There was a classic tale that has been passed on from generation to generation. It is a universally understood and revered story of the struggle between life and death, that reveals the nature of man and the meaning of life, it also happened that there were some motherf#$&ing snakes on a motherf#$&ing plane, now there is a bear taking the amount of cocaine that would make 80’s wall street traders impressed.
Cocaine Bear (dir Elizabeth Banks) is what it says in the title. It is loosely based on Pablo Escobear, an American Black Bear that had overdosed on cocaine dropped by drug smugglers in 1985. In this version, A drug smuggling attempt goes horribly wrong and a lot of cocaine is dumped into Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, in Georgia, US. Sari (Keri Russell) is trying to raise her pre-teen daughter, Dee Dee (Brooklyn Prince) alone while trying to also have an adult life and find a new partner.
Brooklyn skips school and wants to go paint a waterfall in the nearby national park and convinces her friend Herny (Christina Convery) to join her in her truancy escapade. At the same time, crime boss Syd White (Ray Liotta, RIP, this is his last role I believe) wants to get his drugs back as the South American Drug Cartels are going to want to return on their investment and he sends Daveed (O’Shea Jackson) and Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to track down the missing shipment.
Sari goes searching for her daughter and ruins horny Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) chance of trying to have her way with Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). In the search for Dee Dee, they run into Henry who is stuck up a tree telling the adults, who won’t listen, that there is a bear trying to kill them.
Daveed and Eddie show up and Eddie is still mourning the loss of his wife who he thinks his father, White, had a hand in giving her cancer.
What follows is mostly very dumb, in the best possible way. A bear constantly looking for its next high, ripping people apart and being a general nuisance can be a very entertaining thing to watch.
Most of the gore is off-screen and left to your imagination as the film focuses on what makes family important, the theme is that you get to choose who you let into your family.
It plays with some horror tropes such as Ranger Liz, who is close to retirement age, is the sexed crazy character, rather than some dumb jock. The two male criminals are kind and considerate of one another’s emotional needs and show real concern for one another.
The main character isn’t a young damsel in distress but a strong mother trying to do the best for her daughter. It is not the most intelligent film ever made nor is it groundbreakingly thoughtful but it harkens back to the 80s horror films which are just a bit of fun, mostly dumb, but often entertaining.
28 February 2023
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe