don Quixote and Terry Gilliam. The film is another neo-western that is written by Taylor Sheridan, the first film that he has written. This for the Sheridan fans kind of results in a year zero feel towards this film and the nature around it. The film itself is directed by a still unknown Scottish director called David Mackenzie but he makes this look like it was directed by a major league director with a few Best Picture nominations under his name. The film is amazing in so many ways. Firstly, the direction is world class (it got nominated for best picture) and the acting is world class also (Jeff Bridges gets nominated for best supporting actor). For me the stand out role is that of Ben Foster who plays this half mad half bad-ass who in between telling jokes then robs banks.
It is only situations like this where you fall in love with the original ideas that are presented towards the audience from such an overused format. What I mean by this is that we have all seen westerns and we have all seen bank robbing/ heist films to the point where we may feel this is just a similar thing that will just sit at the back of your mind. THIS FILM IS NOT THAT. It is this smooth yet gritty Texan western drama about two brothers trying to pay back a bank loan and save their family home from foreclosure. They are pitted against another duo, a pair of Texas Rangers trying to stop the brothers from their banking robbing sprees and maybe sort out their own differences along the way.
We get this great dual dynamic that is created with these two brothers in arms. One being the actual brothers and the other being the policemen and cements an all round fine performance that as an audience people can get into and can honestly be moved with what they witness before them.
Overall this film just rocks and rolls with a dense vibe of pure badass. The script is pure finesse while the execution is just as great. For me this film is a solid 9/10 and something I could watch again and again and again.
Movie Night 