Image: Photo Credit: Pat Redmond/Universal Pictures
The year is 1985. A drug ring thinks it would be smart to drop packaged cocaine from a Cessna over US forests for later collection. One of the smugglers falls to his death, his parachute not working. Tens of millions of dollars worth of drugs attract a bear…
One of the biggest unbelievable things about the movie “Cocaine Bear” is that so far everything about the story it tells actually happened. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, who is known as an actress from “Hunger Games”, this story, which probably only humans can pull off, follows a fantasy: What if the bear didn’t die of an overdose like in 1985, but instead got hooked and roamed the woods for more? Fire hazard because on the brink of withdrawal?
The result is what movie fans know as “guilty pleasure.” Something that combines trash with (in this case intentional) second-class quality for cathartic amusement. In “Cocaine Bear” Banks sends weird characters from three directions in the 80s setting on the hunt for the bear, who has a very sensitive nose for the coke. Sari (Keri Russell) searches for her long-lost daughter, while detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) searches for the rest of the drug ring (including “Star Wars” star Alden Ehrenreich). He wants to find the remaining coke. They are driven by old Syd, the last character to shine in the late GoodFellas icon Ray Liotta (1954-2022).
The process is crude, the images are sometimes gory and extremely graphic, the style oscillates between horror, overwrought fantasy and comedy.
In the end you won’t have been scared, but you’ve laughed as hard as you shook your head a few times. In view of the uniformity of Hollywood cinema, a great creative risk was taken with the bear, which as a digital creature competes with that of “The Revenant”. You should do that more often.
“Cocaine Bear”: USA 2023, 95 mins, in cinemas now
OÖN rating: four out of six stars
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: Nachrichten
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
