Ryan Lambie Published Date Thursday, September 1, 2016 - 06:18

No movie exists within a vacuum, and even the most outlandish-looking genre film still carries a distorted reflection of the here-and-now. Captain America: Civil War and Batman V Superman may be fantastical superhero movies, but they also feel right for a year where political and ideological division is, seemingly, everywhere.

Hell Or High Water, directed by Starred Up and Young Adam’s David Mackenzie, is a dusty Texan thriller charged with modern relevance. Playing on the images and trappings of western, road trip and heist genres, it’s another movie - alongside The Place Beyond The Pines and Out Of The Furnace - set against the backdrop of an America riven by the last decade’s financial crisis. Entire towns seem to stand empty. The nodding donkeys, once the sign of a healthy oil industry, no longer nod. Ranchers coral their skinny...