Last week there were a few nice surprises when the Oscar nominations were announced. The media mainly focused on the surprise Best Picture nomination of “The Blind Side,” but there was another surprise in the best supporting actress category: Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart.”  To no one’s surprise, Jeff Bridges earned a best actor nomination for the same film, and hopefully this award attention will  help to spread “Crazy Heart” to a wider audience because this is one great film that should not be ignored. 

In writing about “Crazy Heart,” many critics have focused on Jeff Bridges’ grand performance. Bridges does give a great performance and many expect him to win the gold. Mr. Bridges portrays Bad Blake, a struggling country singer who survives off of what his name used to mean. Blake lives off the money he earns from small shows at bowling alleys and bars after once serving as a mentor to another artist who has made it big.

Near the beginning of the film, Blake is interviewed by an aspiring journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal), anxious to learn more about the singer.  The film develops from there as Blake, the loner, begins a relationship with the younger woman. As that relationship builds, he’s given a chance to change his life and decide what kind of person he wants to be. Does he want to continue to hold a grudge against his fellow singer who succeeded and left him in the past? Or does he want to continue moving along playing show after show without finding something or someone worth settling down for? (more…)

“I apologize for being less than what you probably expected me to be.”

In director Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart,” Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a creatively-stifled, self-destructive former country music star drowning himself in whiskey and self-pity before finding a second chance in the love of a woman and her four year-old son. If the story sounds familiar, it should. In 1983, star Robert Duvall and screenwriter Horton Foote won well-deserved Oscars for their poetic, understated work telling almost the exact same story in “Tender Mercies.”  You won’t mind, though, because both “Crazy Heart” and Jeff Bridges are nearly as good. And if some kind of loyalty to The Mighty Duvall makes you resistant to checking out this near-retelling, fear not. He’s not only on board as a producer but brings great color and character to a supporting role, as well. He even sings a bit!

“Crazy Heart” defines the idea of a simple story well told. One glimpse at the trailer and we all know where the plot beats will lead, at least through the second act. We know that Bad Blake and small town reporter Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) will fall in love and that this is certain to bring about some kind of personal and professional reformation for the has-been booze hound. What we don’t know is “how” that story will be told or where it will end up, and it’s in the telling that “Crazy Heart” soars. (more…)

Once released on DVD, conservative parents everywhere should immediately buy a copy of “Away We Go,” place it in a box marked Break Glass Only In Case of Emergency, and hang it somewhere handy in the event the children begin to show troubling signs of becoming insufferable Leftists: White kids with corn rows, NPR on the preset, Al Gore poster on the ceiling over the bed, more than five sanctimonious “awareness” bracelets…  That’s how it begins, so before they’re lost to the final phase — a complete lack of self-awareness — break the glass and show your children who exactly they’re in danger of becoming.  

Directed by the very gifted Sam Mendes, (American Beauty and Road to Perdition are two personal favorites) “Away We Go” obviously wasn’t designed to portray our friends on the left as utterly dysfunctional and clueless, but never will you see a more unsympathetic bunch of self-involved, navel gazers. And not just the supporting characters, some of whom are supposed to be unlikable (I think), but also the leads, Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph), two self-proclaimed 34 year-old, unmarried “fuck ups” who discover they’re about to have a baby. In their defense, they are a committed couple (he wants marriage, she refuses), so committed that when she laments the coming weight gain, he reassures, “I will love you even if I can’t find your vagina.” (more…)

Over the weekend, I was pondering why the low budget, standard genre pic The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) has become a nifty little box office hit. The film added almost $9.5M over the weekend for a new 10-day cume of $37M, and the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that it’s all about the poster.

Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).

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