76. COCAINE BEAR (2023) dir. Elizabeth Banks

The universe has a sense of humor. I know this because right now, in theaters, I have the opportunity to find a marquee where the phrases COCAINE BEAR and JESUS REVOLUTION can sit side by side.What a time to be alive.And for a title so brashly blatant (here I go with the alliteration again, Lord) as COCAINE BEAR, I'd expect for the movie to be as simple as humanly possible. It's a bear. It does coke. It goes on a woodland rampage.Simple.I don't need a story about a single mom (Keri Russell) clashing with her preteen (Brooklynn Prince in a role that never ceases to make me feel old, because wasn't she just playing a precocious first-grader in THE FLORIDA PROJECT like...yesterday?) only for said girl to be kidnapped by the Cocaine Bear. I don't really need a story about a sad sack drunkard son of a mob boss (Alden Ehrenreich) whining about his ex to his best friend (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) while they track down the missing coke. I really don't need to know the escapades of a trigger-happy park ranger (Margo Martindale). Hell, if we can just let mob boss Ray Liotta spend 90 min as aviator-wielding Captain Ahab facing off against a drugged-up psycho black bear, I'd be set.But sometimes, we just don't get what we want. We get far, far less.And sometimes, people bring infants to the 10:45pm screening.---------------------------Review THE MOVIES on Apple Podcasts & I'll read it on the next episode!Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠& ⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠Financially support the podcast via the ⁠⁠tip jar!