Through the lens of a cinematography geek

January 11, 2011

The American Society of Cinematographers (that's what ASC stands for) has announced its nominees for its year-end award. I know this isn't a big deal to most people, but this is my favorite technical category. For those not in the know, the cinematographer is the camera chief - the man chiefly responsible for the lighting of a picture. 

I am a geek overall, but that's especially true when it comes to cinematographers. I know that field very well. I can spot the styles of certain DP's (that's directors of photography). I can name every cinematographer Martin Scorsese ever worked with from Mean Streets forward without looking at IMDB. I can also list all the DP's who have worked for James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.

Here's a demonstration, with some trivia about this year's nominees.

Danny Cohen, The King's Speech

Well, maybe Cohen isn't a good place to start. I'm least familiar with his work. And with all due respect, the nomination surprises me a bit. Cohen did good work, to be sure, but I would have much preferred to see Robert Richardson's work in Shutter Island nominated.

(Richardson at left, with Scorsese on Shutter Island)

Jeff Cronenweth, The Social Network

Croneweith has worked with Fincher before, having shot Fight Club. He is the son of esteemed cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, who shot Blade Runner. Jordon briefly worked for Fincher, having started Alien 3 before he fell ill and had to withdraw. Some of his work remains in the film, which was completed by Alex Thomson.

Cronenweth in foreground

Roger Deakins, True Grit

It's my guess that Deakins will be the one who will go on to win this year's Oscar - he's grossly overdue for one. In addition to shooting most of the Coens' films, he also shot The Shawshank Redemption and Kundun, among many others. He also served as a lighting consultant on both WALL-E and How to Train Your Dragon.

Deakins with Joel Coen

Matthew Libatique, Black Swan

Libatique has worked primarily with director Darren Aronofsky, but he also has some big-budget credits, incluidng both Iron Man movies. If I had a vote, Libatique would get it - I loved his combination of gritty realism and nighmarish visions. 

Wally Pfister, Inception

Pfister has shot every film by Christopher Nolan, save Following, which was shot by Nolan himself. He pulled a particulary neat trick with Inception, shooting some of the scenes (I suspect the snow ones) in 70 MM - something very rarely done anymore.

Pfister at left, with Nolan

The DGA noms - the HDTV squash n' stretch

January 10, 2011

The DGA noms were announced Monday.  The nominees are:


Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O. Russell, The Fighter

All five nominees are deserving, most especially Mr. Nolan. And he could win, but The Social Network has collected just about every critic's award under the sun, and I have a growing feeling that this is Fincher's year. And what's wrong with that, as the song once said?

The surprise for most people here was the omission of the Coens for True Grit. And they could still make Oscar's cut, supplanting Russell. Both fir the profile of auteur directors that the Academy likes, but the Coens have a longer resume and are more highly regarded. I'm betting they get in with Oscar.
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I was going to write about Exit Through the Gift Shop, which I watched on Sunday, but as the owner of a new HDTV, I feel compelled to speak out on a GIANT pet peeve of mine - people's insistence on "stretching" the picture to fill the TV frame.

This drives me NUTS , because it makes movies, especially old movies,  look terrible. A little education is in order here.

Movies come in 3 basic shapes. The first of these is the 1.33: 1 ratio, what's called the "Academy" ratio. Almost every movie made before the 1950s fit into this shape, which was a very modest rectangle and was the size of standard definition TVs. Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and Singin in the Rain, to name a mere three, are examples.

Then there's the 1.85: 1 ratio, which came out in the 50s. This is about the size that HDTV's are now. Movies made this way include North by Northwest, E.T. and A Christmas Story, to be somewhat seasonal.

Finally, there's the 2.35: 1 ratio, or what's called Scope. Movies made this way include How to Marry a Millionaire, all the Star Wars movies, and Inception. HDTV's slightly letterbox Scope films, with small, unobtrusive black bars on the top and bottom.  Here's a comparison:

Blessedly, movies made in 1.85: 1 and 2.35: 1 typically don't suffer on HDTVs. But oh, the horrors that are done to 1.33: 1 movies. Here's a prime example:

This is the best musical of all time, Singin' in the Rain. The bottom frame is how it's supposed to look, with the bars on either side. This is the way Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen meant for us to see it. See how naturally proportioned the faces are, even with Donald O' Conner contorting his?

