There perhaps isn’t a better experience at the cinema than when you discover a film without knowing much, if anything, about the choice you’ve made and the journey you are about to embark on. Whether it’s exploring strange new worlds in space, embarking on a road trip with some on-screen friends on the quest to better themselves, or taking that first tentative step into the haunted house and discovering what surprises – good and bad – lurk behind the door, the power of cinema and the wonders it can conjure are immeasurable and unique. With something like Cocaine Bear, however, you’d be forgiven for hoping to discover exactly what it says on the tin: a black bear high on cocaine. Well, thanks to director Elizabeth Banks, we get just that. This, as they say, is cinema.
If you weren’t familiar with the yarn, you’d be as shocked as the rest of us to discover that this isn’t some ridiculous concoction from a slightly crazy screenwriter or a writers’ room. No, this is based on a very true story. In September 1985, drug runner Andrew Thornton dumped bags of cocaine from an auto-piloted, twin-engined plane above Georgia before being caught in his parachute and falling to his death. In the aftermath, the scattered drug bags were seized by a variety of different sources but one lucky customer found quite the bounty – a 175lb black bear living in Chattahoochee National Forest who quickly developed a taste for the exotic. At the same time, several locals – mother and daughter Keri Russell and Brooklynn Prince, rival drug runners O’Shea Jackson Jnr, Alden Ehrenreich, and Ray Liotta, and park ranger Margo Martindale – try to survive the rampant bear’s attacks.
As we said, exactly what it says on the tin, and for good reason: it’s a ridiculous, absurd story that has to be seen to be believed. As with M3gan earlier in the year, by leaning into the preposterousness of the story the filmmakers have made more inroads than if they’d chosen the other route and in turn produce a gleefully entertaining film that will no doubt have audiences howling throughout. It’s easy to see why screenwriter Jimmy Warden’s script – which clocks in at a tight and beneficial 95 minutes – piqued the interest of Banks and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as it has an irreverence that works to its advantage and allows the silliness of it all to shine.
It doesn’t go too deep into any of its other themes – underage drug use, absent fathers, single parents, bullying, and ’80s excess – and feels hollow for the most part but its strengths are in embracing its conceit and it does that brilliantly well. After her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2 and her underrated if uneven Charlie’s Angels reboot in 2019, Banks has continued to hone her craft, and here is another example of her capacities as a filmmaker. It settles nicely into her performance wheelhouse with its humour and offbeat nature but she decides to plunge much of the film’s budget into the special effects (created by WETA) that allow her the latitude to embrace all the madness on show. Raucous, ridiculous but supremely entertaining, it’s the perfect palette cleanser post-awards season and one that’s as satisfying as a nice long tree rub.
