So far the reviews coming in from Cannes Film Festival paint Chris in a very positive light regarding his role in Hell or High Water, which makes me extremely proud. Check out some quotes below:
Variety.com: Directed by Daniel Mackenzie, from a script by Taylor Sheridan (who wrote “Sicario”), it’s a gripping independent production that, with its fusion of offbeat star power and audacious storytelling, has the potential to be a mainstream hit, and possibly an awards contender.
Chris Pine, with his moody sleek glamour and bright blue bedroom eyes, has struggled to find serious dramatic roles that fit him as snugly as Captain Kirk, and this one is undoubtedly his breakthrough. As Toby, who’s divorced with two kids he hasn’t seen for a year, Pine is playing a sexy bad boy with some mileage on him, and he’s quietly mesmerizing. Toby knows how to spring into action, but his downbeat look expresses the pain of every mistake he’s ever made. Ben Foster, wearing a biker ‘stache and a spooked stare that dares you to stare back, makes Tanner an even badder boy, a thief who has spent years in prison and doesn’t have the patience — or faith — to go straight. He’s a sociopathic screwup who knows he’s a screwup (which sort of redeems him).
TheGuardian.com: Mackenzie’s direction and Giles Nuttgens’s cinematography create a kind of horizontal vertigo in the dizzying sweep of the landscape and there is a great soundtrack with original music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. It’s an action-thriller with punch; Bridges gives the characterisation ballast and heft and Pine and Foster bring a new, grizzled maturity to their performances.
Telegraph.co.uk: Pine, ever-improving, notches up new respect here for his stalwart underplaying, and Foster’s on fire: his late action scene with a machine gun is hilariously bad-ass, and shot with satisfying, let’s-do-this verve by Giles Nuttgens. The film also shares a cast member the Coens used: a venerable Texan actress called Margaret Bowman, who gets one film-stealing scene, credited as “T-Bone Waitress” – she spits out her lines with such deadly sass it’s only fair not to spoil her punchlines.
I love him so much.