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| chillywilly |
 Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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Marc wrote: Billy,
If Bridges doesn't win the best actor Oscar, I will not only eat my guitar, I will shit it out and eat it again.
Spoken like a true rock star. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:45 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Jeff Bridges performance in "Crazy Heart" is one of those where you can't separate the actor from the role. So, it's not really as much a role as it is an embodiment. From Bridge's "ridden hard and put up wet" appearance to his genuine gifts as a singer and guitar player, he is the character Bad Blake. Bridges "performance" is so filled with nuance and smart acting choices that watching him is like listening to a great country song. There's nothing in the story of "Crazy Heart" that you haven't seen or heard before. If the movie had a lesser actor in the lead, it would have barely rated a tv slot. It is a movie driven by Bridges. While the rest of the actors are good, and sometimes brilliant (Robert Duvall), they all orbit Bridges like planets around a giant spectacular sun. You could take every close-up of Bridges, every gesture, every facial expression and create a video mix that would have the rhythm of dance - Bridges drunk and clumsily stuffing three cigarettes in his mouth, pulling vomit covered sunglasses out of a trash can after he's puked on them and wiping them off with his shirttail before resting them back on his forehead, the way he unconsciously fumbles with the zipper on his pants, how he greets the little boy at his door by saying "thru the tunnel" as the boy passes between Bridge's legs, the graceful way his arm dances out of a truck window to delicately brush his hand against his lover's as the truck slowly pulls away, the glass of booze resting on his heaving chest like a buoy as he lays drunk in bed, asking for a barley pop (beer) while he lounges hungover in a little fishing boat looking himself like the catch of the day, sneaking out of a fleabag motel room making sure not to wake the sleeping "coyote ugly" one night stand, lovingly polishing his guitar as though he's caressing a woman, busting the soundman's balls over his monitor mix not because he cares but because he wants some fucking respect, the sad resignation in his eyes when they glance a wedding ring that closes the door on past love ...the list is long. Bridges performance is a feast for anyone interested in the magic that a great actor can create using just his body, his voice, eyes and a guitar pick. |
Last edited by Marc on Sat Jan 09, 2010 9:13 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:59 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Well, it's coming next week, can't wait. From that comprehensive description it sounds not unlike what The Wrestler delivered when I finally caught it -- without Rourke, that film wouldn't likely have been anywhere as potent, no offense to Tomei or Evan Rachel -- it was all about Randy the Ram, in microscopic existential detail.
At least, I think the Crazy Heart screener is coming next week. Today, my screener source inadvertently sent The Road instead of A Serious Man. Was going to have the aide who delivered it take it back, but the mater expressed a desire to see it, so I let it slide. In a droll reverse parallel to our contrasting reactions to Up in the Air, she really liked it, found it sad and gripping. I still didn't think it worked, but must admit that it was relatively more tolerable on the small screen than it had been in the theyaytur, Duvall! still undetectable as Duvall! in his brief role, Guy Pearce and Molly Parker barely so in their tinier ones, Charlize impossible to miss in hers. The makers certainly did their darndest to make Pennsylvania and Louisiana and Oregon all look the same ravaged shades of grey and brown and grim. Viggo! and The Kid again carried it, but it remained an honorable effort that hardly demanded being made, let alone being seen a second time. So. Unrelentingly. Bleak. Ah, well. Perhaps it gets me cinema karma points, or sump'n. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:56 pm; edited 2 times in total
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 9:17 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| The comparisons between Bridges and Rourke are valid. The only difference is Rourke's had the added dimension of being very close to his actual life. Other than being a musician, I don't think Bridges and the character of Bad Blake have much in common. Though, looking at Bridges in "Crazy Heart" one does wonder if he is a hard drinker in real life. And he must have smoked several hundred cartons of cigarettes while making the film. Bridges is 57 in the film. I'm 58. My body is in far better shape. Did Bridges go on an eating binge for this movie? |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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I just got tickets for two Sundance films. It's been some time since I've been to a screening during the festival.
The Kids Are Alright
http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/surprisepremiere2_sundance2010
Shorts Program I
http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/shortsprogrami_sundance2010
I will have to report on them soon after their showings.
A lot of films sell out quick. This year (like in previous years), they do a locals only lottery. I got the 6:00pm to 6:30pm time slot to go purchase tickets. I wanted to see 6, but these were the only two on my list that were not sold out for all showings. They do have standby tickets 2 hours before the show starts, so I am planning on trying to go see a couple more that way.
Sundance 2010 is January 21-31, with most viewings in Park City, but some are at a couple of theaters in Salt Lake and Ogden. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Quote: Maggie Gyllenhaal seems to push people's buttons, always the mark of a true star.
Kewpie doll face, worm body. I've liked her in everything else I've seen her in.........but in this she smiled too much........I mean Bad Blake was not appealing.......unless to another smoking drunk.......Maggie was too fresh faced to breathe in all that smoke and keep smiling........ |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Massachusetts
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I have to agree that 500 Days of Summer is even better on 2nd and 3rd viewing - it may be added to a small select group of films I actually buy.
It's one of those films with many wonderful details you may have missed first time around |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:36 pm |
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Posts: 12921
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Marc wrote: Billy,
If Bridges doesn't win the best actor Oscar, I will not only eat my guitar, I will shit it out and eat it again.
That sounds really impressive. I think I'll root for Clooney. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:49 pm |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:05 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Overheard on the subway this afternoon: Two twentysomething women discussing "Leap Year"--"Somebody should be sued for fraud for just calling that a movie." |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:12 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Nine is shaping up to be the biggest bomb of the year. MEGA BOMB. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Not the The Kids are Alright I was thinking about. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 7:51 am |
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Marc wrote: Nine is shaping up to be the biggest bomb of the year. MEGA BOMB.
When multi millions of dollars are spent to create crap, it is very satisfying when it tanks. There are many that don't tank and actually make big bucks. Of course that just opens the door wider for big budget movies with no aesthetic credentials.
I'm curious as to how the director of Chicago could direct such a bomb. Maybe the mammoth allstar cast had the makers of the movie so starstruck that they figured whatever they put up on the screen would be a big money maker. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:33 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Gary--No one sets out to create an inadquate movie. My feeling, Joe to the contrary, is that the basic material was not strong enough to sustain the overblown production. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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Joe Vitus wrote:
Not the The Kids are Alright I was thinking about.
Nope. I was a bit confused on this one, too. It was a surprise entry and one that wasn't in the list of selected films when they announced them a few weeks back. My wife wanted to see this one since it has Julianne Moore in it. And that it was labeled as a comedy.
There are two other films I'm going to try and check out:
8: The Mormon Proposition
http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/8themormonproposition_sundance2010
Jack Goes Boating
http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/jackgoesboating_sundance2010
The first is all sold out at all showings, so it's a standby wait list on the day of the show (2 hours before they sell extra tickets). I know the story, but the documentary also tells of other related events that were part of the Prop 8 vote in Calif.
The second movie was directed by and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it's his directorial debut. Will most likely take my daughter (warpedgirl17) to this one. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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