Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Movies


Awards season has begun, and so must my movie marathon. As you know, I try to see all the nominated movies before the award shows (which btw are already written down on my calendar - Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, and Oscars). My work is cut out for me since I've seen only a few of them so far.

I'll write more about the movies later with reviews. From what I've heard and read about Crazy Heart, I'm looking forward to it. First of all, I like Jeff Bridges. The story is familiar, and we've seen it before. The character sounds like Townes Van Zandt's life without the happy ending. Townes was an incredible singer-songwriter who drank himself to death. I guess The Wrestler is a credible comparison there in several ways. Both died because their hearts exploded, so to speak.

But back to Crazy Heart, I feel that I know what to expect, but Bridges gives more and in different ways in his roles. He looks a lot like Kris Kristofferson and sings his own songs. T-Bone Burnett was interviewed by Terry Gross this morning on "Fresh Air" and wrote original songs for the movie and produced the music. That's always a good sign. He's an amazing talent.

Bridges's character has a relationship with a reporter played by Maggie Gyllenhaal who is about 1/3 his age. I warned students about those "for the love of a good woman" movies and novels because that rarely happens in real life. Those stories make for good fantasies, but if someone isn't like you want them to be when you are with them, odds are low they'll change. I'm OK with this in the movie but wish it weren't the much-younger woman again. Oh well. Don't see that happening in reverse, do you?


Guess I should have waited until AFTER watching the movie to write about it, but I'll do that, too.

5 comments:

Sam said...

O.K. I've seen Precious, Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes, next on my list is A Simple Man and An Education. I'm not very fond of those "for the love of a good man" movies so much.
Joy, seeing I didn't know you before Brokeback Mountain, did you see it? and your thoughts?

SteveA said...

The only one I want to see is "It's Complicated" - I love Meryl Streep and oh yeah Alec Baldwin is one of my fantasies!

Joy said...

I meant "for the love of a good woman" since I can't think of that many where a man saves a down-and-out woman, can you?

Brokeback Mountain was powerful and touching. I read the short story after seeing the movie. I thought it was very well done - excellent acting and writing. Since that is the experience of so many, it heartbreaking on several levels. That scene at the end when Ennis went into Jack's room and held his jacket was beyond sad. What did you think about it?

Sam said...

It took several days after seeing it before I could decide exactly what I thought about it.
One amazing thing for certain we both were touched by the exact same thing.
It by far was the most moving moment.
Joy, I'm going to blog about going to see that Movie.

Sam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.