Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water (2016) is about two brothers robbing banks in West Texas, and what it is really about is what the banks have been doing. Toby and Tanner are about to lose their mother's ranch. The debt belongs to one bank. They rob that bank's small branches and plan to clear the debt with its own money. A Texas Ranger close to retirement is after them. The chase is slow and the two sides resemble each other. Taylor Sheridan wrote it, and it had sat on Hollywood's list of the best unproduced screenplays under the title Comancheria before it was made. The background keeps talking: debt relief billboards by the road, drying fields, closing towns. No character explains the situation; the signage does. There is a scene in a diner where the waitress asks what they do not want rather than taking an order, and it sums up the film's humour. The needling between Jeff Bridges's ranger and his partner, played by Gil Birmingham, is the best writing in it. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis wrote the score. David Mackenzie, a Scot, directed. It runs 102 minutes. Good for: modern westerns, heists, and character writing. Less good for: the pace is slow and the violence in the final section is harsh.