Hell or High Water

I had a girl tell me on a date once that when she read my writing it made me seem like I was a douchebag (ok so this has happened more than once) but that when she was actually around me in person, I came off as one of the sweetest people she’s ever met. And that got me to thinking, am I the Tucker Max of movie reviewers? When women read my writing do they see a gym selfie taking, cold sore cream purchasing loser? Man I certainly hope not! I can’t afford cold sore cream…I kid, I kid!

I guess the reason I write the way I do has to do with my love/hate relationship with small town Texas living. All the things I love about small town Texas just happen to be all the things I hate about it too. I love that it’s slow paced and quiet with open air and fish fries on the weekends but I also hate the fact that unless you’re married by the age of 10, there’s absolutely nothing for you to do but get drunk and wait for said fish fries or for football season to roll around. I spent 18 years of my life hiding this fact and I have just now found a creative way to get these feelings out without being ostracized or being hung from a tree by some local who’s wearing a Jerry Jeff Walker tee shirt!

Well watching a film like Hell or High Water brought back some of those old feelings of nostalgia when it comes to my small hometown of Victoria because it highlights everything that’s right and wrong about life in the Texas country. In it we meet Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) Howard, two brothers who go on a bank robbing spree to help save their family’s farm in West Texas. But what’s so great about their plan, outside of the obvious, is the fact that they are only robbing the branches of the very bank that’s trying to take their land.

Toby is a divorced father of two who has just buried his mom after moving back to help take care of her in her final days. His brother Tanner is fresh out of jail for killing their abusive father but it seems as if rehabilitation hasn’t worked on him as he still appears to have a wild and self destructive streak in him. He is played by one of my favorite actors in Foster and he also provides some of the film’s funniest and most thrilling moments with his quick temper and sharp tongue. In response to his brothers request that he needs to be sober for that day he replies "Who the f*& gets drunk off of beer anyway?" Now that’s Texas through and through. Pine does an adequate job with his Texas accent but he really shines when it comes to quietly showing Toby’s pent up anger and desperation.

Now all the while they’re out there getting away with their amateur bank robbing, soon to be retired Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) is using his experience and savvy to help track them down. He’s so good at what he does and he’s done it for so long that it’s really the only thing he knows how to do at this point in his life. And he’s so dedicated to his work that he’s only comfortable when he sleeps outside so that he can be closer to the action. Bridges is great as he exudes everything there is about being an old grizzled Texan; he’s charming, polite, and determined but he’s also annoying in that he drops racist (but with no true ill will) jokes constantly to his poor tolerant Indian and Mexican American partner. The jokes are all hilarious by the way.

So naturally the race is on for Marcus to find Toby and Tanner before things get out of hand. You must remember that in Texas there is the open carry law, and people certainly do take advantage of that, especially those who live in small towns. At one point in the film, a few so called do-gooders even tried to track down Toby and Tanner themselves, that was until Tanner broke out an AK and started unloading on them. This of course led to me and my idiot friend coming up with joke that the film temporarily turned into the horror flick Hick Follows (snare drum, snare drum, cymbal). But moving on…

I loved this film as everything in it was just so genuine to me; from the small town Texas feel to the desire of everyone to get over on the shady bank system that’s in place, there just so much about it that was endearing. The scam the bank was running on their family is very real and has happened to a few people that I know personally, so I found myself cathartically rooting for the Howard brothers with the hope that they would finally stick it to the man (pause). And after walking out of the theater, I found myself falling back in love with Texas and based off of that, I can’t help but give it a rating of very FRESH!