BRIAN VINER discusses Cocaine Beer

BRIAN VINER discusses Cocaine Beer

This Comedy Slasher Is The Wildest Cinematic Experience Of The Year So Far: BRIAN VINER Discusses Cocaine Bear

Cocaine Bear (15, 95 min)

Pronunciation: Completely mad

Judgement: ****

This is a wild comedy-slasher movie in which the violent protagonist is imbued not so much with superhuman as super-ursine qualities after becoming addicted to the white stuff dropped in 1985 during a botched smuggling run across a Georgia state park .

Let me warn you that this movie could go up your nose in a different way, especially if you think a drug-addicted bear is not a fun subject.

the late Ray Liotta can be seen in one of his last roles prior to his death earlier this year, in the first preview released for the comedy Cocaine Bear, which features a drug-addicted bear on a murderous rampage

the late Ray Liotta can be seen in one of his last roles prior to his death earlier this year, in the first preview released for the comedy Cocaine Bear, which features a drug-addicted bear on a murderous rampage

Let me warn you that this movie could get up your nose in a different way, especially if you think a drug-addicted bear is not a fun subject

Let me warn you that this movie could get up your nose in a different way, especially if you think a drug-addicted bear is not a fun subject

From left to right: Daveed (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.), Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), Officer Reba (Ayoola Smart), and Syd (Ray Liotta) in Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks

From left to right: Daveed (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), Officer Reba (Ayoola Smart), and Syd (Ray Liotta) in Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks

It adds up to the wildest cinematic experience so far of the year, not only more hoot than Damien Chazelle's deranged Babylon, but also in just over an hour and a half, thankfully only half as long.

It adds up to the wildest movie experience of the year so far, not only more hoot than Damien Chazelle’s deranged Babylon, but also in just over an hour and a half, thankfully only half as long

It treats us to the farewell screen of the late Ray Liotta, and I hope it's not too much of a spoiler to say that he goes out in unforgettably gruesome style.

It treats us to the farewell screen of the late Ray Liotta, and I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that he goes out in unforgettably gruesome style.

But one of the crazier things to know about a wacky movie lavishly directed by Elizabeth Banks is that it’s based on actual events.

Admittedly, Banks and writer Jimmy Warden have taken a lot of dramatic liberties, as cops, mobsters, teen punks, a mother (Keri Russell) searching for her lost daughter, and a park ranger hilariously played by the great Margo Martindale, all converge on the lost drugs. shipment, unaware (at first) of the dangers of the coke-fed bear.

But it adds up to the wildest movie experience of the year so far, not only more hoot than Damien Chazelle’s deranged Babylon, but also at just over an hour and a half, thankfully only half as long.

It also treats us to the farewell screen of the late Ray Liotta, by the way, and I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that he goes out in unforgettably gruesome style.