True Grit reviews

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Post by OscarGuy »

Steinfeld is unquestionably lead. This is her story no doubt. She's a presence of unequal importance and that she can stand toe-to-toe with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin is suitable cause for reward and I wouldn't mind her getting in over Annette Bening, though I know that won't occur.

Of course, we have yet another case of a juvenile actor getting nominated in support entirely due to age.
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Post by Big Magilla »

The Original BJ wrote:As for Steinfeld, she was good in a tough role -- I think this definitely could be a springboard for more work for her, because she has both an appealing screen presence and seemingly innate intelligence. She rattles off the film's dialogue with confidence and charm, and she spars well with Bridges. But I can't say that I place her on par with the year's best actresses, of whom there are more than enough to fill a ballot...and, of course, Best Actress is the only possible category in which one could remotely consider her. I can already tell I'm going to be really grouchy about this Supporting push this season, even more so if it costs someone like Weaver an Oscar nod. Steinfeld is in every scene except the last five minutes of the movie...I really want to see someone with a straight face try and justify her as a supporting actress. (And, no, "But Actress is really crowded, and she's not good enough to place there, but I'd still like her to get a nomination somewhere" is not an acceptable excuse.)
I think the argument for support is probably based on her billing, which is below the title, whereas Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, who really are supporting players, have equal above-the-title billing with Jeff Bridges, but it's a specious argument. I agree that she should be considered as lead or not not at all.

I do think she has a chance given the film's box office is a lot stronger than the pundits were predicting (it's the Coen Brothers' biggest opening ever).

Right now I'd say only Annette Bening, Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence are locks. I can easily see Hailee Steinfeld joining that group over Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts whose films are struggling and Lesley Manville and Michelle Williams whose films are only opening in limited release this week. The ballots are already in the mail.
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Post by Sabin »

Fitting then that so many's favorite on this board is my lesser. I've seen True Grit again and it occupies strange station within the Coens' oeuvre, but on a second viewing I enjoyed it more. It becomes a more charming experience once one realizes that it will be oddly light on plot and subtext, though the Biblical notes rang truer, if sadly still inconsistently, and made for a more devastating conclusion. As with every Coen Bros. film, there are things they are just more interested in than others and here it is the dialogue. It's just there, every syllable present to savor.

It really is the story of a girl out to avenge her father and if taken as such its curious plot-light narrative isn't as offensive as once was. I don't love it, but it's worthwhile. Hailee Steinfeld is fantastic.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Here's what I had to say on CinemaSight:

"I’ve been skeptical all year that this would be as good as the original or for that matter, as good as previous Coen Brothers films and/or Jeff Bridges films. The answer in a nutshell: it is.

The original used a lot of dialogue from Charles Portis’ novel and featured an excellent performance from Kim Darby as 14 year-old Mattie. Though 21, and already a mother, Darby looked at most to be 15 or 16 and held her own against John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn better than any other actress in his films except for Maureen O’Hara.

The new version not only retains much of the dialogue from the novel, it also follows it more closely, going back to the novel’s ending. The ending of the 1969 film was the right one for The Duke. The new one is the right one for The Dude.

Matt Damon is a huge improvement over Glen Campbell as the Texas Ranger La Boeuf and Hailee Steinfeld is fine as Mattie, but she plays the character like a little girl in a grown up world whereas Darby played her as more of an equal. I liked both, but I liked the under-rated Darby more.

The other big change is that the 1969 version though set in the novel’s locations of Arkansas and the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), was filmed high in the Rockies, beautiful to look at , but not true to the story. The new version corrects that."




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Post by The Original BJ »

I thought this version of True Grit was far superior to the "classic" version. I still think, on the whole, that the major narrative through-line is fairly thin -- as Sabin says, there's not much plot, and our heroes still seem to land upon our villain in the most convenient manner possible.

But I think the Coens here accomplish something similar to what Scorsese did with Shutter Island: take material that isn't the freshest and make it feel more exciting as cinema than it should have any right to be.

I was gripped instantly by the opening shot/monologue, and then held fairly consistently through the early scenes in that beautifully realized town. (The one exception would be the courtroom scene, which goes on FAR too long.) Whereas the Hathaway/Wayne film relied on a lot of what I felt was silly humor, the Coens rely far more on their trademark gallows humor (literally, in one sequence), which aids the proceedings considerably, both in the opening beats of the film and throughout.

