New job (and bonus private practice) have fully taken off since starting a few scant months ago, and things have been feeling very busy. Given how much things have already fluctuated and shifted in my first 3.5 months, I've been trying to stay in observation mode as I watch my reactions throughout my days. So many things are very good about work, yet I'm still struggling to balance work against my need (and increasing ability) to actually have a life outside of work.
One clear victory in that endeavor is that I've found a new go-to movie theater! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Parking is only $3 and tickets are ONLY $11. FOR GROWNUPS. ON WEEKEND NIGHTS.
I feel like I'm getting away with highway robbery every single time. I'm also falling into a habit of buying the most expensive things on the concession menu, because with tickets that cheap I'm concerned the place will close. Also it seems like no one goes to movies in New City, as the theaters are sometimes oddly empty. But then, I went to a museum yesterday, on a Saturday, and it seemed like no one was there, either.
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| Party Location: Clearly elsewhere Party Invitees: Everyone but me and like five other people |
Anyway! All my expositioning aside, I'm going to try to write a relatively brief (ha!) review of a movie I saw over the weekend. We are over a year overdue for a snap judgment!
Tonight's film: "Hell or High Water" (2016).
Five bullet points: commence!
- "Let's talk about our backstory, shall we?!"
We're starting with my non-favorite elements of the movie.
One of my admittedly many pet peeves with movies is when dialogue serves a painfully obvious expository function. I know the audience has to be given at least some information at the beginning of a film to have any idea what's going on, but there are subtle, artful ways of accomplishing that. "Hell or High Water" didn't do a great job pulling that off, and instead, the timing of some of its expository information was particularly distracting.
I wouldn't qualify the following as spoilers because I don't think you can call something a "spoiler" if it occurs within the first 10 minutes of a movie, but in any case take that caveat for what it's worth as you read (or don't) the following: So at the outset of the film, you see brothers and main characters Toby Howard (played by Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (played by Ben Foster) rob two banks in rapid succession. They then speedily return to their family's Texan ranch, bury their getaway car to conceal it from authorities, then unwind with a few beers.
Once somewhat inebriated, Tanner begins poking around inside the family home and asking about the passing of the Howard brothers' mother as if this is the first time they've ever spoken of it. The brothers have just commenced a plan to save their family ranch from foreclosure that clearly took a lot of strategizing and forethought. The development of that plan was spurred by the death of their mother and the subsequent aforementioned looming foreclosure. ...And yet we're only just now talking about mom's death? The timing of this conversation is so distracting in its inauthenticity it's kind of stunning.
Other informational issues/plot holes (with actual potential spoilers): The brothers' plot is to steal from the bank that is foreclosing on their farm with the long-term goal of not only paying off the outstanding debt on the farm, but also putting the farm into a trust in Toby's sons' names to ensure they are broken out of the inter-generational cycle of poverty that has ensnared their family for generations. It is a surprisingly complex and sophisticated plan. So how the hell did two poor, presumably under-educated brothers (at least one of who has a lengthy prison record) figure out this scheme? I don't even understand how trusts work, let alone lien transfers or how to find an attorney who is a sufficient balance of corrupt and competent to pull this plan off. It all pushes the boundaries of reasonable credulity just a tiny bit.
Also this isn't exactly related to my overly-obvious expository beef and also spoilers (but again not really given the fact that this is a nouveau Western): one of the characters gets shot in the abdomen and is clearly not doing so hot but then I guess either gets treated or spontaneously heals because it's later totally unaddressed? But that's a thing you can just rub some Texan farmland dirt on and walk off, right?
Also this isn't exactly related to my overly-obvious expository beef and also spoilers (but again not really given the fact that this is a nouveau Western): one of the characters gets shot in the abdomen and is clearly not doing so hot but then I guess either gets treated or spontaneously heals because it's later totally unaddressed? But that's a thing you can just rub some Texan farmland dirt on and walk off, right?
- Storytelling by billboard
Another somewhat ham-fisted device is the film's insistence on establishing the context for its narrative through deliberate drive-by shots of billboards proclaiming the region's financial destitution and resultant housing instability by shilling various debt relief services.
The first time they throw in one of these shots, it's like, "Oh hey I see what you did there! You're telling me these people live in an environment of pervasive desperation and disempowerment wrought by unfeeling, insatiable, bloated, and unethical institutions that feast off the wreckage of ruined American dreams!"
The next time you're like, "...Yes, okay I get it."
Then they do it like two or three more times, and it's a little over-killy.
The first time they throw in one of these shots, it's like, "Oh hey I see what you did there! You're telling me these people live in an environment of pervasive desperation and disempowerment wrought by unfeeling, insatiable, bloated, and unethical institutions that feast off the wreckage of ruined American dreams!"
The next time you're like, "...Yes, okay I get it."
Then they do it like two or three more times, and it's a little over-killy.
- Landscape as a character
Overly obvious billboard shots notwithstanding, there are gorgeous vistas of the Texan landscape peppering "Hell or High Water" that let the arid, vast landscape stretch and breathe as a very strikingly present character in the film. Throughout the movie, Texas radiates heat, foreboding, mercilessness, strength, and imperviousness to the whims of man. It's an at once beautiful and stark canvas on which the characters' story unfolds.
The terrain is given a voice through various secondary and tertiary characters who speak to what it means to be Texan with notes of enduring pride that are surprising and compelling especially in a story driven by humiliation and need. At one point the Howard brothers' corrupt-yet-capable attorney recaps their plan to pay for their family's farm with money they robbed from the bank attempting to foreclose on the farm as "the most Texan thing I've ever heard" (or something along those lines).
Then, as Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham) stake out the location they suspect will host the Howard brothers' next heist later in the film, Alberto offers a different, older perspective on the history of the land that surrounds them. By speaking to Native People's more long-standing relationship with the land, Alberto offers a needed counter-narrative to the otherwise pretty much uniformly Caucasian experience of what it is to be Texan and inhabit that land.
The terrain is given a voice through various secondary and tertiary characters who speak to what it means to be Texan with notes of enduring pride that are surprising and compelling especially in a story driven by humiliation and need. At one point the Howard brothers' corrupt-yet-capable attorney recaps their plan to pay for their family's farm with money they robbed from the bank attempting to foreclose on the farm as "the most Texan thing I've ever heard" (or something along those lines).
Then, as Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham) stake out the location they suspect will host the Howard brothers' next heist later in the film, Alberto offers a different, older perspective on the history of the land that surrounds them. By speaking to Native People's more long-standing relationship with the land, Alberto offers a needed counter-narrative to the otherwise pretty much uniformly Caucasian experience of what it is to be Texan and inhabit that land.
- Laugh lines
In its efforts to capture the Texan spirit, there are several unexpected moments of humor in "Hell or High Water." One of my favorite scenes is when the Rangers stop for lunch in a tired-looking steak restaurant while zeroing in on the Howard brothers. No spoilers this time, but hilarity ensues via the grouchy old lady waitress, and it's delightful.
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| Grouchy old lady waitresses FTW! |
- Predictable, and yet
There is something so indisputably special about a film that can be very clear about precisely what it is and still surprise you. "Hell or High Water" is full of different surprises that strike a symphony of emotional notes. It's funny, it's beautiful, it's thrilling, it's devastating. It has moments of melancholic sweetness and uneasy, temporary peacemakings. Each actor melts into his or her role, aiding in transporting you directly into the heart of West Texas. It's a really wonderful film.
Take a peak at the trailer and see if it's playing near you!
Movie score: 4.5!
{Heart}
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