Here is what Hell or High Water does right:
- The characters act and behave like real people from Texas. They don't feel like generic Hollywood characters forced into a setting (like in Baby Driver) or like parodies of the region made to seem quirkier than normal people (like in Logan Lucky). They're Texans who look, act, and talk in a way that other Texans would recognize, with values that seem appropriate for the region without an editorializing about the rightness or wrongness of their opinions.
- The characters are regular working people types, but there isn't any poverty porn going on. Chris Pine's mom has land. It's obvious they were poor. But the movie doesn't linger on it. It's just where his family lived. Same with Ben Foster's trailer he's staying in, or Chris Pine's ex-wife's house. The movie doesn't put them in unrealistic locations, but it doesn't make a big deal of their realistic settings. Likewise, Jeff Bridges has a nicer house, but the movie doesn't focus on it. Chris Pine's family's history of poverty informs his decisions, but the movie isn't about the issue of poverty.
- There's a plot, and it makes sense. In lesser hands, this is a movie that could be an "important issues movie" about poverty or banks or the dying west. All of that is lingering there in the story. But the story is mostly about two brothers robbing banks for a good reason, and about two partners who are chasing them for a good reason. Both Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges' characters are smarter than average, so you want to see who will outsmart the other. Both pairs have an interesting dynamic that's entertaining to witness. The sane & wild brother, the gruff Texas Ranger and his long-suffering sidekick. Underneath the banter there's genuinely deep emotions, though neither pair of men are really willing to talk in those terms.
- It's funny. All four of the main characters get great lines. The one-off guest characters are memorable and interesting. There are a bunch of rewatchable funny scenes, like with the T-Bone waitress.
- It embraces a classic genre. It's a heist movie, but to me it's really a western. It updates the western in terms of its setting (the changing or even dying West) and its themes (corporations are doing to the working white people what their ancestors did to the Indians), without selling out the genre or "correcting" it. There's old west showdowns and staredowns ("That makes me a Comanche") and lawmen chasing outlaws across an awesome landscape.
- It's not trying to be a "prestige" picture. The movie was nominated for a best picture Oscar, but it doesn't feel like an awards-bait movie. It's a crime movie modern western with interesting characters. It could be a B movie if it wasn't done so well.
- It has great music that fits the world of the movie. It doesn't try to jam a rap song into the movie. It uses music that the characters would actually listen to and enjoy: Townes Van Zandt, Colter Wall, Chris Stapleton, Waylon Jennings.
- You don't have to be a liberal or a conservative to enjoy it. But it's not some muddled have-it-both-ways type of movie. It's about poverty and manhood and banks and corporations killing small town America. Real stuff. But it doesn't resort of either MSNBC or Fox News talking points in order to do so.
- It has a great cast that fits the world of the movie. No one in the movie looks like they walked in from a CW show. They look and act like they're from Texas. Chris Pine feels like he's been worn down by life. Ben Foster feels like a shithead who can't stay out of trouble. Jeff Bridges feels like he's been a Ranger his whole life. Gil Birmingham feels like he's fond of Bridges but also ready to stop putting up with his shit. The guest actors and background people feel like real people. Some are fat. Very few are Hollywood attractive.
Hell or High Water hits that sweet spot: the characters feel like normal real people living in the real world. But there's also an entertaining plot and cool scenes and sequences and fun dialogue. Usually, it feels like if Hollywood does a movie about real people, the story is a drag and there's almost no plot and it's all morose and boring and overly pretentious. Or if there is a fun plot and cool sequences, the characters are unrealistic super assassins or girlboss heroes, and the story is pure escapism.
You'd think that Hollywood would try to make more films like this -- just a 12 million dollar budget, I think -- and fewer big budget prestige pictures like Babylon or Amsterdam or Empire of Light that feel like they're only made for other people in the film industry.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/zwon8w/hollywood_needs_more_movies_like_hell_or_high/
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