Chris Pine

Lili’s Pick: Hell or High Water

Lanie’s Pick: Stretch

As I sit down to write this, I am saying a silent prayer that Chris Pine remains untainted and unproblematic and unimaginably beautiful. May he always be the good, goofy, swimming pool-eyed human being of our dreams, and may he never join the ranks of the toxic male actors whose films came before him on Double Feature Thursday (see Sh*a LaBeouf and Armie Hammer). Amen. ANYWAY this week we’re dedicating our time to one of our favorite, most versatile actors, the comedian and feminist and English major: Chris Pine. While he certainly has the resume to warrant icon-status, I rarely see him getting the praise he deserves—looking at you, The Academy. Stretch was a fast-paced, boldface journey of unfortunate and hilarious circumstances. As Chris Pine, the worst limo passenger of all time, terrorizes the oddly-but-charmingly-cast limo driver Patrick Wilson, it’s hard not to become obsessed with how depraved his character becomes. This movie is truly bizarre in a very early 2000s way (despite the fact that it was made in 2014) but I was extremely impressed with how good this one was, and how it was made all the better by a truly deranged performance from Chris Pine. Hell or High Water, in an even more suspenseful way, had me pulled all the way in from almost the very first frame. Something about West Texas is terrifying, and Texans, famously, can be really scary. (I live among them, so I can say that) The intensity grew unexpectedly, early on, and never stopped. Even after the dust settles in this film, a sting of uncertainty remains until it fades to black. I’m a sucker for antiheroes, especially those who take after a Bonnie and Clyde lifestyle, particularly if they’re Chris Pine brooding in the desert. When it comes to the battle of the Hollywood Chris’ I must ask: do Evans, Hemsworth, or Pratt have this range?