- COCAINE BEAR
- Starring: Keri Russelll, O’shea Jackson, Jr. and Ray Liotta
- Directed by: Elizabeth Banks
- Rated: R
- Running time: 1 hr 35 mins
- Universal
Normally when a film is advertised as “based/inspired by a true story,” you think to yourself, cool. However, when I first heard this comment used about “Cocaine Bear” I had to chuckle. Really? A beat that goes on a cocaine bender? Yeah, right. Then I spoke with a friend of mine who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. She knew all about the story BECAUSE IT’S TRUE!
It’s sometime in the 1980s. America is in the middle of a huge drug epidemic. “Just say no,” is the message related by everyone from Nancy Reagan to Pee Wee Herman. Sadly there are no television in the woods.
A plane flies overhead in the darkness. Aboard is a man packaging up bundles of cocaine to drop into the woods below for his associates to recover and put on the street. An onboard mishap causes the plane to crash, with the wreckage (and durgs) strewn all over. Anyone could come along and find the illicit cargo. Hikers. Kids. A bear.
A film that mixes dark humor and horror perfectily is indeed a rarity, but “Cocaine Bear” pulls this mixture off almost seamlessly. Director Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden have woven together a film that is both funny and terrifying.
The cast is full of colollrful characters, ranging from Russell’s frantic mom searching for her daughter to Jackson’s almost too responsible drug runner to Margo Maartindale as a park ranger with romance on her mind. Throw in recent Tony award winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson as a local wildlife expert and the late Ray Liotta in one of his final performances and you have a group of actors who, instead of going for camp, play the situations straight. And don’t forget the bear, who shows an amazing range of emotions. Add a soundtrack consisting of some of the era’s greatest hits and you have the formula for an entertaining night at the movies.