Hell or High Water (2016)

A cranky old diner waitress who only wants to know what you’re not ordering gets one scene in Hell or High Water, and it tells you everything about this corner of Texas: tired, broke and done being polite. The honest gripe is that the movie spells out its message too. Billboards for debt relief and going-out-of-business signs roll past so often you’ll get the point by the third one. Chris Pine plays Toby as a quiet man who planned every robbery down to the minute, and Ben Foster’s Tanner is the brother who treats each one like a party. Jeff Bridges mumbles his way through a great performance as a Ranger who’d rather tease his partner than retire, and Gil Birmingham gives it right back. It holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and made just $38 million worldwide on a reported $12M. An 8.9 because it’s a lean, funny, sad western about who really robs whom. $6,041 says you skip the menu at your next diner and just tell the server what you don’t want.

What works: Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham are a perfect duo, and Chris Pine gives a quiet, careful performance as a man doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

What doesn’t: The economic message is spelled out on one too many billboards, and Ben Foster’s wild-card brother is a little too easy to read.

Who it’s for: Anyone who likes slow, dusty crime stories where the cops and the robbers are equally tired and equally human.