True Grit ***

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin

Barry Pepper, Dakin Matthews, Hailee Steinfeld

The Coen brothers, beacons of sophisticatedly dark humor and bleak existentialism deliver a no-frills, straightforward genre pic with True Grit, a new film adaptation of the novel by Charles Portis.

Grit centers on the story of Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) a fourteen year old girl who sets on the mission to avenge her father's dead at the hand of outlaw Tom Chaney (Brolin).

Based on recommendations around town she hires U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) as her personal tracker.

She sets off into dangerous Indian territory with Cogburn and Texas Ranger La Beouf (Damon9 who's also after Chaney.

This sets the stage for what can only be called an old fashioned Western. The film offers nothing new (except maybe some optimism from the Coens) but it's such a well told story that you can't help but think this is what fireside tales of old must've been imagined like.

The brothers show technical mastery and their every choice seems perfect just as it is. Once more teaming up with the extraordinary cinematographer Roger Deakins, they create a Wild West that's as dreamlike as it's realistic.
Deakins' camera indulges itself with vistas that go as far as the eye can see and strange camera angles that work despite their affectedness.

But fear not, this doesn't mean the film is completely devoid of the Coens' touches. Now and then they let their surrealistic touches go away with them and expertly weave them into the larger, more mainstream scheme of the plot.
In one of the film's most haunting scenes we see a bear riding a horse during a storm (you'll have to see this to believe it) and during the film's climax the Coens seem to have been possessed by the spirit of John Ford in a thrilling shootout.

Perhaps what makes the film feel more Coen-like are the performances. Bridges is outstanding as Cogburn, this man must be the only actor who can don an eye patch, look completely disheveled, deliver his lines with a mumble and still make it seem like the most natural thing on the planet.

Watch him epitomize coolness, yes, despite the eye patch, when everytime he moves, his coat flows and evokes a superhero's cape.

Damon and Brolin don't have much to do but they are steady supporting performers. Brolin is particularly good in the few scenes he has, completely owning the cowardly viciousness of Chaney.

Steinfeld gives a performance that's wiser beyond her years (this is her screen debut!) and she holds up beautifully against Bridges. She develops a lovely chemistry with him and by film's end, this becomes so deep that it even transcends the boundaries of different actors playing the same role (Elizabeth Marvel plays an older Mattie and it feels as if it's Steinfeld with makeup on).

True Grit may not be particularly profound in the way the Coens have used us to, it could be said in fact that if this wasn't directed by them it would surely seem more majestic.

But as an exercise in how to make a movie in the classic studio way, it feels just fine, it's also way more entertaining that it has any right to be. With the Coens flourish for quirky dialogs and melancholy it's refreshing to see how they can inject some new blood into a genre that's been pronounced dead more times than any other.

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Considering I'm one of the few people alive who think Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are not the most beautiful people alive, this poster makes me want to ask all of you who do, what exactly makes them so appealing?
This poster is so terribly done that it seems they aren't even in the movie together and someone made this to try out their very basic Photoshop skills.


This is how you do a teaser. Text posters used to be huge once and now everyone has become so dependent on the movie star that they have forgotten how to actually work hard to get a message across.
Notice how the font makes a statement about the setting, time and mood of the film while that bullet hole and blood are a thing of genius. Best of all? We don't get stuck with an annoying "Academy Award Winne Jeff Bridges" sort of crap.
Also that "retribution" label at the bottom is wickedly delicious. Just got excited about this movie!

What do you guys think about these?

A Serious Man ***

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Wagner Lennick
Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, Adam Arkin

Some think the best way to say something is by not saying anything at all and this seems to have been the mindset the Coen brothers were in when they decided to make "A Serious Man".
A modern day retelling of the biblical tale of Job it shows us the countless misfortunes of Jewish college professor Larry Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) who in a few days has to deal with the fact that his wife (Lennick) wants a divorce, one of his student's (David Kang) bribe, his children's (Wolff and McManus) fights, his brother Arthur's (Kind) gambling and an annoying Columbia Records representative who won't stop phoning him.
Larry, who seeks mathematical logic in everything, doesn't seem to understand why no one has figured out the equation for the idea that the Lord works in mysterious ways and he sets out on a spiritual search from rabbi to rabbi.
As he waits for this answer to come, he just seems to be getting into more trouble which the Coens deliver with their particularly droll sense of humor.
What's interesting here, even if it sounds like a cliché, isn't the destination as much as the journey. Soon we understand that it's not only Larry on the look for an answer, but the filmmakers themselves who question the most basic notions of spirituality and religion.
Stuhlbarg as their vessel delivers a magnificent performance characterized for its serenity. We sometimes laugh at Larry, but he earns an amount of respect for facing his ordeals with such dignity.
The Coens don't just torture him, they actually accompany him in his journey and so do we, but sometimes it's in this very banal sense of anonymity attributed to Larry that we too hit an obstacle; we have to ask ourselves what makes Larry so special that his not very special tale ended up on a movie screen.
This isn't precisely a bad thing because it gives the Coens a chance to capture the ambiguity with which they also approach the Job tale. But it makes for an alienating, sometimes very frustrating, experience while watching the movie.
"A Serious Man" is the kind of film that infuriates some and elates others. Those who come to the cinema waiting for answers will get nothing, those who enjoy existential problems will have a great conversation piece and those who wonder if the Coens finally got their answer, if they knew, they'd be the rabbi.

