Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of April 17th – ‘Cocaine Bear’ Brings the Gonzo Fun

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, the demented blast that is Cocaine Bear comes home. It easily leads the charge this week, making for the most appealing option, by far. There’s also a classic hitting the Criterion Collection as well, so read on for more….

Joey’s Top Pick

Cocaine Bear

The title says it all. Cocaine Bear does not bury the lede, not in the slightest. I paid tribute to the horror comedy and the genre it hopefully is turbocharging here, but director Elizabeth Banks clearly delighted in taking the premise as far as possible. The end result is a delightful time. My rave review here includes the following:

Sometimes, a movie just knows what its audience wants. No matter the genre, if a film can do exactly what a viewer wants, it can be something special. When you deliver on exactly what you promise? Yeah, that’s a cinematic sweet spot. I’m here to tell you that Cocaine Bear does exactly that. The flick has a bonkers premise, albeit one based on a true story, and shows you everything you could hope for. On a pure entertainment level, nothing has compared to this in 2023. It represents my number one film to date, and while it’s early, I think it has a great chance of hanging on in my top ten throughout the year. It’s just that much of a twisted treat.

Cocaine Bear is an absolute blast. It makes no bones about being anything other than a zany action comedy about what happens when a bear in the woods gets into some cocaine. Hilarity and insanity ensues, with a game cast, as well as a director clearly enjoying herself, letting it all play out to the extreme. It tickled me pink from start to finish, resulting in my favorite film experience of the year so far.

Also Available This Week

Emily

Living with Chucky

Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Marlowe

Maybe I Do

Criterion Corner

The Seventh Seal

From The Criterion Collection: “Returning exhausted from the Crusades to find medieval Sweden gripped by the Plague, a knight (Max von Sydow) suddenly comes face-to-face with the hooded figure of Death, and challenges him to a game of chess. As the fateful game progresses, and the knight and his squire encounter a gallery of outcasts from a society in despair, Ingmar Bergman mounts a profound inquiry into the nature of faith and the torment of mortality. One of the most influential films of its time, The Seventh Seal is a stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning and a work of stark visual poetry.”

Stay tuned for more next week…