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The problem was never in understanding the way poorer people hit hardest by the recession might feel about the country. A film like Hell or High Water felt comfortable enough in Americans' broader understanding of the economy to set its story within that milieu. It's as though we had never been exposed to them before. Calls for empathy abound: We must learn about these poor people and appeal to them with an economic message. Much has been made since November 8th of the idea that liberals, and many other elites, failed to predict the outcome of the election because they didn't understand the "white working class" who make up much of rural America. Their immediate dire straits, their loss of hope for a better future, and their extralegal methods for solving it-all are a reflection of America's financial collapse nearly eight years earlier.
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The entire plot of the film is animated by the economic concerns left in the wake of the financial crisis. The effects of the recession on the rural towns of West Texas are starkly portrayed not as history lesson or polemics, but as a means of establishing character. Rather than offer a top-down view of how the great recession occurred, as films like The Big Short and Inside Job have attempted, Hell or High Water plants its audiences right in the aftermath. Hell or High Water paints a picture of a world most in the so-called coastal liberal elite too often ignore. If you're looking for quality entertainment for adults, Hell or High Water-a tale of two brothers robbing banks to pay off a lender before their oil-rich property gets forfeited and the Texas Rangers on their trail-is one of the best 2016 had to offer. With little more than some beat up cars, a solid cast, and a great sense of place, Mackenzie took an excellent script and turned it into an excellent movie. The taut, well-acted bank robbery western stood out from the pack of disappointing sequels and giant-effects blockbusters. On a budget of only $12 million, David Mackenzie's Hell or High Water went on to gross $31 million in the last weeks of summer. There is one film, though, that effectively captured our moment. Looking back at 2016, it'd be too much to ask to find films that deal with Trump. It took four years before we got the first great films dealing with 9/11, Steven Spielberg's twofer of The War of the Worlds and Munich (neither of which were directly about 9/11). We will surely see it over the next four years as artists and creators have a chance to reckon with our new reality.
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We see it already in the apparent normalization of the coming Trump administration. It was the product of an obvious malaise, and of a deep dissatisfaction with the power structures pushing us into a more diverse future. In the United States, the election of Donald Trump marks a political turning point few expected, but maybe one we all should have seen coming. This has been a tough year, and a monumental one. As we bring 2016 to a close, looks back at the films, albums, and television shows that have shaped our year and will have a lasting influence on the culture at large.