Burn After Reading ***

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich
Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, Brad Pitt

Gym employees Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) and Linda Litzke (McDormand) find a disc containing information they assume to be highly classified CIA information.
They link the disc to former CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), who has just been fired from his job and has decided to write his memoirs, to the disapproval of his wife Katie (Swinton) who is having an affair with Treasury agent, womanizer, Harry Pfarrer (Clooney) and has decided to divorce Osbourne.
Dim witted Chad sees the opportunity to get a reward for the safe return of the information, while Linda would finally get the cosmetic surgeries she desires in order to enter the next stage of her life as she sees it, but when they get rejected by Osbourne they approach the Russian Embassy unleashing screwball comedy that gets as dark as the Coen brothers can deliver.
"So we don't really know what anyone is after" goes CIA superior (J.K. Simmons who is in the film for two scenes but might be the ones you remember the most) when one of his employees briefs him on the actions of the other characters. Truth is we really don't know where anything is going, which doesn't diminish the joyful rush of the ride.
"Report back to me when it makes sense" he asks later on with no better results.
Aimlessly, but not purposely, throwing their characters into the plot like mice inside a labyrinth, the Coens seem to be having the time of their lives (and with reason considering their previous film) also providing the ensemble with some of the most entertaining roles they've played.
Clooney, who now seems part of their filmography is at his underrated best, playing a man who has found in sex the thrills he's lacking in his married life. What's wonderful about his character particularly is that the Coend don't turn him into a dislikable sex fiend, just as someone who is looking for what he needs in all the wrong places but has a real soul.
If the Coens planned to create characters exemplary for their idiocy, their plan backfires as they can't help but inject a certain amount of sincere emotional ache in all of them.
When we find Harry is building a gift for his wife we can't help but go aww, when we see what the gift is (where Clooney's eyes sparkle with puppy like fervor) we cringe while we go aww and when he leaves his lover's house offended, sex pillow under his arm, we know this could very well represent his heart.
Malkovich, at his neurotic best, is the poster boy for upper middle class failure. An alcoholic in denial, he moves into his yacht where he drinks and does aerobics as he plans his comeback to the world that shunned him. You laugh at him more than with him, but Malkovich doesn't really care, he's like a human version of Tom the cat.
Swinton is magnificent combining her ice queen qualities with an irresistible sex appeal. With Malkovich she reminds us that familiarity breeds contempt as she is disgusted by everything he does. Swinton doesn't even need to roll her eyes to let us know her apathy.
Pitt's Chad is a genius comedic creation, as the actor vanishes into this bleached blonde muscle machine who smiles when he has no other way of defense.
He never stops chewing gum or moving to what one can only assume is some sort of 90's Eurotrash piece on his iPod, he is ditzy and, scarily reminiscent of some political juggernauts (one whose picture is featured in the film), harmlessly likable.
McDormand's Linda is also some sort of small miracle, the actress absolutely devoid of any vanity becomes this insecure woman whose lack of self esteem comes off as a bizarre, almost admirable determination. "I've gotten about as far as this body can take me" she says and can you really blame her for seeking options instead of just moping?
The Washington D.C. in this film is some sort of bubble where bureaucracy and patriot paranoia gets in the way of common sense.
Everyone seems to think they're part of a bigger picture and with this the Coens (with a wicked eye for comedic detail) poke fun at the mindless fear that pervaded post 9/11 America, Carter Burwell's selfonsciously selfimportant score does a brilliant job highlighting this.
But they also deliver an acute observation of how people face aging; you might very well argue that "Burn After Reading" is a midlife fantasia, both for the Coens who have become filmmakers of whom one expects only great cinema amidst their undeniable flops and of all the characters to whom their actions, as idiotic as they result, might be their last chance of making a difference for self and country.