Once Rooster, Mattie, and La Boeuf set out on their journey, the film becomes, as in the earlier film, a series of loosely connected vignettes. But I thought most were handled well -- especially the doctor in the bear skin and the fracas at the cabin. And yet, even with a similar narrative contour, this version feels so much grittier and darker, giving Mattie's quest a weight that I thought the previous film lacked.

Loved the music -- it's understandable why it was ruled Oscar-ineligible, but those hymns were an excellent accompaniment to the images...which were also gorgeous. A bunch of shots really stand out -- the aforementioned opening image in the snow, the first shot of the town, Rooster and Mattie racing across the screen on horseback, the grown Mattie's silhouette as she walks through the train station, the final shot of Mattie receding toward the horizon. Though the film may not be a major piece of work, it's clear major filmmakers are at the helm.

Bridges was amusing as Cogburn, way better than Wayne I thought. Bridges's Rooster seemed to be grounded more in the real West rather than the movie West...but at heart, it's still not a very serious role. It was certainly enjoyable to watch a great actor having a great time, but I wasn't quite thinking Oscar.

As for Steinfeld, she was good in a tough role -- I think this definitely could be a springboard for more work for her, because she has both an appealing screen presence and seemingly innate intelligence. She rattles off the film's dialogue with confidence and charm, and she spars well with Bridges. But I can't say that I place her on par with the year's best actresses, of whom there are more than enough to fill a ballot...and, of course, Best Actress is the only possible category in which one could remotely consider her. I can already tell I'm going to be really grouchy about this Supporting push this season, even more so if it costs someone like Weaver an Oscar nod. Steinfeld is in every scene except the last five minutes of the movie...I really want to see someone with a straight face try and justify her as a supporting actress. (And, no, "But Actress is really crowded, and she's not good enough to place there, but I'd still like her to get a nomination somewhere" is not an acceptable excuse.)

I've saved my discussion of the film's coda for last, because that's the part of the movie that's quite obviously different from the 1969 picture, and I think it's my favorite part of this film. It's not earth-shaking or revolutionary, but it's quietly powerful, and has really lingered with me. Several thoughts crossed my mind during this sequence: 1) the real weight of what Rooster did for Mattie, 2) the sacrifice that Mattie herself had to make to avenge her father's death, 3) the inherent sadness in the fact that Mattie, Rooster, and La Boeuf shared an emotional experience together, then took their lives in different ways, and 4) the fact that Mattie's successful retribution will likely remain the single greatest accomplishment of her life. In only a few moments, with some of the film's most striking images, the Coens conclude their film with a sequence that makes everything before it seem more significant than it had while I was actually watching it.

I think True Grit is, on the whole, a good but spotty film, but it does have moments that really soar, especially the finale: "Time just gets away from us..."
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Post by dws1982 »

Liked this a lot more than I thought I would. After hating (despising might be a better word) the last two Coen Brothers films, I didn't have much (any) desire to see this, but it was an enjoyable entertainment, very well shot, and made great use of old gospel songs. Not a major work, but a pretty good one.

Hailee Steinfield was excellent as well, but a nomination for her in Support would be much more egregious than Casey Affleck's Supporting nomination a few years back.




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Post by Big Magilla »

My two cents can be found on the CinemaSight main page under Opening This Weekend.

For the record, and to my surprise, I liked it. I really liked it!
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Post by Sabin »

(As mild as spoilers can be for a remake of an incredibly popular movie.)

It shouldn't be ironic to me that ticket sales for films of relatively high esteem has gone up. These "serious" films aren't very serious. In all cases, Black Swan, The King's Speech, The Social Network, The Town, 127 Hours, even extending outward to Inception and Toy Story 3...they're not serious. They are all films of gestures and not details. Some of them work more than others, but the degree to whichs they are popular as others before them are not is troubling.

Cast True Grit in there, which stands to be the most popular Coen Brothers film of all time. It starts so promisingly as the story of Mattie Ross, played by Hattie Steinfeld in one of the best performances of the year. It announces itself as just as much her journey as Cogburn's or their Texas Ranger companion's. It takes its time setting up, taking in the savory details and dispensing with wonderful dialogue, and then they are off. Or rather, Mattie is ditched. She crosses the river after Rooster and LeBeouf with great fortitude, comes out on the other end, and joins them. "That is quite a horse." Hardest I've laughed in a while. I'm having a fantastic time.

