(C) Universal Studios, Lord Miller Productions and Brownstone Productions

Cocaine Bear – Film Review

Cast: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta, Matthew Rhys

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Synopsis: After a drug deal goes awry, a stash of cocaine is ingested by a black bear…

Review: There can be any number of factors when it comes to what could be used as a selling point for a particular film. Perhaps, it is the director, or it could be the lead actors, a particular genre, or the attachment of a particular studio. Yet, every once in a while, there comes a film where the appeal does not have anything to do with the talent in front of, or behind the camera. Instead, its unique selling point is based on a premise so absurd and ridiculously insane, and yet somehow is also in part a true story, it simply has to be seen to be believed. This is precisely the case for the latest film by Elizabeth Banks.

The year is 1985 and while attempting to carry out a drug deal, drug smuggler Andrew C. Thorton (Rhys) drops a stash of cocaine from a plane, which lands in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. It isn’t long before a considerable amount of the narcotics are promptly consumed by a large black bear, giving it a craving for the drug which threatens to be lethal for anyone who gets in its way. Local drug lord Syd White (Liotta) sends his fixer Daveed (Jackson Jr) and son Eddie (Ehrenreich) to retrieve the drugs before they can be found by law enforcement, who have sent Bob (Whitlock Jr) to retrieve the drugs and apprehend White. Also in the mix are Liz, a local park ranger (Martindale), Sari (Russell), her daughter Dee Dee (Prince) and her friend Henry (Convery) who skip school to head into the woods, which could be a recipe for disaster, particularly when there is a cocaine-fuelled bear is on the loose.

**This animal can bearly believe these emotions she’s experiencing at this moment…**

The truth of the event is upon ingesting the large stash of cocaine, the bear died at some point afterwards, which would not have nearly enough meat on its bones for a feature-length film. Hence, the script by Jimmy Warden uses the central premise of a bear fuelled by narcotics as a centrefold for this group of people who have to negotiate just a little bit more than a big surprise for their journey into the woods. The screenplay attempts to give these characters some backstory to make the audience care about them. In reality, while it does provide this for some characters, it is thin at best for others. The film is self-aware enough to know what the audience is really here for to see a massive apex predator, on some Class A drugs, going on a rampage. Hence, its main goal is to get this group of people into a situation where they are forced to confront an enormous black bear off its face on cocaine and have them fight to survive.

With the surface-level development of some of the characters does feel intentional to a point as this enables Warden and Banks to have some fun with the brutality because, as Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant found, a bear at the best of times is hazardous. Giving it a penchant for expensive narcotics is only going to make things worse, and the film gleefully utilises this by turning the dial up with the gory nature in which some of these characters are picked off. The film walks a fine line between comedy and horror as despite plenty of moments which can be horrifying to watch, it offers up plenty of humourous moments, particularly when the titular bear experiences a comedown after the drugs start to wear off.

The CGI for the titular bear does look a little iffy in places. In addition, despite clocking in at a mere 95 minutes, the film does not feel as brisk as it should, and there are a few moments towards the third act where the pacing is also feeling the aftereffects and experiencing a comedown after the first two acts provided such hilarious antics. However, despite these minor nitpicks, Cocaine Bear knows exactly what the audience wants to see and it does exactly what it says on the tin/package/container/duffel bag from which the drugs were stored to deliver a ridiculously entertaining time at the movies which will leave you feeling high (pun most certainly intended) by the time the credits begin to roll.

The plot is undoubtedly as thin as they come, and the character development is minimal but, it matters not. The filmmakers understood the assignment and Cocaine Bear delivers exactly what you’d expect from its hilariously absurd premise.

The Whale – Film Review

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Synopsis: A recluse English professor makes an attempt to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter…

Review: Back in the early 90s and mid-2000s, there was an immensely popular actor who was beloved in Hollywood, particularly with his leading role in The Mummy franchise. He seemed like someone who would go on to enjoy a very prolific career in Hollywood. Unfortunately, a mixture of personal tragedies and a sexual assault accusation levelled against the then President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 2018, led to him reportedly being blacklisted from Hollywood. Now, after many years from the limelight, Brendan Fraser is making his long overdue comeback in the most heartbreaking way possible.

Charlie (Fraser) is an English professor who, due to a deeply personal tragedy, has allowed himself to be stricken and overwhelmed by the grief which has driven the rest of his family away. Consequently, to help him cope with the emotional torment of his situation, he has eaten to such an extent he has since become obese. He holds his classes online, with his camera off to avoid being seen by his students, which enables him to remain in his flat all the time hidden away from the rest of the world. He recognises in his condition, he may not have much time left in his life and so when his estranged daughter Ellie (Sink) shows up unexpectedly one day, he makes an attempt to reestablish a relationship with her.

Based on the play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter, there’s always a risk when a film is set in one singular location, it will find itself unable to escape the limitations of being confined to the same four walls and hold the audience’s attention. However, when you have actors putting in phenomenal performances, especially Fraser, the film can escape that confinement. Fraser’s performance is so powerful, with every word of dialogue, you can feel the raw pain and torment within him and how guilty he feels for driving his family away. Actors being buried under piles of make-up and or prosthetics can sometimes become a distraction where this becomes the singular focus and the performance is forgotten about, but this is emphatically not the case here. The process of grieving when we’ve lost someone we love affects everyone in different ways, but for Charlie, it has left such a devasting impact on him to the point where he has accepted his fate.

While Charlie is resigned to the inevitable, there are individuals in his life who do their utmost to convince him that life is worth living. The most prominent is Liz (Chau) who assists Charlie as a nurse with his medical needs and also serves as his main source of company. While she pleads, in vain, with Charlie to seek medical treatment, she remains unwavering in her commitment to care for Charlie despite her pleas falling on deaf ears. There is Charlie’s estranged daughter Ellie, who turns up on Charlie’s door out of the blue after a long time because she wants her father’s help with her studies. It is an extremely difficult role to pull off as she understandably harbours a lot of bitterness and resentment towards her father for the significant period he was absent from her life, but Sink rises to the challenge in magnificent style.

The decision to have the entire film in a 4:3 ratio is an inspired creative choice on the part of Aronofsky. as it encapsulates both Charlie’s confinement to the four walls of his flat and his refusal to venture outside of those walls. Characters in previous Aronofsky films have often found themselves either at their moment of triumph or in some cases at their utmost lowest ebb. Given the circumstances of its main character, The Whale is definitely the latter, but through the bleakness of which Charlie finds himself, come plenty of moments of touching humanity and emotional gravity. It will be a minor miracle if you’re not at least holding back the tears by the time the credits begin to roll.

A simplistic, scaled-back story of redemption told with compassion, elevated with an extremely powerful lead performance at its core. Welcome back Brendan Fraser, we have missed you.