I thought my viewing of Cocaine Bear might be the second time I walk out in the middle of a movie at an Asheville independent theatre. The first was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, which I’m convinced people claim to love because they think it makes them seem deep, but I found so tediously bad that I felt fine walking out halfway through.
Cocaine Bear wasn’t tedious and wasn’t bad, per se (some parts made me chuckle, and I was genuinely invested in some of the characters escaping said Cocaine Bear, so the movie did its job…I just don’t think I’ll be running to see it again nor telling everyone I know they should see it) but was gory as hell, and the older I get, the more I really can’t take extensive gore.
I know most people probably were drawn to Cocaine Bear because of the sheer stupidity of the premise—which I was too…I don’t go to the movies a lot, but this seemed like one best seen in a rowdy theatre—but I was most drawn to it due to my allegiance to Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, and though they didn’t interact, and his role amounted to a 30-second cameo, seeing an 80s garb bedecked Keri Russell backed by a synth soundtrack was, despite the coked out bear and cartoonish gore, comforting (The Americans is my favorite show of all time—I’ve yet to watch the final episode because I was so stressed about the Jennings’s fate).
Anyway, the movie, as advertised, was dumb fun if you can stomach a plethora of ripped limbs and some very gnarly intestinal work. I saw Cocaine Bear at The Grail Movie House at the Foundy complex in River Arts. It was a neat little theatre to visit and has a great location next to the Foundy Wedge, which I haven’t spent much time in, but was very busy in a good way pre-Cocaine Bear (which was sold out and suitably rowdy). Now that it’s on my radar, maybe I’ll start checking out what movies it’s showing and hopefully continue to stay till the end.
AshevilleExplorer 