Hell or High Water

Earlier this year, Taylor Sheridan added “Oscar nominee” to his resume. The actor-turned-screenwriter-turned-director quickly made a name for himself with Sicario, then wooed the Academy with last summer’s surprise critical hit and Best Original Screenplay nominee Hell or High Water. This year Sheridan returns with his third crime drama, Wind River, directing from his own script for the first time.

It’s always fortuitous when a director and stars who made a great movie decide they’d love to all work together to make another one. Such is the case with Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and David Mackenzie, whose fantastic western homage Hell or High Water was a Best Picture nominee last year. The three have decided to reteam, this time with Netflix, for Outlaw King, which, by the title, sounds like it could be very similar to Hell or High Water. It’s anything but.

After months of hype and controversy, the big night is finally upon us. The red carpet has been rolled out, the votes have been cast, and host Jimmy Kimmel has rehearsed all his best Matt Damon jokes. At last, the 89th Academy Awards have arrived.

La La Land, duh. Manchester By the Sea, right. Moonlight, you better. Deadpool – excuse me? It’s true, Ryan Reynolds’ superhero movie has just been named one of the 10 best films of 2016 by the Producers Guild of America (via Variety). Many of us thought its Golden Globes nominations were just a result of the HFPA’s always wacky taste, but it seems the Deadpool virus has spread across the nation to multiple voting bodies, from the Writer’s Guild of America to the Producers.

As December rolls on, so too does the cavalcade of year-end lists. The latest authority to weigh in is AFI, by which I mean the American Film Institute and not the Californian alternative-rock group also known as A Fire Inside. While we may never know which films the quartet behind “Miss Murder” favored this year, the other AFI has released their list of 2016’s ten best releases, and it’s a little more varied than some of the heretofore published lists, bringing in some films with less awards buzz along with your usual suspects of Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, and La La Land.

2016 is almost over and with everything else going on in the world, you probably don’t have too much time to devote to picking through all the movies that are available and deciding which one to watch. That’s where our new series, On Demand With ScreenCrush, comes in. Every two weeks, ScreenCrush Editor-in-Chief Matt Singer joins you to recommend three handpicked new titles you can watch at home right now from Movies on Demand. These are big new releases you won’t find streaming on Netflix, and the choices run the gamut from indie favorites, to major blockbusters, to insightful documentaries, and everything in between — all available with your remote.

The road signs in Hell or High Water kept catching my eye. They’re like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action in the foreground of the film. During the opening sequence, the robbery of a small Texas bank, the camera pans across the front of a Goodyear Tire Shop, essentially mocking the two brothers carrying out the robbery. (Their mother has just died and they’ve turned to crime to make ends meet.) A few moments later they drive past a “Closing Down” billboard, and there are also signs advertising “Debt Relief,” “Pass With Care,” and “Fast Cash,” all tempting (or perhaps taunting) these two men as they engineer a crime wave in West Texas.