Waking up this Monday morning we discover that the LGBTQ community has adopted a brand new queer icon! He is the star of a sleeper hit of a camp horror-comedy film in which he takes the title role., and seemingly everyone has fallen in love with him. COCAINE BEAR‘s tale is actually based on a true story, even though it may have been embellished for the sake of the movie.
It all goes back to 1985 when Andrew C. Thornton, a disgraced former narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler was flying over Georgia when he dropped a duffel bag of cocaine out of the plane. He jumped out to retrieve it but, due to a faulty parachute, died upon landing.
Three months later, a large American black bear was found dead in northern Georgia next to a pile of 40 opened plastic containers of cocaine. Clearly, the bear found Thornton’s stash and overdosed. Now, this is where the story gets a tad ‘creative’ (as if gay men would ever do that…) and the film imagines what might’ve happened if the Bear went on a cocaine-fueled rampage, mauling anyone in his path.
It is absurdly funny, thanks mainly to the actress-turned-director Elizabeth Banks (best known for Pitch Perfect series and 30 Rock, and her rather fab cast. It includes Jesse Taylor Ferguson, Margo Martindale, Aaron Holliday, and the late Ray Liotta in one of his final on-screen roles.
P.S. our favorite review calls it “gloriously deranged”
" Cocaine Bear" was released exclusively to US theaters on Feb. 24, 2023.by Universal Pictures 