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Hey, so... this movie is good.
Lots of people really like this movie.
I didn't think it was so hot.
I thought it was just hitting the indie movie beats. It was really forced with its messages and way hammy (there's a moment where Ben Foster has a run in with a Native American at a casino and we find out, to our disbelief, that Native Americans are treated poorly).
Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham are delightful. If the movie had focused on those two, it would have been great. Unfortunately Pine and Foster bring less to the table, which is mostly because thier characters are poorly written. They're unlikeable and I found no reason to want them out of danger.
I'll admit, I might have had my experience tainted because I saw it at an early release hosted by cast and filmmakers and during the intro Taylor Sheridan yelled "Who here's from Texas?!" (you're IN Texas, you pandering doofus) and then said "THIS is my love letter to you"... gross.
Edit: Also, it has an (accidentally?) anti-gun control message.
The Town but in Texas
I really liked it. I enjoyed the somewhat unlikeable characters and I think it shows some of director David Mackenzie's (Starred Up, Young Adam) best work.
It was also a nice surprise to hear the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis score - I hadn't heard anything about the score before watching and I'm a big fan of their work. It's not their best - closer to their work on Lawless in that it includes songs with collaborators as well as their usual instrumental mood pieces - but even sub-par Cage and Ellis is better than 90% of other scores these days.
Sort of disappointed by this...
There were some great scenes ("what don't you want?") and moments (sudden violence). But from the beginning, the stealth (but not so stealth) exposition had me rolling my eyes. The way information was woven into dialogue felt like they were trying to get it past me. Strangely inorganic.
I'm on board with the anti-bank message, but it was... indelicately delivered. They could have let shots of boarded up businesses speak for themselves, but they have to provide a narration and give speeches about poverty.
Re: gun control. The fact that everyone carries does make this harder for them, but none of the "heroes" were very successful. The first guy just shot at their car and didn't do anything. The guy at the larger bank was killed a la Boogie Nights. The vigilantes in their trucks were forced to turn back and they all nearly caught a bullet. (And one of them appears to just have a shotgun. Good luck with that.)
Jeff Bridges was the highlight, for sure. This might not have been watchable without him. Chris Pine had a surprising amount of soul, though.
This was ok, the last western I liked was Bone Tomahawk, you guys should give it a chance.
FWIW, the same director is releasing next month on VOD Brawl in Cell Block 99 which looks pretty good.