The most underrated modern Western of the 21st century is streaming now | Films | Entertainment

Earlier this week, we alerted film fans to the most underrated Western of the 21st century. Like much of the genre, Christian Bale’s Hostiles is set in the Wild West of the 19th century. But what about those modern or “neo-Westerns” in a contemporary setting?

In recent years, we’ve had TV shows like Breaking Bad and the Coen Brothers’ Academy Award-winning No Country for Old Men. But the most underrated of the last 25 years was also Oscar-nominated (including for Best Picture) and was barely seen in cinemas.

The movie we’re talking about is 2016’s Hell or High Water, which is the second film in Taylor Sheridan’s unconnected American Frontier Trilogy. The Yellowstone creator is the master of the Neo-Western with this crime drama having all the major tropes of a classic of the genre, but within a modern Texan setting. The five-star film with 97 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as a couple of bank robbers pursued by Jeff Bridges’ old Texas Ranger on his last job before retirement.

Hell or High Water is streaming on StudioCanal Presents (via Apple TV and Prime Video) and Paramount+.