Year of Release: 2023
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Brooklynn Prince, Christian Convery, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kristofer Hivju, Ayoola Smart, Aaron Holliday, J.B. Moore, Leo Hanna, Matthew Rhys, Kahyun Kim, Scott Seiss
Genre: Comedy, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
Actress, producer and director Elizabeth Banks is back, with one of her most interesting and diverse films yet. The film which is based on a true story which took place in 1985, in which a corrupt Kentucky cop and lawyer turned drug smuggler, flew in a smuggling expedition and dropped packages of cocaine over Georgia before attempting to escape with nearly 80s pounds strapped to his body. The narrative starts with this event, where Andrew Thornton gets rid of the cocaine, but dies trying to escape. In the meantime the drugs that were dropped in the Chattahoochee park area start getting the attention of many. Initially of a bear who gets all hyped up on it, attacking a couple of tourists hiking in the forest and immediately killing one of them. The bear then attacks a couple of kids who are skipping school, Dee Dee and her best friend Henry. Dee Dee's mother, nurse Sari comes to the park in order to investigate where they are. She gets acquainted with Ranger Liz and Peter, both of whom are not too thrilled to help her out. They soon locate Henry, who is up on a tree, avoiding the bear, who soon appears once again, going on a rampage. Coming to the park is also Detective Bob who identified Andrew's body and understood what had taken place, and also Eddie and Daveed who are intent on retrieving the drugs for Eddie's father, Syd.
One of the most interesting things about "Cocaine Bear", besides its otherworldly premise, is of course the fact that the film doesn't take itself very seriously. Elizabeth Banks is herself a great comedienne, and she tackles this narrative as an ensemble piece, but one where one of the players is a viciously violent bear who has no qualms about killing everything and everyone in sight. While most characters are thinly characterized, Elizabeth Banks grounds the events that are occurring on the always excellent Keri Russell, playing the concerned nurse Sari, who is desperately seeking her daughter, while being both horrified by what she's witnessing, yet remaining as cold headed and collected as she can. If Sari is indeed the grounded one, all the other remaining characters in this film are going through something that is affiliated with the drugs which of course places them in the trajectory of the drug addled bear. It's a brutally funny film, one where the surreal aspect of the events taking place and the way the characters react to it, make it even funnier (the ambulance escape is a good example). The cast is uniformly good, including the aforementioned Keri Russell, who gets great support from Alden Ehrenreich, Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta (in one of his final roles) and O'Shea Jackson. The production team is solid, including the cinematography from John Guleserian and score from Mark Mothersbaugh (and the soundtrack is fantastic). It's a brutally funny comedy with a surreal premise, with a great cast and an economical direction. Worth watching.
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