Kicking off with a bank robbery Hell Or High Water grabs you from the off and rarely lets go through the whole running time. Toby Howard (Chris Pine) is a divorced father who lives on his deceased mothers farm and rarely sees his ex-wife or kids and we see him engaged in the robbery with his ex-con brother Tanner (Ben Foster) as they make off with a small amount of cash in what, on the outside, seems to be a carefully planned heist. Over the next few days we see the brothers carry out a few more robberies with the same M.O but sometimes the facade drops and we realise that, while clever, these guys may not be the professionals we first thought. But there is more to these robberies than greed as there is a genuine purpose for what they are doing so there becomes a Robin Hood like feel to their actions. In the meantime a soon to retire Texas ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) are given what looks like a cut and dry bank robbery to investigate but it soon becomes much more than that and their chase takes on a whole different vibe as with Bridges closing in on them the brothers must change their game plan as run their operation at a mush higher degree of risk as their window of opportunity is closing fast.

This description may make it sound like a been there, done that film as the concept is not new but the style, tone, dialogue and acting in this movie take this to another level. It’s a slow burn film, the tension is always there but it starts small and gradually building into a climactic crescendo before dropping again at the very end without ever leaving the screen. With script from Taylor Sheridan who also wrote the excellent Sciario I had high expectations and I was not let down, there are only a few action packed moments yet I was never bored as the setting is superb with the towns in ruin, the signs of foreclosure and sale of properties and the general depressing feeling hitting home and I almost felt the heat and dirt coming off screen, so credit must go to Scottish director David MacKenzie for his portrayal of a dying area with people trying to keep the wolves from the door by any means possible.

The casting was near perfect, there were moments that there was nothing being said on screen but the facial expressions of the four leads were enough and told us as much as any words could, the dialogue was superb and realistic. Humorous to relieve some of the tension without ever eliminating it. While it’s possibly the best performance I’ve seen from Chris Pine and if this is a sign of things to come from him then I’ll be looking forward to it, if Ben Forster and Jeff Bridges are not in the running for the Oscars then there is no justice. Foster has always been a good actor but he absolutely absorbs you into his character this time as the less moralistic of the brothers who will do anything to atone for his guilt over not being there for his family and you can feel his internal pain without him ever mentioning it while Bridges gives a smashing performance as the grizzled old, tenacious ranger who just cannot let the case go even when it is getting the better of him often to the detriment of those around him, especially his partner who pretends that he hates being around him but you just know will miss him once he retires. He doesn’t want to retire the job is his life and he’s not going to let his last case be the one that got away.

The conversations between the partnerships, and when it occurs the interaction between the characters on either side of the fence, felt real so you believed that Pine and Foster were brothers and Bridges and Birmingham had been working together for years. So it is these two partnerships which keep the whole movie balanced and leave you conflicted as, while the bothers are criminals and should be punished, you are rooting for them to success given their purpose and goal which I find very rare in a movie.

I don’t want to give too much away or put this movie on too high a pedestal but I haven’t enjoyed a film this much in a long time and, along with Midnight Special and Sing Street it is in the top three movies of the year for me but this possible edges it. In a year full of promise for movies where we have had so many letdowns do yourself a favour and see this as soon as you can before word of mouth ruins some of the surprise moments as I believe it’s one of the best you will see for a while and as a pretty harsh critic that is high praise indeed.

DJ Speaks Rating: 8 Out of 10