Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich,
Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta
In 1985, drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II died when he jumped from a
plane, from which he had tossed several duffel bags filled with cocaine,
and his parachute failed to open. Three months later, a Black Bear was
found dead in the woods of northern Georgia surrounded by 40 bags of
cocaine, which it had apparently torn open and consumed.
Cocaine Bear sees director Elizabeth Banks and
writer Jimmy Warden draw inspiration from the story for a comic
love letter to the animal attacks sub-genre that imagines the coked-out
bear rampaging through the woods and slaughtering anyone who gets in its
way.
Thornton's name is referenced, and he's played in a brief cameo by
Matthew Rhys, but that's where any comparisons to the real life
case end. Instead, Cocaine Bear gives us various parties
that find themselves going down to the woods and stumbling on a rather
unconventional teddy bear's picnic.
Goons Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) and Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) are sent to retrieve the drugs by the latter's mobster father Syd
(the late Ray Liotta, to whom the film is dedicated), the head of
"The Bluegrass Conspiracy." Stumbling across the coke before them
however are truant kids Henry (Christian Convery) and Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince), whose childhood naivete sees them inadvertently coked out of their
trees, and three local tearaways who call themselves "The Duchamps."
Arriving on the scene is Dee Dee's worried mother (Keri Russell),
an investigating cop (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and the park's
out-of-depth ranger (Margo Martindale).
Banks wisely plays the premise for laughs (if your name isn't Steven
Spielberg, it's probably best to aim for Piranha
rather than Jaws), which has mixed results. Most of the giggles are generated by visual
comedy of the "splatstick" variety, with Banks skilfully constructing
manic set-pieces that pay off in unexpectedly grand guignol fashion.
Limbs are torn from torsos, bodies are dragged along blacktop, and when
the not-so-gentle Ben isn't causing chaos the panicky humans are
accidentally shooting chunks out of each other. It's all good nasty fun
in the manner of '70s drive-in classics like William Girdler's
Grizzly and Day of the Animals and the '80s
straight-to-video fare of Troma, complete with all the requisite
tastelessness.
Attempts to generate laughs through dialogue are nowhere near as
successful, meaning every time the bear is absent from screen we're left
to hang out with barely defined characters whose banter isn't anywhere
as sharp as it should be. Given the film's theme, there's a notable
absence of memorable lines.
At the same time, Banks understands this sub-genre in a way several
more serious variations on the theme, like this year's
Beast, haven't. She's wise not to assume that we're going to root for the
humans, and so gives us a rather sympathetic killer in the form of the
bear, an impressive CG creation from the boffins at WETA. Every good
animal attacks movie needs a human asshole character, the figure whose
grisly (or should that be grizzly?) demise we eagerly await, and this is
provided in the form of Liotta's Syd. There's a genuinely shocking piece
of violence from Syd that makes us realise we can't count on any
particular characters making it out of this alive, Banks taking her cues
from the villains of 1940s Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello comedies,
the sort of baddies who don't realise they're in a comedy.
There's a glaring missed opportunity to mine comedy from the premise of
youngsters Henry and Dee Dee getting coked up however. Despite
swallowing a whole tablespoon of charlie, Henry displays no real
effects, while Dee Dee is absent from the bulk of the narrative as her
mom combs the woods for her. This is a real shame as in their limited
time together, Convery and Prince provide the film with some real heart
and they have such a wonderful sarcastic chemistry that splitting the
pair up feels like a real misstep.
Ultimately, Cocaine Bear is the sort of movie that will
have you making your mind up whether or not it's for you based on its
title alone. Unlike so many high concept Hollywood movies, this one
gives you exactly what it promises. It is indeed about a bear getting
ripped and massacring everyone in sight. Banks may be guilty of a few
narrative missteps, but she's delivered on her movie's outrageous
promise. She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie.
