Film Buffa: Why 'Cocaine Bear' is a carefree, authentic time at the movies
Fast-paced without an ounce of seriousness.
Every once in a while, a movie comes out and is exactly what the marketing team said it was in trailers and previews. It’s like the words of the late Dennis Green screaming out from behind those hills. No misdirection or confusion about the product. When Hollywood studios figure back out that giving audiences what they came for is the way, the movies could be a consistently fun time again.
Case in point: “Cocaine Bear.”
Directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden, the wild and untamed comedy doesn’t waste any time setting the tone. As in, we don’t need to know exactly when the bear found and ingested the cocaine, only what he’s going to do while high as a kite. Only that a drug smuggler tossed a bunch of bags of coke blocks into the woods, and one black bear had more than his fair share.
Warden’s script takes chances and taps into every uncomfortable yet humorous situation that could occur with a bunch of cocaine resting in the forest when an animal and humans are both sniffing coke. The movie is stuffed with unique characters.
A park ranger (Margo Martindale) using European perfume to entice a local guide, before a worried mother (Keri Russell) looking for her lost kids interrupts their nature walk. A couple drug dealers (O’Shea Jackson and Alden Ehrenreich) go looking for the drugs only to find themselves in increasingly tighter situations. Oh, and those two lost kids may have sniffed a little devil powder themselves.
Warden goes for the wacky horror jugular and Banks follows him into the valley of zany, ballsy weirdness. The movie doesn’t lose any steam as it gets more bizarre and cranks up the gore factor; you will be too busy laughing at human beings making themselves unintentional bait for a very high bear.
It’s not like the bear is merely scratching these people; heads are ripped off, brain chunks are blown off, and wrists are snapped. While I wouldn’t label the majority of the movie as a horror film, it has the blood and guts count to be one. The movie earns its R rating by leaning into the inspired-by-a-true-story tale, one that took place in 1985.
While that real life bear ate the coke and died soon after, this fictional account places the “Cocaine Bear” on a rampage that attracts the interest of a dog-loving lawman (the gifted Isiah Whitlock Jr.).
That’s the other secret sauce element of Banks’ movie; she populates this wild movie with a cast of great actors, including the late Ray Liotta. One of the great things about Liotta was his knack for the A-list film fare AND the more fun, cut loose B-movie glory that this movie belongs in. He could make any role stick.
Like the rest of the cast, especially Martindale, Liotta is game for the type of movie taking place, giving just enough gravitas to a group of nefarious characters that do more wild shit as the movie stretches on.
More than anything, “Cocaine Bear” is a good time, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Unlike 75% of cinema offerings these days, it felt like its own thing and not a cover of a previous greatest hit. Banks, Warden, and the cast aim for old school cinema amusement, and hit the bullseye.
Coming in at 95 crisp minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, keeping the titled animal at the center of the action for the majority of the action. One of the greatest marvels of the movie is the FX work on the bear. The visual effects make it both a trippy and realistic depiction of a wild animal with enough cocaine in his system to make Pablo Escobar jealous. Weta digital FX did a fine job here of merging reality and cinema lore in creating the true star of this show.
Yes, I’d like more time with the bear and these characters, at least the ones who make it out alive. But I also don’t need a sequel. On its own, “Cocaine Bear” works extremely well.
Every once in a while, Hollywood markets a film accurately. Save a little time this weekend for “Cocaine Bear.”
