Hell or High Water

As always, the fascinating setting of neo-western Texas is so bleak and grimy as to be immensely beautiful, and set within it is an admittedly unoriginal but utterly absorbing, rhythmic and logically unfolding plot about two bank robbers and a persistent sheriff. The performances are excellent throughout; directorially, the film it’s not dazzling, igniting tension with general communicativeness and intense escalation of the inevitable collision of the two sub-worlds, but within the established technical and narrative parameters, it’s a perfectly effective conversational detective drama that manages to create an excellent atmosphere only with engaging dialogues, diversified with an academically targeted racist theme. A great cool movie with the traditional Bridges and a great musical score by Nick Cave, a steal of the golden bald man might have been appropriate. (29/12/2016)

Texas has got something about it. The Southern atmosphere drips from each shot. McCarthy’s redneck poeticism engulfs you and Cave and Ellis have the lion´s share in this. A story about two brothers and their plan to overcome adversity embodied in bank clerks. Bridges’ lines are perfect, Foster is nicely crazy, Pine intentionally minimalistic. A modern western at its best. Sometimes even a blind pig can find its way to the trough. (04/12/2016)

The pure essence of Cormack McCarthy, about which regular adaptations of his works can just dream about. Without exaggeration, the best film neo-western, watching which you will be astonished on how many levels it works, without any possible "but". It works smoothly as a genre movie, as a study of magnificently written (and without exception equally magnificently played) characters, as a hypnotic movie that raises emotions benefiting from Cave and endless Texas distances, as well as a camera that does them justice as a reflection of time and a social insight into the soul of the had-working Republican class, which has nothing, banks are bullying them and circumstances force them to take one credit after another and who get from one debt to another (no other film will show you in such an illustrative and nonviolent way why America chose Trump), as a textbook of minimalist dialogs "about something", even if seemingly "about nothing", like... Well, I could continue for hours and hours in the same way. For many years, I have not seen a movie that would so skillfully blur the line between pure genre pleasure and existential festival movie. For me, it's simply an instant classic, and not just within the "Peckinpah" genre. (15/11/2016)

I like stories of people who have most things wrong in life and yet wouldn't change a thing. It's a devil's deal that such stories often take place in Texas. From Toby and Tanner's robberies, I feel a burning longing for old times that will never return, and Jeff Bridges' grumbling ranger saws the contours of a Western almost to perfection. In combination with perfect cinematography that captures all the vast expanses with absorbing haziness, I'm not far from giving this the highest rating. There's only one thing preventing me – the persistent feeling that it borrowed too much from No Country for Old Men. (11/01/2017)

A modern western tale that is incredibly well-suited by its choice of cast, with Ben Foster brilliantly unhinged, Chris Pine convincingly enigmatic, and of course, Jeff Bridges, who although you might start feeling he's playing somewhat similar roles, it doesn't matter much because he plays them superbly. (21/11/2016)