Cinema in Conversation: Hell or High Water
With an introduction and discussion from Assistant Professor Se Young (Seth) Kim!
Toby Howard (Chris Pine), a divorced father trying to provide for his estranged sons, learns that the Texas Midlands bank plans to foreclose on his family's ranch due to debts left behind by his mother. Seeing no legal way to avoid losing everything, Toby and his brother Tanner (Ben Foster)—an ex-convict with a short fuse and a loose trigger finger—team up to execute a series of heists to amass the money required to save the ranch. The main obstacle of their desperate scheme is Marcus (Jeff Bridges), a Texas Ranger close to retirement who refuses to admit defeat on his last case. As the Howard brothers prepare for their final heist, Marcus and his partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) draw ever closer to catching them and both parties must prepare for a final, deadly showdown. "Hell or High Water is a thrillingly good movie—a crackerjack drama of crime, fear, and brotherly love set in a sun-roasted, deceptively sleepy West Texas that feels completely exotic for being so authentic."—Owen Gleiberman, Variety.
Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Colby College Se Young (Seth) Kim will lead a post-screening discussion of the film, focusing on its relation to the meteoric ascent of writer Taylor Sheridan (creator of Yellowstone), sentiments of loss and abandonment in Middle America, and militarization in US cinema.
WATCH TRAILER >
Toby Howard (Chris Pine), a divorced father trying to provide for his estranged sons, learns that the Texas Midlands bank plans to foreclose on his family's ranch due to debts left behind by his mother. Seeing no legal way to avoid losing everything, Toby and his brother Tanner (Ben Foster)—an ex-convict with a short fuse and a loose trigger finger—team up to execute a series of heists to amass the money required to save the ranch. The main obstacle of their desperate scheme is Marcus (Jeff Bridges), a Texas Ranger close to retirement who refuses to admit defeat on his last case. As the Howard brothers prepare for their final heist, Marcus and his partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) draw ever closer to catching them and both parties must prepare for a final, deadly showdown. "Hell or High Water is a thrillingly good movie—a crackerjack drama of crime, fear, and brotherly love set in a sun-roasted, deceptively sleepy West Texas that feels completely exotic for being so authentic."—Owen Gleiberman, Variety.
Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Colby College Se Young (Seth) Kim will lead a post-screening discussion of the film, focusing on its relation to the meteoric ascent of writer Taylor Sheridan (creator of Yellowstone), sentiments of loss and abandonment in Middle America, and militarization in US cinema.
WATCH TRAILER >