Hell or High Water

Sometimes a terrific soundtrack isn't necessarily trying to compensate for a sub-par movie, and one critic's "It's derivative!" is another's "It's borrowing from some of the best sources out there, and the best idea wins." Director David Mackenzie's film Hell or High Water is a darkly funny crime caper that reminded me of a swelteringly hot Southern version of Fargo. Two brothers played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster rob a string of banks, for reasons that are more than initially meet the eye. On their tail is a soon-to-be-retired US Marshall played by Jeff Bridges, who is nominated for an Oscar for this role, and his partner, played by Gil Birmingham. One of the movie's pleasures is how much the scenes of dialogue between the two pairs of men mirror and complement each other. The events of the plot get complicated, and many details are thrown at us, that I'm not sure everything is air tight and doesn't slip through the cracks, but that is easy to forgive here. The performances score across the board. I only know Chris Pine as Cinderella's Prince from the Into the Woods film, and I best remember Ben Foster as Kirsten Dunst's love interest in a throwaway teen comedy from 2001 called Get Over It, so it is a hoot to see these two here, doing what they do. Jeff Bridges has a tired mush-mouthed drawl and a big bushy mustache, and lights up the screen whenever he appears. I have never heard a single song that appears in the movie, but they are all exciting, punctuate the action successfully without being intrusive, and I can best describe the genre as Southern dive bar band music. At a lean hour and 42 minutes, it trucks along smoothly. Hell or High Water is nothing groundbreaking, but it is quirky, fun, efficient, and a character gets a nice "that's what she said" out there. It's part western, part dark comedy, part buddy road picture, and I kind of loved it.