And then, nothin'. Not really. It's ridiculously light on plot. The film is episodic and somewhat slow. The problem with the Coen Brothers is that every shot in the film seems to suggest that there's somethin' going on. Their best films find interesting ways of subverting that to reveal something interesting about their respective stories or genres. With True Grit, that is not the case. It just is what it is. And its entirely possible than James Mangold could have made a better version. Only in the final stretch do the Coens do something moderately stylized, as Mattie is engulfed by the snake pit, and Cogburn becomes a force of nature, the giver of life and the taker of life. It's not aided by lousy greenscreen and the Coens could have "look in [their] heart", to quote John Turturro from Miller's Crossing (yes, I remember Byrne's counter quip), but it does aim for something more. And then arrives a coda that debatably reaches for more profundity than No Country for Old Men with the line "Time gets away from you". It's full of striking images, but the film (or the soundtrack) doesn't quite know how to play it out.

The film also doesn't know what entirely to do with Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin. They're doing interesting things, but they don't really have the opportunity to deepen. Bridges is fine. As with Morgan Freeman in Invictus or Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, it's a book-on-tape performance. Matt Damon is quite amusing. It's entirely possible that in twenty years, he would be a more interesting fit for Cogburn in a film adaptation that took more narrative liberties. It's a mixed bag. It's chief pleasure for a good, long while is that it's a western and westerns are cool. They're basically 19th century road movies. The film doesn't have as much to throw in their way or muck up the best laid plans, but it's fitiful entertaining.

Really though, it's best seen for Hailee Steinfeld. True Grit is really just a competent western, one that is undercut by the Coen Brothers' reliable professionalism, wrapped around an unbelievable lead performance of a brave little girl. The film doesn't waver from her overly confident bravado and lends it the sad gravity of a life slipping away, one more traumatized than she knows. A nomination in support is a joke.

(Road movies are cool.)




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Post by Sonic Youth »

Screendaily shut off their paywall again - for now - so for completeness' sake, here's their True Grit review:

True Grit
3 December, 2010 | By John Hazelton
Screendaily



Not surprisingly, Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit is leaner, meaner and funnier than the 1969 John Wayne Western that first put grizzled US Marshal Rooster Cogburn on screen. And even if the Coens’ version lacks the edgy originality of the brothers’ best work, the stylistic update of this familiar tale - together with tasty performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld - could still result in awards season recognition and healthy box office for the Scott Rudin-produced Paramount release.

The Coens create a patina of authenticity by restoring some of the novel’s Biblical references and by having the characters speak in a stiff, archaic style.
Westerns, of course, have been a hard sell lately, but with the Coen brand attached True Grit should make a strong start when it opens in North America on December 22. Its performance after that will probably depend on how many nominations and prizes the film and its stars garner in the last couple of months of awards season.

Internationally, the Coens have always been a particularly strong draw - their last three releases all earned considerably more overseas than in North America - so the film will almost certainly get a significant financial boost when it starts its international roll out in the New Year.

The Coens’ screenplay is based not on the Henry Hathaway-directed Wayne film but on the original True Grit novel by cult Western author Charles Portis. Set in the Southern US of the late 1800’s, the story begins with feisty 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) claiming the body of her murdered father. Mattie hires boozy, one-eyed Federal marshal Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn (Bridges) to take her into Indian Territory in pursuit of her father’s killer Tom Chaney (played by Josh Brolin). And Cogburn, looking for a share of the reward on the killer’s head, agrees to join forces with cocky young Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Damon), who has been chasing Chaney for another crime.

As the unlikely threesome heads off into wild country to hunt for the dim-witted Chaney and his grungy cohorts the story unfolds much as it did in the Hathaway film. What the Coens do differently is give the action a wider variety of moods: at times there’s a chilly sense of the fragility of frontier life, while at other times the tone is quite broadly comical.

The Coens create a patina of authenticity by restoring some of the novel’s Biblical references and by having the characters speak in a stiff, archaic style. They also make their version less of a one-man show than the Wayne film by paying more attention to Mattie and her inkling of romantic interest in La Boeuf.

However it may not be the Coens - who won multiple Oscars two years ago with No Country For Old Men - as much as the film’s other talents who will give True Grit its best chances of award recognition.

