Of the Oscar contenders I’ve seen, this is my favorite. It’s not a complicated film. Like its characters, what you see is what you get. But it does offer a heartfelt look at the misery that has overtaken west Texas in recent decades, with bank foreclosures and loss of drilling jobs. The cinematography is stunning, with the camera panning across beautiful hill country, scrappy brushland, desolate farmsteads with foreclosure signs and billboards offering fast cash.
The action—and this film has plenty of it—centers around two dirt-poor brothers who have figured out a way to outsmart the smarmy bank about to foreclose on their family home. The older brother, Tanner Howard (Ben Foster), is a hotheaded ex-con well used to protecting his brother Toby (Chris Pine). The story starts shortly after their mother’s death from a protracted illness, as the camera shows you the depressing, plastic-wrapped hospital bed in her sparse home. These are country folk who, as Toby says, have been poor all their lives, like a family disease. Well, no more. Their scheme involves robbing the same bank that holds their mortgage of just enough money to pay the note off before the foreclosure hearings, launder it through casinos, and put the home (which was discovered to be on oil-rich land) into an irrevocable trust for Toby’s sons. Pine and Foster are terrific as the brothers; Jeff Bridges, up for an Oscar, is outstanding as the Texas Ranger in hot pursuit.
Should You See It? Yes!
Viewed at AMC Dine-In Theatres West Olive 16