The middle image is zoomed in, which doesn't look horrible to me, but still isn't right. It's the top image that's the atrocity. 

Frustratingly, so many people feel they have to "stretch" the image to fill the frame which makes the actors look like linebackers, or like they had really horrible facelifts. Or maybe they're auditioning for Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Whatever the case, it defeats the whole purpose of HDTV - to make the image look better. 

It's even worse when cable channels stretch the images on their own. AMC-HD is an egregious offender of this. They were showing John Ford's Fort Apache the other day. Fort Apache was NOT shot in widescreen. Yet AMC felt compelled to make it that way.

It's worse still when HD channels take a cropped version of a movie, like say, The Godfather, like the one that would get shown on a standard-def TV. Then, they stretch THAT image to fill the frame. It's comically, egregiously WRONG. 

I know some HDTVs have a mode that only stretches the outer image of the picture, keeping the center relatively intact. That looks kinda-sorta OK - unless the camera moves, in which people and objects on the outer edge of the frame  look like they're reflected in funhouse mirrors. This page explains the various modes pretty well. 

To my eyes, there's nothing fun about this. Whatever the case, it defeats the whole purpose of HDTV - to make the image look better. 

Let me put it this way. If Francis Ford Coppola came to your house and watched a cropped/stretched print of The Godfather, he'd probably shit his pants. And if you ask me, that's even worse than waking up next to a horse's head in your bed. 

PS - I know some plasma HDTV owners are concerned about the issue of a 4:3 picture causing "burn-in." This page addresses that issue. 

REVIEW: Tron Legacy

To say that Tron: Legacy repeats history by being all visuals, no story. is to say very little. People who aren't overly affected by the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia know this was true of the 1982 original - but those people love it all the same. 

I strongly suspect, however, that when people talk about Tron: Legacy 28 years from now, they won't be viewing it through the nostalgia glasses. If anything, it'll be 3D glasses.

The new movie delivers pretty much what I expected: a tremendous visual kick. It looks great, and director Joseph Kosinski stages the action scenes with flair. A chase with flying vehicles is dazzling, and Kosinski wisely shot the movie with 3D cameras. The added depth doesn't have quite the wow factor of Avatar, but it's one of the rare instances where the third dimension is actually worth the three extra bucks. 

Tron: Legacy, like its predecessor, falls short in the story department, but it's not because there's "no story." It's because the movie takes itself far too seriously. 

What made the original Tron so much fun  was that it was simultaneously ahead of its time and very much of its time. For all its groundbreaking use of computer animation, Tron still had that Disney cheesiness that was typical of the period. It's not as dorky as one of the Herbie movies or The Cat from Outer Space, but Tron has more in common with those films than most geeks would like to admit. 

Although Tron: Legacy is skillfully made, I missed that lightness of touch. The almost always vibrant Jeff Bridges adds some pizazz to the movie, but not enough to make it more than merely good. The original Tron was something special. Tron: Legacy is just another action movie that's solid but not exceptional on the whole.

GRADE: B

(Seen 1/4/11 at Showcase Cinemas Springdale in IMAX 3D).

PS - I saw the film with Hannah Poturalski, who is working on her own review. For now, I've gone back and added her viewpoint to my reviews of Black Swan and True Grit. 

The Book of Eli/Uuhhh ....

January 9, 2011

The Book of Eli (2010: The Hughes Brothers): The Hughes' Brothers long-awaited return to narrative filmmaking is not a return to form. In fact, it's the weakest movie they've made. In addition to being dour and draggy, it's not even technically accomplished. The picture has been digitally processed out the wazoo, and the movie appears to have been shot through unflushed toilet water. A vibrant performance by Mila Kunis and a couple decent action scenes provide what few spurts of life the movie has. GRADE: C

I also received the Blu-Ray of one of the best movies of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, as a late Christmas present. In a word ... WOW. The picture is breathtaking and the sound has a presence I've never heard at home before. Can't compare to seeing the movie on the big screen in 70 MM (the way it was shot), but this is easily the next best thing. And sadly, it may be the ONLY thing readily available since 70 MM screenings of any movie are hard to come by. 

