Movie Review

Gloriously deranged Cocaine Bear is almost exactly what you expect

Naming a movie can sometimes be a tricky proposition. You can choose something that conveys the tone of the story, one that features the names of the main character(s), or one that simply tells where a story takes place. But sometimes, like with Snakes on a Plane, just telling the audience exactly what you’re going to show them does the trick.

The latter is the route that Cocaine Bear takes; if you go into a film with that title and expect anything more than a bear jacked up on coke and wreaking havoc, you need to have a better thought process. Very loosely based on a true story, the film opens on a drug smuggler dumping bag after bag full of cocaine bricks out of a plane for unknown reasons other than that the plane is going down.

Many of the bags land in a Georgia forest, where the title bear quickly becomes addicted to the drug. She proceeds to go on a rampage, running into a variety of people, including Sari (Keri Russell), who’s looking for daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and her friend Henry (Christian Convery) after they skipped school; Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), two drug dealers sent to find the cocaine; Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), a cop trying to find the drug dealers; park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and her unrequited crush Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson); and more.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden, the film goes further than you might think, but also oddly holds back in certain areas. If you prefer not to see blood and gore, steer far away from this film, as it – despite being a comedy/thriller - contains more than some horror movies. All of it is presented in a comical way with heightened situations, but the filmmakers do not shy away from showing the grisly results of the bear’s various maulings.

At its best, the film is gloriously deranged, as long as you’re in the proper mindset for its main tone. But it’s when the film diverges from that tone that it loses some momentum. There are multiple times when the filmmakers try to inject a bit of earnestness into the proceedings, and those scenes are jarring when they’re near or directly adjacent to utter mayhem. If they were going for balance, a less drastic shift would have been better.

The decision to keep the story from being completely absurd likely stems from the casting of the film. Some of the bold-face names, including Russell, Martindale, and Ray Liotta, are not known for their comedy work, so it makes sense to have them play things straight, for the most part. The funniest sections of the film tend to come from lesser-known actors, whose reactions to a high, murderous bear are exactly what you would want.

You don’t come to a film like this for the acting, but the pairing of Ehrenreich and Jackson works well. Prince, previously best known for The Florida Project, appears to be well on her way to a nice career. It’s nice to see Russell, but the role doesn’t seem to suit her. And it’s bittersweet seeing Liotta in one of his final roles, as his presence alone lends the film credibility.

Cocaine Bear delivers on the promise of its title, even if it sometimes stops short of all-out craziness. The over-the-top nature of its top scenes and unapologetic bloodiness make it worth the price of admission alone.

---

Cocaine Bear opens in theaters on February 24.

Photo by Pat Redmond/Universal Pictures

Aaron Holliday, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Alden Ehrenreich in Cocaine Bear

movies film

Movie Review

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

---

The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

movies film reviews