By: Jeff Ching

Walking into Cocaine Bear, I was expecting the movie to be the latest inductee to the “so bad, it’s good” list. Something along the lines of Snakes on a Plane or the Sharknado franchise: movies that are not good, but fun to laugh at.  Cocaine Bear, however, is not “so bad, it’s good” – it’s “so good, it’s umm….…the best movie of 2023 so far”. Look, it’s only late February, and I don’t expect Cocaine Bear to still be my top pick in June when it’s time to string together a mid-year “best of” (and, perhaps, I’d be concerned about the state of cinema if it still is).  With that said, it was an absolute blast watching this with a big crowd, a crowd that frequently laughed with the movie and not at it.  Cocaine Bear should absolutely be seen on a big screen.

Written by Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen) and directed by Elizabeth Banks (Movie 43, Pitch Perfect 2), the film is loosely based on a true story.  In December 1985, a convicted drug smuggler dumped 40 kg of cocaine from a plane, and a black bear found some and absolutely went to town on the haul.  In real life, the bear died of an overdose, but the movie’s slight fabrication is that while black bears are usually afraid of people, cocaine gave this bear the confidence and determination to sadistically murder people and tear them limb from limb, literally speaking.  Cocaine to this bear is like spinach to Popeye.     

Cocaine Bear is exactly what it needs to be.  The movie knows how ridiculous and preposterous its pitch is, and Banks goes “all in” with the absurd level of gore, campiness, and darkly hilarious kills.  It’s also quite effective as a horror movie, which caught me off guard.  The film does a good job building suspense and raising tension, and some of the jump scares are really well executed.  There’s a good level of unpredictability for how some of the kills will happen or which characters will meet their demise.  I’d like to see Elizabeth Banks try directing an actual, straightforward horror, as I think she has the directorial chops. 

Warden’s script is also a pleasant surprise.  Sharknado tried to pull off some family drama between the killing scenes, but the results were lame and laughable.  Cocaine Bear gets it right, keeping the tone comedic from beginning to end.  The movie opens with a quote that got positive reactions from the audience and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The jokes that follow range from hits and misses, but the gags that do land generate big laughs, taking the attention away from the weaker comedy. For example, having kids excessively curse is lazy writing and a cheap laugh, and having a scene focus on those kids finding a brick of coke in the woods received uncomfortable groans from my audience. But, the childhood innocence that’s attached to these moments makes these scenarios funny.

Other characters are also led to the woods (along with their subplots). While it does feel as if the film could lose some of these walking tangents, it’d be a shame to slim down this fantastic cast. Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) is trusted to deliver the infamous, “A bear…did cocaine!!” line and it’s never not funny despite how many times I’ve seen the trailer.  He also has great chemistry working with O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), which helps the pair portray two criminals trying to get their hands on the cocaine.  I was most invested in this side story, as well as their character arcs. Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Corporate Animals, Da 5 Bloods) is naturally likeable and funny as the cop going after the drug pushing criminals.  A lot of the film’s best comedy comes from reactions, and Whitlock Jr. has the funniest one.              

Kerri Russell is an actress I haven’t seen in a long time.  Last seen in Antlers, Russell plays her motherly role as straight as possible, showing the true power of a parent’s love, putting herself in the path of the cocaine bear to find her missing daughter.  It’s a challenge to cast kids for this type of movie, but Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) and Christian Convery (Playing with Fire) are quite good, and the way they nonchalantly joke with the mother about becoming cocaine junkies is very funny. 

Finally, the late Ray Liotta.  Every movie of this genre must have the morally bankrupt, antagonistic scumbag character that will eventually meet his doom in the most satisfyingly karmic brutal way.  The movie ends with a “Dedicated to Ray Liotta” card, leaving us feeling conflicted about Cocaine Bear being one of his last roles.  But, he fully commits to this wacky role.          

With movies like this, I often like to play “hypothetical screenwriter”.  In this case, I don’t know what I would have done differently with this premise.  Cocaine Bear takes a completely absurd premise and hits a home run.  I don’t care if I lose credibility for the rating I’m going to give this flick.  I drove 1.5 hours through the worst snow storm this winter had to offer (so far) and the movie was absolutely worth it.  Cocaine Bear was simply the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a long time.  Drugs are perhaps encouraged to enhance the experience, but strictly the herbal or hallucinogenic kinds.  Don’t do cocaine. 

**** (out of 5)

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Read more of Jeff Ching’s thoughts on film at The Ching of Comedy’s blog.