Hell or High Water

And the Oscar for non-stop pure redneck neo-western goes to? David Mackenzie, who has handled an uninteresting material decently, creating a swaggering retro one-off with a boisterous Jeff Bridges the way we like him and a wacky Ben Foster the way we absolutely love him. Oddly enough, it also works quite well as an interesting probe amongst working-class Midwesterners. It doesn’t have any bigger ambitions, but it’s good for a Saturday siesta. (19/11/2016)

A pure post-western that doesn't remember the old days fondly, but laments the misery of the present, which doesn't favor cowboys. It’s a wistful tale from the borderlands that reigns in its casting and pure direction. However, the theatrical standing on the porch with a beer in your hand and philosophy on your lips is perhaps too much at times. (14/01/2017)

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)

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)