David Mackenzie Dazzles with “Hell or High Water”, a Deliberate and Astonishing Western Heist Film

David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water is a wonderful modern Western film with the added flavor of a noir-heist.  It is also wildly funny in subtle and smart ways but isn’t above low-brow pot shots, either.  The performances from all four leads are superb and myriad character actors flesh out the environment.  Finally, the film sports a fantastic plot that unravels at a deliberate pace and has a lot of surprises up its sleeves.  It is like a slice of West Texas on screen, from the cattle wranglers to the gun-toting vigilantes.  Hell or High Water is a potent piece of cinema, and will likely end up as one of the strongest films of 2016.

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