Elizabeth Banks’ last two directorial efforts (Pitch Perfect 2 and the latest Charlie’s Angels) were… alright. They had their strong feminist moments, and I’m thankful that the days of Movie 43 are far behind her at this point, but they weren’t necessarily the most memorable within their respective franchises. So when news hit that her next feature would be… well, a creature feature that looked destined to be a meme from the title alone, I wasn’t expecting much from it. But to be honest, this is the first time Banks has genuinely impressed me as a filmmaker, and the film itself is a whole lot of fun.
Banks and writer Jimmy Warden (who co-wrote The Babysitter: Killer Queen) present the story of Pablo Escobear, a black bear that overdosed on cocaine in the mid-80s, as a pastiche of several different genres from that decade. The main premise is a creature feature by way of an 80s slasher, with an animal as the killer, the involvement of both drug dealers and local law enforcement has elements of Miami Vice-esque crime drama, kids Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and Henry (Christian Convery) give a dash of Spielbergian family adventure to the proceedings, there’s a throwdown in a public restroom that wouldn’t look out of place in a Schwarzenegger flick, and it’s got enough gore to land on a Video Nasty list.
The soundtrack from Mark Mothersbaugh adds a lot to that eclectic mix as well. There’s all manner of neon synth work backing what’s being shown, along with some sweeping orchestration to add to that adventurous tone in parts, and Western-flavoured guitars when the law enforcement and the fixers have a stand-off. To say nothing of the needle drop picks, which avoid most of the obvious choices (no Journey, no Genesis, and a Starship song that isn’t We Built This City, thank fuck) while still fitting the overall atmosphere.
Not that the feeling of various things colliding with each other comes solely from the production aesthetics; the characterisation gets that across as well. We have nurse Sari (Keri Russell) trying to find her daughter in the woods, we have Eddie (Alden Rhrenreich) and Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) trying to retrieve the lost cocaine shipment, with local detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) on their trail, and park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and activist Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) getting caught up in the mix as well. The romantic/bromantic/familial drama between each of these groupings is, again, very reminiscent of the era’s writing conventions, but their banter and even the relationships between them keep things engaging throughout. The film is at around an hour and a half, and Banks recognises that that doesn’t really leave a lot of room to just faff around, so there’s a commendable lack of dead air in here.
However, I had something of a lingering worry going into this, and it has to do with the film’s real-life inspiration. It’s sketchy enough when sensationalist films are made based on the lives of human beings, let alone when it’s about an animal that lost its life due to human negligence and, to this day, is stuffed and mounted on display in a shopping mall in Kentucky. This could’ve gotten ugly real quick, but thankfully, the framing here has all the right touches in place to keep things on-side. For a start, because the larger history of America’s involvement with cocaine throughout the 80s is part of the main narrative (right down to the film opening with Matthew Rhys as Andrew Thornton, fed turned drug runner, throwing bags of coke out of a plane), it acknowledges how much the coke trade fucked up things for everyone during this time.
It also adds some hilarity to Syd (Ray Liotta) and how obsessed he is with retrieving the packages, since it’s a matter of who he wants to risk pissing off less: A coked-up black bear, or his higher-ups in the drug trade (read: the U.S. political and military officials involved in the Iran-Contra scandal). I mean, one is crazed and bloodthirsty and will rip a person to shreds to suit its own ends, and the other is a wild animal; he’s up shit creek either way.
Not that Syd is in any way sympathetic here. Hell, he might be the only person here who isn’t, and it’s here where the framing really clicks into place. It juxtaposes the Cocaine Bear who, as bloodthirsty as she gets, is just trying to look after her cubs, with Sari essentially doing the exact same thing. Furthermore, with the appearance of other animals in the story, it highlights how the way we treat animals can say a lot about how we treat other human beings. It avoids just being a story about a bear doing funny things (albeit ultraviolent funny things), and instead insists on treating the bear empathetically. It’s not her fault that she’s in this situation, and for as much as those around her have pretences of caring about the environment and its wildlife, people just can’t seem to stop themselves from interfering with her life and her home. Even without the chemical assistance, it’s easy to see why she’d get that pissed-off at the situation.
But for as much as I can read more timely and humane themes in this, the main reason why this film works is because it’s so much goddamn fun to watch. It’s a B-movie played at just the right tone to bring out the growing ridiculousness of the situation, which is bolstered by how much fun the filmmakers are having in incorporating all manners of ‘80s nostalgia into the mix. The high-concept premise is never used as an excuse to just coast while doing little to nothing else, since the character work and performances show that no-one was half-arsing it on-set. It also helps that both the bear and the copious amounts of gore (both of which are presented through CGI) never look conspicuous to the point of breaking the immersion, making for one of the better uses of digital effects I’ve seen in a minute.
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