By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Reminiscent of “Unforgiven” and “No Country For Old Men,” “Hell or High Water” is a gritty, contemporary Western, set in West Texas, focuses on the Howard brothers, who concoct a plan to wreak revenge on the greedy bank that swindled their dying mother out of her land.
Divorced dad Toby (Chris Pine) is determined that his sons inherit the oil-rich family ranch which is under threat of foreclosure. So he turns to his sociopathic, ex-con brother Tanner (Ben Foster) for help.
Toby devises a clever plan to rob several small small-town branches of the Texas Midlands Bank, then launder the money through an Indian-run casino, just over the state line in Oklahoma. With untraceable casino checks made out to Texas Midlands Bank, he can settle their debt.
Wearing hoodies and ski-masks, Toby and Tanner start the heists. Which draws the attention of about-to-retire Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) who surmises that these aren’t your usual bank robbers, not meth-heads or sociopaths, since they take small denomination bills from the cash drawers.
“I may have one hunt left in me,” he tells his laconic Mexican/Comanche partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham).
Realistically written with ambiguous morality by Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario”), astutely directed by David Mackenzie (“Young Adam,” “Starred Up”), it’s an irony-riddled, character-driven drama, authentically set amid foreboding billboards promising debt relief, magnificently photographed by Giles Nuttgens.
While Pine propels the complex, emotionally engaging plot, Foster projects pervasively dangerous volatility. Exuding almost-paternal patience in his pursuit of the outlaws, Bridges affectionately engages Birmingham with relentless racist teasing.
Even bit players have full-realized roles, like the waitresses played by Katy Mixon, Debrianna Mansini, and Margaret Bowman. And the score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis evokes pervasive melancholy.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hell or High Water” is an exciting 8, moving toward its enigmatic, yet inevitable Lone Star conclusion.
Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to go marketing en route home from “Sausage Party,” Seth Rogen’s raunchy animated comedy because, feeling like an idiot, I was giggling in the food aisles.
Aimed directly at adults, or those who consider themselves such, this surreal, profane parable revolves around Frank (Rogen), a packaged sausage who, along with his hot-dog bun girlfriend, Brenda (Kristen Wiig), is eagerly anticipating being purchased and going to the Great Beyond.
Problem is: when a returned jar of Honey Mustard (Danny McBride) reveals what’s really in store for these consumer goods, far beyond the Shopwell grocery store, Frank and his friends are determined to spread the word and save themselves from being gobbled up.
Riffing off the Pixar “Toy Story” concept, Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“This Is the End,” “Superbad”) came up with this religious-beliefs vs. scientific-thought quest by sentient foodstuffs as they’re trying to comprehend their ultimate fate and ascertain their place in the universe.
Tucked into the pun-filled, sociopolitical narrative, there are ethnic rivalries, epitomized by Sammy the Jewish Bagel (Edward Norton, channeling Woody Allen) and the flatbread Lavash (David Krumholtz).
Plus vocals from Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Nick Kroll and Salma Hayek, as a Sapphic taco shell attracted to Brenda.
The stunning animation is supervised by Conrad Vernon (“Monsters vs. Aliens”) and Greg Tiernan, who owns Vancouver-based Nitrogen Studios with his wife, Nicole Stinn. Nitrogen is best known for producing “Thomas the Tank Engine” DVDs.
Historically, adult-aimed animated movies go back to Ralph Bakshi’s “Fritz the Cat” (1972), followed by the sci-fi “Heavy Metal” (1981) – and in 2015, there was the existential “Anomalisa.”
On the Granger Gauge, “Sausage Party” is a scatological, sexually explicit 6 – with a rousing finale.
Retaining authenticity in adapting Philip Roth novels has often been a problem, as evidenced in “The Human Stain,” “Elegy” and “The Humbling.” So “Indignation” at least veracity going for it.
Set in 1951, this coming-of-age story revolves around industrious Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a working-class Jewish teenager from Newark, New Jersey, who earns a scholarship to a small, Christian college in Ohio, primarily to avoid being drafted and sent to fight in the Korean War.
The only son of Max (Danny Burstein), a kosher butcher, and his formidable wife Esther (Linda Emond), neurotic Marcus immediately resents being forced to share a dorm room with two other minority/Jewish students (Philip Ettinger, Ben Rosenfield) and refuses to join the Jewish fraternity.
Then he’s totally bewildered by the casual sexual promiscuity of WASPy, self-destructive Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon), who gives him oral sex on their first date after dinner at a fancy French restaurant.
The most volatile – and memorable – scene occurs when resolute, rebellious Marcus confronts Winesburg College’s domineering Dean Hawes Caudwell (Tracy Letts) about his pervasive, condescending anti-Semitism, alluding to British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s famous essay, “Why I Am Not a Christian.”
“You are destined to be an outstanding lawyer,” hypocritical Caudwell grimly concedes.
As former CEO and co-founder of Focus Features, James Schamus established his preference for high-quality, arthouse-audience films like “The Ice Storm,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Lost in Translation,” “Far From Heaven” and “A Serious Man.”
Now, making his writing/directing debut, Schamus is besotted by showing how his YA protagonist encounters and explores the social paranoia of the post-World War II Jewish experience. And Logan Lerman (“Percy Jackson” films, “Fury”) rises to the challenging, deeply-textured role. But the intense edginess is episodic, adhering to a careful, perhaps overly-cautious rhythm.
On Granger Gauge, “Indignation” is an admirable but tedious 6, serving as a tragic reminder of consequences of America’s once-prevalent, puritanical moral conformity.
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
