Hell or High Water

HELL OR HIGH WATER
2016 | Dir. David Mackenzie | 102 Minutes

"To watch you pay those bastards with their own money, if that ain't Texan I don’t know what is."

To pay off the reverse mortgage on their late mother's ranch, brothers Toby and Tanner rob branches of the local Texas bank that provided the predatory loan. Toby is desperate but level-headed, carefully planning each robbery and devising a method to launder the money, while Tanner is brash and impulsive. Hot on their trail are Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton and Alberto Parker, the final case for Hamilton before retirement.

Hell or High Water is a captivating contemporary take on the movie western made more relevant by weaving in the damage to the American housing market and overall economy inflicted by the greed of the banking industry. David Mackenzie's film features a desolate Texan landscape of failing farms and struggling businesses populated with nuanced, well-rounded, and downright eccentric characters. Although they are on the wrong side of the law, the audience is led to sympathize with the brothers on some levels (at least until Tanner's penchant for violence crosses over into outright murder), painting the faceless institutions that failed them as the true villains of the narrative. Perfectly setting the tone, the picture's soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is fittingly Texan and grim.

Chris Pine makes for a solid leading man as the reasonable brother Toby. However, Pine's performance is outshined by Ben Foster's Tanner. Foster completely owns the part of a self-proclaimed Comanche, an enemy to all, even to himself, providing pathos and dimension to a character that could have been played as a straight-forward psychopath. Jeff Bridges effortlessly fits the part of grizzled Texas Ranger Hamilton, casually trading racist jabs with Gil Birmingham's Alberto, the duo exhibiting an amusing and very natural chemistry.

Hell or High Water is an impactful and thrilling Texas crime drama unfolding in the present post-mortgage crisis landscape. In the same vein as films like the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men, it's the kind of neo-western in which all that remains of the frontier is a wasteland and the old gunslinger archetypes are a dying breed.

FRAGMENTS

- Chris Pine and Ben Foster previously appeared together in The Finest Hours

- The film's writer Taylor Sheridan makes a cameo appearance as a cowboy

- The screenplay was voted the best Black List script in 2012 (The Black List is an annual survey of the most-liked Hollywood movie scripts not yet produced)

- Though set in Texas, the film was shot in New Mexico

MCU CONNECTIONS
- Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane in Iron Man)

- Dale Dickey (Mrs. Davis in Iron Man 3)

Hacksaw Ridge

HACKSAW RIDGE
2016 | Dir. Mel Gibson | 139 Minutes

"Please Lord, help me get one more. Help me get one more."

During World War II, devout Seventh-day Adventist Desmond Doss enlists in the US Army to serve as a combat medic. Doss immediately attracts contempt from his squad mates and commanding officers based on his refusal to train with or carry a service weapon due to his religious beliefs. However, Doss quickly earns their respect and gratitude, risking his life saving over six dozen men during the Battle of Okinawa.

Based on the real life of Private First Class Desmond Doss, the first half of Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge plays out like a standard biopic, virtually checking off every item on the standard cinematic-formative-life-event list for Doss in rapid succession. The boot camp section of the film, highlighting the inevitable conflict of ideology between Doss and the military, is compelling enough if slightly stale.

However, the picture truly comes into its own during its second half. Gibson expertly showcases Doss' extraordinary heroics on a truly horrific battlefield. Featuring some of the bloodiest military combat scenes in a mainstream Hollywood film since Saving Private Ryan, the onscreen violence serves to accentuate Doss' bravery in the face of the senseless brutality in Okinawa, at one point returning to the fog of war to assist the wounded that was left behind as his squad retreats.

As Desmond Doss, Andrew Garfield delivers the finest performance of his career to date, portraying Doss as a kind, soft-spoken man with a subtly indelible strength just under the surface until he is called into action. Though he nearly crosses the line into chewing the scenery, character actor Hugo Weaving is excellent as damaged alcoholic veteran father Tom Doss, at first refusing to support Doss' decision to enlist but ultimately vouching for him. In a slightly off-balance performance, Vince Vaughn is equal parts seething military officer and comedian as Doss' Sergeant, constantly berating his men with humorously deadpan criticism, focusing most of his disdain on Doss. Sam Worthington does a serviceable job playing Doss' captain with the standard biopic antagonist arc, fundamentally disagreeing with Doss' beliefs at the start of the film but having his mind completely by the end. Good but mostly unremarkable in a role written to be a stock character, Australian actress Teresa Palmer plays Doss' wife Dorothy Schutte. The film also features Rachel Griffiths as Doss' mother in another mostly thankless stock character role.

Despite its generic first half, Hacksaw Ridge is an excellent war film. The picture tells a truly inspirational story of courage and dedicated conviction. It is carried by a brilliant performance from Andrew Garfield as he proves to be one of the best actors of his generation.


