In recent years, the Western has reasserted itself as the genre that keeps on giving, thanks to stand-outs like the horror-infused Bone Tomahawk and John Maclean’s sublime Slow West. Directed by David Mackenzie and penned by Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water is a solid but somewhat predictable offering about two brothers (career-best performances from Foster and Pine) who hold up branches of the West Texan banks that threaten to foreclose their late mother’s property. The robbers’ cop counterparts, led by the grizzled, reliably great Bridges, are in pursuit. Let down somewhat by its prosaic narrative, the film nevertheless works thanks to its Cormac McCarthy-esque tone and Giles Nuttgens’ dusty lensing, which is terrifically paired with a melancholic score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
Hell or High Water | Directed by David Mackenzie (US 2016) with Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, Chris Pine. Starts January 12.
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