Bridges (who won last year’s lead actor Oscar for Crazy Heart) is often funny and sometimes quite touching in the role that won Wayne his only Academy Award. Damon also finds some shading in his role but it is Steinfeld, best known up to now for TV appearances and shorts, who impresses most with her assured performance as Mattie.

Also likely to be in the awards running is cinematographer Roger Deakins, making his eleventh film with the Coens. Deakins, an eight-time Oscar nominee who has yet to take home a statuette, contributes greatly to the film’s atmosphere with some beautiful shots of the New Mexico wilderness.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Variety.

True Grit
Jeff Bridges handily reinvents the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' back-to-the-book remake.

By Peter Debruge

It's hard to imagine bigger boots to fill than the ones that earned John Wayne his Oscar in "True Grit," and yet Jeff Bridges handily reinvents the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' back-to-the-book remake. Though the sibs return things to the perspective of vengeance-bent 14-year-old Mattie Ross, all eyes are definitely on Cogburn. Rather than a case of the Dude doing the Duke, Bridges' irascible old cuss is a genuine original who feels larger than the familiar saga that contains him. Awfully gritty for its PG-13 rating, this characteristically well-crafted outing could draw a wide range of audiences, ranking among the Coens' more commercial pics.
The story of a righteous young woman (played by unknown Hailee Steinfeld, her plain-faced scowl framed by a pair of girlish braids) who enlists the help of the meanest, toughest lawman she can find to track down her father's killer (a pitiless Josh Brolin), "True Grit" fits the bill of properties that film purists would rather leave untouched. But in many ways, Henry Hathaway's film was already old-fashioned by the standards of late-'60s Western storytelling (made all the more apparent when Sam Peckinpah's bloody "The Wild Bunch" opened one week later in June 1969), and is therefore ripe for retelling.

What that original film offered was a revolutionary depiction of a frontier teen assertive enough to handle her own finances, trade barbs with a pair of surly bounty hunters and avenge her father's murder, even if it meant staring down the varmint herself -- themes that reflected shifting gender roles at the time of its release.

While the Coens significantly expand Mattie's role, scrubbing away all sentimentality in the process, the character's independent nature feels significantly less resonant 40 years on. No matter, the Coens are strictly apolitical filmmakers whose interest in the material lies not in exploring gender-related themes; rather, Charles Portis' novel poses the opportunity to add another entry to their gallery of regional and period-specific portraiture, a career-long obsession that spans a wide range of genres, while remaining laser-focused on capturing the vernacular and mannerisms of the characters involved.

Portis makes a logical target, considering his ear for authentic dialogue and wry wit, with "True Grit" offering a choice opportunity to attempt their first authentic Western (a far different beast in tone and energy from the 1980s-set "No Country for Old Men"). The Coens show their appreciation for Portis' prose by hewing close to the language of his novel, evident from Mattie's tone-setting opening narration to the colorful barbs she trades with her two traveling companions -- the second being an indignant Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (rhymes with "the chief"), sincerely yet self-deprecatingly played by Matt Damon.

But the brothers also severely rein in the humor, which the book offers in spades -- a curious call in light of the often-satirical undercurrent in their other films. What comedy does survive exists primarily between Bridges and Damon, whose characters are constantly undermining one another in Mattie's presence. Since the broad strokes of the story are known by most, the Coens are free to indulge in serious character investigation. And yet, one major, inescapable carryover from the 1969 film can be found in Cogburn's age -- like Wayne, Bridges is a good 20 years older than the 40-ish character Portis imagined.

In keeping with the novel, Steinfeld's Mattie is a plain, almost homely girl (characters frequently joke about her stern, unladylike features) whose unrealistic sense of justice doesn't jibe with the untamed wilderness of the Choctaw Nation, where her trek unfolds. Though the Coens tone down Mattie's Scripture-quoting sensibility, her dispassionate view of violence matches the directors' own, which makes for several unflinching displays of Wild West punishment -- and a return to the book's tough-luck epilogue.

The film's heavily styled language feels distancing at first, not unlike the heightened dialogue in HBO's "Deadwood," with the actors' drawling delivery making some of the lines virtually indecipherable. Even without catching every word, the subtext of each exchange is clear, as when Mattie dickers with a horse trader (Dakin Matthews) for her late father's money, demonstrating that she can hold her own in a man's world.

