Directed By Elizabeth Banks

Starring – Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, O’Shea Jackson Jr

The Plot – Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow and blood.

Rated R for bloody violence and gore, drug content and adult language throughout

Cocaine Bear | Official Trailer [HD] – YouTube

POSITIVES

Banks’ direction immediately hits the ground running, setting the tonal precedent on its way through a barrage of brutality and drug-induced schenanigans that easily attains a fun consistency throughout a 90 minute run time. This is the ultimate gift of appreciation from a film title and plot so ridiculous, as Banks decision to indulge herself wholeheartedly in the extensive madness of fantasy for a surprisingly true story is one that begs for the theater experience, with the biggest audiences wielding the biggest pay-offs, but what’s perhaps surprising about the engagement is Elizabeth’s capability to conjure some decent suspense and high-stakes intensity in her first experience with horror and/or drama. These jaw-dropping instances certainly capture your attention, embellishing in the struggle between man versus beast that unanimously crafts us as the prey in the scenario, but beyond that provide emphasis to Banks’ capabilities as a guiding hand, imbedding grit and vulnerability for an engagement that otherwise feels primed on delivering laughs and lunacy above all else, but here balances that sentiment with an urgency that momentarily evolves it naturally in tone, leaving us with the best of both worlds that doesn’t compromise one over the other. In addition to this, the ensemble is stacked with a laundry list of familiar faces and reputable talents, but none more vital to me than the scene-stealing dynamic of Jackson and Alden Ehrenreich, who share echoes of the magic displayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry in last year’s “Bullet Train”. Like their predecessors, Jackson and Ehrenreich share a bountiful chemistry that we simply can’t get enough of, removing the handicap of one-dimensional drug dealers, and instead supplanting them with depth in the balance of heart and humanity that elicits what is easily the film’s most firmly defined character evolution along the way. Ray Liotta also gives a brief-but-bountiful turn in his final on-screen performance, snatching the attention and focus of the narrative during the third act climax, for an antagonist of sorts who feels like the embodiment of business greed. Beyond the performances, the technical merits here also share the shine, with computer-generated special effects that are surprisingly fluent in consistency and texture for the titular character throughout, and a synth-strong musical score from Mark Mothersbaugh echoing a distinct personality for instrumentals that feel virtually plucked from 80’s adventure atmospheres. It makes the most of its 35 million dollar budget, which helps to keep the unintentional distractions mostly free from the print, all with carefully stirred ingredients that, even in familiar territory, helps to solidify some stimulating substance to the razor sharp pacing in 90 minute confines that easily makes this the easiest watch that I’ve experienced this year.

NEGATIVES

On the other side of returns, “Cocaine Bear” has a bit too many characters that makes the script a chore to sift through in keeping up each of their respective arcs frequently throughout. As expected, this leaves some characters deserted throughout the duration of the narrative, with a disappearing act that keeps them from reappearing until the story absolutely requires them to, but beyond that doesn’t attain enough instances and experiences with these characters to afford even a majority of them to grow on us effectively towards investing in their terrifying plights, in turn occasionally undercutting the stakes in circumstance that Banks goes above and beyond trying to attain. It’s clear that some are there to do nothing but push the body count, but that doesn’t make them any less unnecessary or convoluted, in turn evading the focus from the characters like Keri Russell or Ray Liotta who could’ve used valuable time to further flesh out their importance to the narrative that only becomes clear at the end of the film. Script perils continue with a series of conveniences and devices deposited to the storytelling that often don’t add up, leaving my mind strained for some of the aspects in events that I’m casually asked to go along with. One such example pertains to a kid character being kidnapped by the bear instead of killed. It’s one that I could forgive with a sober predator, but when heavily under the influence of a drug that imbeds paranoia and instability, makes it a little difficult to believe that this youngster would be the only character throughout who eluded even attempting to be ripped apart. Finally, while most of the technical merit falls into the satisfying category of timely relevance, the distracting emphasis of the cinematography constantly broke my concentration to its particular period setting. The color correction and lighting feel a bit too polished to feel authentic, and with some grainy and weathered textures could’ve helped transcend the contemporary captivity for something far more visually intoxicating to the confines of its timely significance, which in turn would’ve enhanced the believability of the computer-generated special effects that much of the film depends so heavily on.

OVERALL
“Cocaine Bear” has a lot of rage to its nonsensical roar, providing a fierce combination of effective comedy and over the top brutality that consistently sinks its claws into eyes and ears of its eager audience. While Banks is frequently fighting off the fictional aspects of the engagement that the script sometimes indulges a bit too heavily in, her work behind the lens is the stabilizing factor in fun and frenetic entertainment built for the biggest crowds imagineable, with an unshakeable appetite to send them home happy.

My Grade: 7/10 or B