Hell or High Water (2016, David Mackenzie)

"All this way my ancestors land, the lease folks took it, and it's been taken from them. Except it ain't no army doing it, it's those sons of bitches right there." [points to the bank] - Alberto

In a year utterly bombarded by sequels, remakes, reboots and of course, endless comic book film adaptations, it's needless to say that 2016 has come as a major disappointment to myself and all film-goers alike.

Yet amongst the few great surprises of 2016, (and let's face it there hasn't been many) came Hell or High Water (which was opened to a limited release), and man does this flick pack a wallop. It's brilliant character development and dialogue are reminiscent of my last year's favourite film Sicario, which is due to the fact that these two films share the same screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (who has his directorial debut coming to cinemas next year). This guy really knows how to write a gritty thriller.

The premise of this film is simple, there are two brothers, Tanner (Ben Foster) who has recently been released from serving some serious prison time and is a born to be criminal, and Toby (Chris Pine), a trouble-free individual with an ex-wife and two kids. These brothers have been poor their whole lives (as was their family before them) and their mother has recently passed and left them the ranch. However, if the back taxes and mortgage are not paid off in a week, the ranch will be forfeited to the bank, the Texas Midlands Bank.

But Toby's not done yet. He's come up with a plan and has taken every precaution into consideration. With the help of his brother, they'll knock off numerous small banks (always the Texas Midlands Bank) in the course of one week, always with a stolen car (which is then buried) and only stealing small bills. They then exchange these stolen bills at a casino for chips where the money is then cashed in for cheques made out to none other than the Texas Midlands Bank, therefore buying their ranch back from the bank with the bank's own money. Brilliant.

We then of course get the two Texas rangers assigned to look into the robberies, (as this job is too small to call in the big guns like the FBI) the veteran ranger Marcus Hamilton (who's working on his last case) payed magnificently by Jeff Bridges (who's very much in his element here) and his partner Alberto Parker played by Gil Birmingham. In the coarse of this film, we see these two characters go at each other with race and culture (being that Marcus is a white Texan and Alberto is a half Mexican half Comanche) yet we can see they have a full respect and understanding of each other and the chemistry between the two is first-rate.

One thing is made clear in this film and that is the real antagonist, it's not the two bank robbing brothers, but the bank itself. As is the case in the 1967 masterpiece Bonnie and Clyde in an age where the banks prey on the weak and show no mercy. Whether it's Toby reassuring an old man at the bank that he's there for the bank's money not his, or Texas Ranger Marcus questioning a diner patron, "You all been here for a while?" and the guy says "Long enough to watch a bank get robbed who’s been robbing me for thirty years." To which no vital information is given to the ranger.

The film contains everything you want in this type of picture and more, solid direction that truly takes it's time to build a scene, outstanding performances with Foster & Pine's giving their best performances to date, a well executed and character driven plot, pungent dialogue, beautiful cinematography and to make things better, a musical score by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. Even towards the end of the picture when the last bank is hit but it's a bigger bank than expected and things get out of hand, but the film stay's on track, nothing is exaggerated, it's just well executed to the very end.

This is beyond any shadow of a doubt one of the best films of the year and one film you do not want to miss.

Click here for the trailer

Rating: A