Cocaine Bear
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr
Genre: Snort
I can’t think of any other film where the title is so straight to the point about what it’s about and at the same time generates a “What the?” reaction. Cocaine Bear is about a bear that eats cocaine. That’s pretty much all you need to know. That it goes on a rampage, killing people it comes across and generating chaos and pandemonium is exactly what you expect and what you get.
What you don’t get is subtleness, moral messages or clever comedy. That’s not to say that Cocaine Bear isn’t funny in parts or has no family relationship side stories. But they really don’t matter. Ultimately, this is a black and bloody, shock and gore slasherfest. Blood splatters everyone and everything, limbs are ripped apart and lots of people are killed.
And therein lies the dilemma – should kids see a film that is clearly comic and at the same time gratuitously, violently over the top? The link to reality is tenuous, so surely kids who spend hours every day on their devices watching extreme YouTube videos and clips that bear (pun intended) no relationship to reality should have no problem viewing Cocaine Bear as the nonsense it fully intends to be.
Anyway, in Australia the film is MA 15+ but in the USA it is R rated. Whether that’s a comment on the differences between our societies, the education levels of our children or the strictness of their parents is not for this column to debate. But what doesn’t need debating is that Cocaine Bear is ridiculous and crazy – and in a good way.
Rating: Two-and-a-half pounds of white powder.
