Phil’s Thursday night movie was loaned to him by a work colleague who thought he might like it. Hell and High Water (2016). Billed as a neo-western heist movie (doncha just love sub-categories) and directed by David MacKenzie it stars Chris Pine, Benn Foster, Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham.
It’s not such an old movie so I’ll try and avoid too many spoilers. The plot regards 2 brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard. Their mother recently died and the bank is going to foreclose on the ranch she owned in a weeks time. Toby (Pine) is divorced, and Tanner (Foster) is an ex-con with a wild streak, and the pair make plans to do small bank robberies across the week, in order to pay off the debt, and keep the Ranch in the family, and are quite successful in spite of Tanner being a bit of a loose cannon, much to Toby’s annoyance.
Two Texas rangers Marcus Hamilton (Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Birmingham) are on the case to catch them. Marcus is very near retirement age and after investigating the robberies already committed, soon works out where and when the brothers will be next, and he and Parker go off to await the next robbery.
That’s it for spoilers. The movie was written by Taylor Sheridan an actor/writer/director and Hell and High Water is the second of his trilogy of “the modern-day American Frontier” with Sicario being his first, and Wind River being the last. He also wrote the follow up to Sicario but not as part of this trilogy. Hell and High Water was nominated for lots of awards at the OScars, Globes, BAFTA etc and had good reviews from critics.
Well deserved I think. The beauty of this movie is in how the relationships between the two brothers, and between the two rangers are portrayed. We can’t fault the acting here, Bridges at his best, a grumpy sardonic old guy who continuously teases his partner with non- PC Indian insults but is smart as a whip. Gil Birmingham gives as good as he gets. Pine and Foster have got brothers just right, sometimes at odds, and exasperated with each other, but with blood thicker than water. A joy to watch these four guys take a brilliant script and bring it to life. It’s not a comedy but we did laugh a lot during it.
The cinematography by Giles Nuttgens was stunning, using East New Mexico as a stand in for Texas, and having the wide open plains and forgotten backwater towns and people as the subtle backdrop to this story. Little touches like in a Gas station scene there’s a cowboy on a horse, young idiots playing crap music in a limegreen musclecar, and the brothers in a crappy saloon car. Modern-day American Frontier indeed.
Critics were impressed :- Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times sums it up very well. “In ways large and small, Hell or High Water is a movie so beautiful and harsh and elegiac and knowing, the moment it was over was the moment I wanted to see it again”.
Fraggle Rating : Bloody Brilliant.
Fraggle's Otherverse 
I love this film too, and gave it a big thumbs up when I reviewed it on my blog. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Cheers Pete.
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It’s a Yup from me, a very understated and thoughtful film, the best of the trilogy; Wind River doesn’t quite land, although it’s watchable.
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Haven’t seen Wind River yet, it’s on the list. Cheers 10.
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Well, not to dispute tensecondsfromnow, but I absolutely loved Wind River. It was one of the best movies I had seen in that year when it was released. But, as always everyone interprets films differently which is no problem! 😀
Out of the trilogy, this is the one that I haven’t seen yet😊 Ben Foster is such an underrated actor though! I hope to see this one soon, as I’m very curious for it. As always, great post!😀
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Thanks Michel, it’s probably on streaming somewhere by now.
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This was a good one for me, too. I love Chris Pine. But Ben Foster was electric.
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I sure love your banner!!! How did you create it?
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It’s a phone app, wordfoto. 😊
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Hmm. Somehow I missed this, but then I’m not usually a big western watcher. In this case though I believe I’ll make an exception.🤠
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I think you should! 😊
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Never heard of it!Will give it a go.
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Enjoy!
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Is ‘bloody brilliant” an official rating?
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Yes it is. Someone (possibly you know him as you’re in his ironing cabal) told me stars were for freezers and I checked mine and saw that it was true. So I invented my own official rating system, which, I have to say is far superior to mere stars. Bloody Brilliant is my top tier rating.
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Considering that “mutual friend” can’t seem to figure out my own simple star system (how hard is it to interpret 6 & 109/347 stars out of 8 & 3/210?) I’m rather surprised you took his advice. But if it’s working for you, more power to ya!
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Yes, thanks I’m definitely powered.
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That sounds worth a watch. I like films about relationships.
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You can’t do better than this then, cheers April.
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I really enjoyed this one too, I think Pete put me onto it. I hadn’t remembered the name of the film but recognised it as soon as you started with the plot. Well worth a watcha and I liked the way it ended 🙂
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Perfect Western choice, thanks
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