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It might actually take a little effort to find a theater screening the film this weekend, but if people aren't willing to search a little harder and drive a little farther, then all of the handwringing and complaints about sequels and remakes are meaningless. So viewers should put their money where their mouth is if they really want to see more fantastic original dramatic pictures. But this is exactly the sort of original, high-quality movie audiences and critics constantly insist they wish there were more of, and supporting such releases by paying to see them in theaters is the only way to prove the claims are more than just a bunch of lip-service devoid of substance. Whether that translates into enough audience demand, we shall see. With a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes thus far, the film continues to gain momentum from positive word of mouth and its unique combination of compelling genre entertainment and social relevance. He’d rather write new pages, dashing them off one by one with a grunt, a scowl and a flourish.A low-budget production, Hell or High Water will open in 32 theaters nationwide this weekend, where it hopes word of mouth and critical acclaim will translate into high per-theater averages that help boost its box office potential. For Bridges, the old-coot handbook is old hat. And when the movie hits a tense turning point–one that’s likely to shake you even if you thought you saw it coming–Marcus responds with a strangled, anguished cry that seems to emerge less from his gut than from the earth itself. But when one of the brother-robbers’ victims, a shy young clerk, apologizes for not knowing the make of their getaway car, Marcus teases helpful information out of her with a kind of craggy tenderness. He’s borderline racist–actually, he probably goes right over the border–in the way he ribs his long-suffering half-Comanche partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham). This is a man who wears his flaws boldly. Marcus is on the cusp of retirement and unsure, as we are, how his constant stream of muttering and complaining will translate to life in the rocking chair.
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And then there’s Bridges’ Marcus, shaggy and worn but not yet played out. Pine is particularly striking–his gait may appear laid-back and cool, but he lets us see the tension in every muscle. The performances here are uniformly and quietly terrific. Sometimes their actions are anguishing to watch. The bad guys may be charismatic, but not everything they do is excusable. This is a classic story about the little guy who fights back, though its rough justice is tempered by a sense of decency. And as those movies did in their day, Hell or High Water captures the free-floating anxieties–and, even more crucially, the near boiling anger and frustration–of our own era. It owes a debt to 1970s bank-robbery classics like Dog Day Afternoon but also carries some DNA threads of existential rubber-meets-road meditations like Vanishing Point. But Hell or High Water will be his breakthrough. Mackenzie isn’t a newcomer he has made a number of marvelous, somewhat underappreciated movies, like the dreamy plague romance (yes, there can be such a thing) Perfect Sense from 2011, starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. (The script is by actor-writer Taylor Sheridan, who also wrote Sicario.) Mostly, though, Hell or High Water works because Mackenzie and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens are so alive to the desolate bloom of the West Texas landscape, to the way its heat can seem devil red hot, dust yellow or completely colorless depending on the time of day and the direction of the wind. The plot is clever, and its intricacies are beautifully worked out. Hell or High Water is rich with details like that. Through those two tiny windows, we learn everything about his sense of pride, and about how little he has left to lose. How dare she call him stupid! From the crude holes in his mask, his eyes gleam with the intensity of an angry insect. In the quasi-comical robbery that opens the movie, he takes umbrage when a feisty bank clerk tells the duo that they’re making a stupid move. Tanner–the mastermind behind the brothers’ scheme, as it turns out–is a wily ex-con and something of a loose cannon. Toby is a divorced dad who just wants to secure a better life for his kids–he comes off as serene, even with a robber’s mask pulled over his face, though we’ll come to see that he’s really a man held together with worry. Bridges plays Marcus Hamilton, a Ranger in pursuit of a pair of small-time bank robbers, brothers Tanner and Toby Howard ( Ben Foster and Chris Pine), who plan to save their family farm by stealing from the underhanded institution that’s been weaseling it away from them for years.