You know that lost-at-sea feeling that seems to pervade the entire zeitgeist, that right and wrong have been turned upside down and there seems to be no way to fix it? The 2016 heist drama Hell or High Water captures that in a way that’s ugly but also beautiful. Chris Pine and Ben Foster are brothers, ranchers in Texas in a world — our world — where law and justice no longer coincide, in which those in power have little moral authority, in which there is one set of rules for the powerful and another for the weak. So they’re robbing the branches of the bank that cheated them, legally, out of their ranch and the oil under it. Alongside plenty of heist-movie humor and suspense, and delicious chemistry between Pine and Foster, is a bleak fatalism grounded in depressing reality. Honestly, the film is great! (Read my 2016 review.)
US: stream on Hulu; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Netflix and Studiocanal Presents (via Prime and Apple TV); rent on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Hell or High Water at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