In what surely ranks among the most peculiar introductions in screen history, the Coens set Mattie's first encounter with Cogburn through the wooden door of an outhouse, demystifying his character from the beginning, only to build him back up during the rather taxing trial scene that follows. Bridges pulls off a total physical reinvention, complete with whiskey-stained moustache, rotting underbite and trademark eyepatch. The actor seems to have absorbed the character into his very marrow, and though Cogburn seems perfectly set in his ways, the great pleasure of the film is watching how his attitude toward Mattie goes from patronizing to paternal over the course of their adventure.

As always, the Coens' support team help pull off the directors' ambitions, with Carter Burwell supplying a full-bodied reinterpretation of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (the same hymn featured in "The Night of the Hunter") and Roger Deakins' widescreen lensing serving to de-romanticize the terrain and the characters themselves. For the most part, "True Grit" resists the unspoiled vistas we've come to expect from Westerns, favoring the craggy, unkempt terrain of Cogburn's face instead.
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Post by Damien »

Mister Tee wrote:A story of pursuit and sought-after justice that places in stark relief the main characters' strengths and failings, this wintery work is well played and superbly crafted but hits largely familiar notes, giving it a one-dimensional feel without much dramatic or emotional resonance.
Did he really expect to find "emotional resonance" in a Coen Brothers picture? That's as naive as Barak Obama still thinking he'll get bipartisanship from the Republicans (don't get me started).
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Post by Mister Tee »

A "real" review -- from Todd McCarthy (who, to confuse us all, now toils for The Hollywood Reporter). Somewhat mixed.


Hailee Steinfeld’s exceedingly accomplished performance dominates surprisingly humorless Western.

The one-eyed fat man is back, but working in a very different key, in the Coen Brothers' take on True Grit, a melancholy, atmospheric Western with a 14-year-old girl at the center of it. A story of pursuit and sought-after justice that places in stark relief the main characters' strengths and failings, this wintery work is well played and superbly crafted but hits largely familiar notes, giving it a one-dimensional feel without much dramatic or emotional resonance. The solid cast, involving story and intrinsic appeal of the good guy-bad guy Western format should translate into decent mid-range business, with the film's ultimate box office fate heavily dependent upon how it plays for families and young audiences.

Famous mostly for John Wayne's enjoyably hammy Oscar-winning performance as Rooster Cogburn, a growling, boozing, trigger-happy deputy marshal who grudgingly helps a young lady track down her father's killer in Indian country in the 1870s, the 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis' wonderful novel exuded amiable relaxed charm under the direction of veteran Western director Henry Hathaway.

Two obvious fixes the Coens tended to at once were restoring the proper age of the female lead (Kim Darby was 20 when the first film was shot) and casting a strong actor to play the Texas Ranger who uncomfortably accompanies Rooster and little Mattie Ross into a land filled with fugitive outlaws and no-accounts. These represent major plusses for the new film, as screen newcomer Hailee Steinfeld makes an excellent Mattie and Matt Damon, from the moment of his laconic boots-on-a-porch rail entrance designed to recall Henry Fonda in “My Darling Clementine,” puts any thoughts of Glen Campbell immediately to rest.

Startlingly, however, what the Coens have given up is humor. To readers of Portis' novel, which was a critical and commercial hit when published in 1968, the crackling, colloquial, often laugh-out-loud hilarious dialogue seemed almost ready-made for any screenwriter to more or less lift it intact. Marguerite Roberts put some perky, folksy spin on it four decades ago. Joel and Ethan Coen, while retaining some of Portis' wordsmithing, have oddly decided to drain most of the comedy from inherently funny lines and situations. Considerable character color is lost in the process, particularly where Rooster is concerned; sure, Wayne did a fair share of broad mugging in his day, but that didn't mean Bridges and the others had to steer clear of the sort of comic timing that would only have enriched the material and made it more entertaining this time around.

But the focus here is resolutely upon Mattie, a remarkably poised, self-confident and, it must be said, entirely humorless girl whose every move and decision is driven by her aim of tracking down Tom Chaney, the man who shot her father. For the audience, Mattie proves her mettle at the outset by completely having her way in negotiations with an experienced horse trader (fantastically well played by Dakin Matthews), thereby leaving no doubt that she'll be more than able to hold her own with the imposing Rooster (whom she first confronts while he's occupied in an outhouse), the condescending LaBoeuf (Damon) and even Chaney (Josh Brolin) when she finally confronts him.

