COCAINE BEAR (2023)
Updated: Feb 25, 2023
A Film Whose Comedy Levels Are Almost (But Not Quite) As High As That Bear.
Grade: B+
Cocaine Bear is another one of those “Based on A True Story” movies that comes with a fine print. Yes, there really was once a bear that ate a bunch of cocaine dumped in the Tennessee woods in 1985. But even though said bear died shortly afterwards, the makers of the film dared to ask the question, “What if it didn’t die?” and took the answer to an outrageous extreme. The result is a crazy combination of black comedy and creature feature that, despite the pervasive presence of white powder, makes for pretty fun if inconsistent viewing.
Directed by Elizabeth Banks, the film follows the intersecting storylines of several people who ultimately run afoul of the titular beast. A Knoxville detective (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) is on the trail of several bags of cocaine dropped from a plane into the woods, hoping they will help him bust St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White (Ray Liotta in one of his final roles). In northeast Georgia, a local mother (Kari Russell) is searching for her daughter, Deedee (Brooklynn Prince), and Deedee's friend Henry(Christian Convery), who skipped school to paint a waterfall in the woods. Meanwhile, White sends his henchman Daveed (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.) and his grieving son, Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), to find the cocaine so he can appease his Colombian buyers. Little do all suspect that an enormous black bear has consumed much of the cocaine, making it extremely…aggressive, to say the least.
The main attraction is, of course, the violent attacks by the cocaine bear against intruders to her territory. The film takes its time getting there, setting up numerous familiar-looking plot lines first. The disobedient kids skipping school, the drug dealer sending people to get drugs, and the detective trying to take an infamous crime lord down have all been seen before in some form or another.
But as I mentioned in my review for Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), a trope can still work if something different is done with it. Banks and her producers, Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (who codirected 2014’s The LEGO Movie) have fulfilled those criteria by infusing them with comedy-much of which is derived from the central premise. When the bear attacks start, they are violent and gory, yet also hilarious, both because a bear is high on cocaine, and because of the priceless reactions by the characters. Some of the casualties are intentional and others are accidental, such as when a local park ranger (Margo Martindale) shoots her gun in the wrong direction when the bear and a gang member are in her sights. Later the ranger is hauled into an ambulance by two paramedics, who drive like crazy to get away from the bear. All the while they are screaming and bulging their eyes out, making the resulting carnage more funny than horrific.
It could be easy to label Cocaine Bear as a simple, goofy adult comedy. But one does not have to look closely to see that it is deriving its humor from a concept that has largely fallen into disrepute: playing fast and loose with a taboo subject. In this case, of course, the subject is drugs. Yet the movie doesn’t shy away from using it in a comedic light as the bear becomes reliant on it almost as a power source and, at one point, dances in a shower of coke like a kid in a snowstorm. The most audacious moment comes when the two kid characters find the cocaine and actually taste it (don’t worry, they spit it out in disgust). The fact that some movies are still daring to use such jokes in this increasingly sensitive time shows that good comedy isn’t completely dead.
Although funny most of the way through, Cocaine Bear is not always consistent with its humor. Arguably its peak is the sequence with the park ranger, the gang, and the paramedics. This moment happens at the halfway point, and the rest of the movie never quite measures up to it. But there is still plenty of humor and even heart. The actors are all entertaining in their respective roles, and producers Lord and Miller are still good at their jobs. They have successfully transferred the sense of humor they brought to the LEGO Movies to a more adult medium. Cocaine Bear may not be as entertaining as those movies, but it is a fun ride just the same.
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Screenplay: Jimmy Warden
Producers: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, Brian Duffield
Cast: Keri Russell (Sari Matthews), O'Shea Jackson, Jr. (Daveed), Christian Convery (Henry), Alden Ehrenreich (Eddie), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Peter), Brooklynn Prince (Deedee), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Bob), Kristofer Hivju (Olaf), Margo Martindale (Liz), Ray Liotta (Syd White), Matthew Rhys (Andrew C. Thornton II)
Rated: R (for bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout)
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