FRAGMENTS
- The film spent fourteen years in development as the real life Desmond Doss did not want filmmakers to inaccurately portray or sensationalize his life experiences and religious beliefs

- The picture does not portray or mention Doss' service in Guam and Leyte prior to Okinawa and condenses Doss' service in Okinawa from about three weeks to a few days


MCU CONNECTIONS
- Hugo Weaving (Johann Schmidt in Captain America: The First Avenger)

- Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Fences

FENCES
2016 | Dir. Denzel Washington | 139 Minutes

"You've got to take the crookeds with the straights."

In 1950's Pittsburgh, former Negro Leagues baseball player Troy Maxson supports his family working as a garbage man. Worn down by years of sacrifice and disappointment and the day-to-day pressures if a working man, Maxson is too disillusioned to support the dreams of his sons, too heartbroken to properly care for his mentally impaired older brother, and too restless to remain faithful to his wife.

Adapted for film by August Wilson from his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1983 play, Fences features incredible performances under the direction of screen legend Denzel Washington. The story of Troy Maxson is tragic, the everyman weathered by a cruel society who is unwilling and, at times, simply unable to change. Maxson is written as a damaged soul whose dreams are broken by hard life experiences, believing his children would suffer the same misfortunes he suffered if they were to pursue their dreams.

The film unfortunately looks and feels too much like a stage play, ultimately delivering a moving but less than cinematic experience. The scope of the film is limited, and while the production design is impressively authentic, much of the narrative is confined to the Maxsons’ back yard. While the picture is faithful to the stage production it is based on, it might just be too faithful to be compelling as a film.

Denzel delivers a world-class performance as Maxson, the supporting players Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, and Saniyya Sidney are all very good, but Viola Davis is truly extraordinary as Maxson's long-suffering wife Rose. Davis' Rose is powerful, nuanced, and altogether heartbreaking, offering a truly sympathetic emotional through-line for the film. Conversely, Mykelti Williamson is distractingly over-the-top as brain-damaged brother Gabe.

Fences is a thought-provoking drama featuring excellent performances from Denzel Washington and, particularly, Viola Davis. However, for a cinematic outing, it is severely limited in terms of scale. Besides garnering more exposure, August Wilson's acclaimed play may not have benefited much in the transition from stage to film.


FRAGMENTS
- Denzel Washington played Troy Maxson on stage during the 2010 Broadway revival of the play

- Stephen Henderson also appears in Manchester by the Sea, also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017

Arrival

ARRIVAL
2016 | Dir. Denis Villeneuve | 116 Minutes

"If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?"

One morning, a dozen alien spacecraft appear hovering over seemingly arbitrary locations across the globe. The US government recruits linguist Louise Banks to establish communication with the extraterrestrial lifeforms onboard a vessel over Montana. Tensions mount as Earth's governments fail to understand the intentions of the alien visitors and disagree over the need to take military action. Dr. Banks races against the clock to learn more about the aliens in order to prevent Earth's leaders from making a potentially devastating mistake.

Adapted by screenwriter Eric Heisserer from Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life," Arrival posits that the human race needs to resolve its own terrestrial communication issues and prejudices before it can reasonably interact with other intelligent lifeforms. The central conflict of the film has less to do with the otherworldly heptapods it features and more to do with the opposing interests of humanity as a whole. The film's narrative center is on Dr. Banks, emotionally-distant at the start of the film but eventually establishing a meaningful human connection of her own, only to be faced with possibly the greatest existential challenge imaginable. While visually impressive, director Denis Villeneuve's vision harkens back to classic science fiction parables such as Robert Wise's The Day The Earth Stood Still and numerous episodes of Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone in that the central focus of the film is on the flaws inherent in humanity and its potential to rise above them.

Amy Adams turns in an amazing performance as Louise Banks, showcasing an incredibly broad but controlled range in an extraordinarily emotionally complex role. Jeremy Renner plays opposite Adams for most of the film's run time as theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, dialing up his trademark snarky charm. Ever-reliable character actor Forest Whitaker also features as Colonel GT Weber, a good soldier bound to his duty, reluctantly overseeing an operation that involves scientists who refuse to follow orders.

Arrival is an exemplary work of science fiction focusing primarily on the importance of communication. It's also a thoughtful meditation on humanity's response to the unknown on both a macro scale and a profoundly personal level. The film is both cautiously optimistic and deeply heartbreaking.


FRAGMENTS
- Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner previously appeared together in David O. Russell's American Hustle

- The film's composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and director Denis Villeneuve previously collaborated on Prisoners and Sicario

- In English, the message Dr. Banks whispers in Mandarin to General Shang is: "In war, there are no winners, only widows."


MCU CONNECTIONS
- Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton in Thor, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Endgame)

- Michael Stuhlbarg (Nicodemus West in Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

- Forest Whitaker (Zuri in Black Panther)

The 89th Academy Awards

My ranking of the Best Picture Oscar contenders of 2017:

1. La La Land
2. Arrival
3. Moonlight *
4. Hell or High Water
5. Manchester by the Sea
6. Hidden Figures
7. Hacksaw Ridge
8. Lion
9. Fences

*Actual Winner