Contrasting with the original's spectacular summer and early autumn Colorado mountain backdrops (the early town scenes were shot in Ridgeway, near Telluride), this time the journey moves from a bleached, dusty community into assorted wild stretches that eventually become inundated by the first snowy dustings of winter. At first shunned by her two companions, who stand to collect rewards if they bring Chaney to justice, Mattie simply won't go away. After a while, it's LaBoeuf who takes his leave after having proving oversensitive to Rooster's bluster.

It doesn't take long for Rooster to track down the baddies' lairs, first at a cabin where some nasty mayhem ensues, then around a mountainside where the snaggletoothed Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) presides over scruffy gang that temporarily includes Chaney. Rooster's one-man battle charge against four adversaries in a meadow is reproduced in almost identical fashion to the original film, although the Coens end their telling on a wistful note by reincorporating the book's coda set in 1903, a quarter-century after the main action.

Although mostly divested of what, in the book, was her rigorously Christian outlook, Mattie is otherwise everything she's meant to be in Steinfeld's exceedingly accomplished performance. “True grit” may be what she's looking for in the man she selects to track down Chaney, but Mattie's the one who has it in spades: she means—and does--what she says, and there's not a patronizing man in the Old West who doesn't learn the cost of misjudging her. Dark haired and clear-eyed, Steinfeld convincingly conveys the character's refusal to be deterred, without a trace of gamine-like coyness or girlish cuteness. Perhaps Frances McDormand's performance in “Fargo” represented an implicit model.

Bearded, bellied and wearing his black eyepatch over his right eye (Wayne covered his left), Bridges eats and grumbles some of his dialogue and seems to be suppressing his sense of fun in a relatively realistic portrayal of man with a dicey past who has no problem giving flight to whatever demons might momentarily come to visit. His is an engaging but not dominant turn.

Damon's LaBoeuf, on the other hand, has far too thin a skin to be comfortable around the likes of Rooster, and the actor skillfully reveals the insecurities of a man who needs to back of his badge with bravado. Brolin's Chaney doesn't turn up until 80 minutes in and, when he does, the actor reminds forcibly of Robert Ryan's memorable villain in Anthony Mann's great “The Naked Spur.”

As always with the Coens, the craft aspects are outstanding, led by Roger Deakins' superior cinematography, Jess Gonchor's detailed production design, Mary Zophres' textured costume designs and Carter Burwell's often source-derived score.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:The amazing thing about that link? The writer -- who's employed by the frickin' Times -- refers to the sites she references as "the critics", when there's not a legitimate critic in the bunch. I didn't anticipate the pillars of journalism collaborating in their own destruction.
And she doesn't really say anything.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Sonic Youth wrote:Maybe it wasn't screened for the trades, and it may be a ploy to capture the attention and enthusiasm of the demographic who went wild for "Inception" and "The Social Network"?
That was the conclusion of seanflynn, a reasonably informed poster over at O'Neil's site. He said, otherwise, it was journalistic malpractice to sit on reviews while bloggers were flooding the zone.

If this was Paramount's tactic, it may pay off comercially, but I seem to remember a number of critics being pretty pissy when they finally got around to reviewing Inception.

The amazing thing about that link? The writer -- who's employed by the frickin' Times -- refers to the sites she references as "the critics", when there's not a legitimate critic in the bunch. I didn't anticipate the pillars of journalism collaborating in their own destruction.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

Mister Tee wrote:
Sonic Youth wrote:So Magilla, once this gets the lion's share of excellent reviews - which it has already done in the blogosphere, even though you managed to find and post the one and only negative review - are you going to remove the "Ouch!" subhead or keep it there for posterity?

I thought you were going into an isolation tank for the season. (A really wild experiment, by the way -- like those families that live without TVs)

No, just for the precursors. I'll still read and post reviews (although if they're as snoozingly pedestrain as, for example, "Fair Game", then why bother?)... and of course, the Peter Travers Top Ten List contest.

Maybe it wasn't screened for the trades, and it may be a ploy to capture the attention and enthusiasm of the demographic who went wild for "Inception" and "The Social Network"?

Here's an overview of the general reception so far.
http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/a-true-grit-round-up/




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