I watched the excellent documentary Exit Through the Gift shop this weekend, and I'll offer more on that later. For the moment, though, the movie has inspired me to someday begin a review with the word "Uuuhhh ...." 

Hmmm. Maybe I SHOULD see the third Transformers film. 

Classic Takes: Blue Skies/The Lion in Winter/TCM books

January 8, 2011

Blue Skies (1946, Stuart Heiser): Watched this in hi-def from TCM because I was curious about what is probably the least well known of the three Astaire/Crosby team-ups. It's not a patch on the prior classic, Holiday Inn, but it's actually better than the overrated and better known White Christmas, cheifly because of two great musical numbers. In "Puttin' on the Ritz," Astaire dances with multiple images of himself, while Astaire and Crosby team up wonderfully in "A Couple of Song and Dance Men," which is a hilarious take on the fact that Fred was a great dancer and Bing had two left feet. GRADE: B

The Lion in Winter (1968, Anthony Harvey) : This semi-sequel to 1964's Beckett, in which Peter O'Toole also played King Henry II, gets most of its juice from watching O'Toole and the great Kate duke it out in a war of wits. However, it also has a number of smaller pleasures, such as a fine film debut from a commanding Anthony Hopkins, and a surprisingly vivid take on French King Phillip II, played by a very young James Bond - er, Timothy Dalton. GRADE: A

TCM Books 

Having received the Turner Classic Movies book Leading Ladies as a Christmas present, I also purchased the companion books, Leading Men and Leading Couples. I'll post in more detail later about the folks included/excluded, but I have to say right off the bat that TCM made a rare grave error by leaving Shirley Temple out of Leading Ladies. No, her acting career didn't amount to much after she hit puberty, but simply put, she was THE biggest movie star of the 1930s, of any gender or height. When Entertainment Weekly put together a similar list that also included contemporary stars, they put Temple in, as they jolly well should have. With all due respect to the ladies I'm about to name, Temple deserves a place in the book over Susan Hayward or Ann Sheridan.  Shame.

Still, the books are a very fun read, most especially Leading Couples. They give vital stats for each couple, as well as key quotes. This comes into play very nicely indeed when the couple is Fay Wray and King Kong.

Fay Wray 

BORN 

Vina Fay Wray 

September 15, 1907

Cardston, Alberta Canada

DIED 

August 8, 2004

New York, New York

Natural causes.

STAR SIGN 

Virgo

HEIGHT

5' 3"

HUSBANDS and CHILDREN

Writer John Mark Saunders

(1928-1938) divorced.

Daughter Susan Carey

Writer Robert Riskin (who wrote most of Capra's great screenplays) 

(1942-1955) his death

Son Robert Jr. 

Daughter Victoria

Brain surgeon Sanfard Rothenberg

(1971-1991) his death

King Kong

BORN 

Kong (Megaprimatus Kong)

August 1927

Skull Island

DIED

March 7, 1933

New York, New York

Bullet wounds and a fall

STAR SIGN

Leo

HEIGHT

18'-24' (depending on the shot)

WIFE and CHILD

Unknown mate

Son

KEY QUOTE

Kong: GRAWWWWRRRR!

Wray: AAAAAAAAAAHH!

A New Year, a new format: Diary of a Cinemaniac

I've often thumbed my nose at New Year's Resolutions. All resolutions do is give you something to break and then make you hate yourself for doing so.

No, instead I make New Year's Wishes. Wishes imply no obligation. They simply express a desire and a hope for something better. My wishes for this blog are three-fold: To do something new and fresh (at least for me), to increase posts, and hopefully increase my readership. I saw that I wrote 164 posts last year, and I really ought to be doing more than that, to maintain interest both for myself, and for you.

Then a projector bulb flickered on over my head. (We movie geeks think visually.)  Contrary to popular belief, I don't see a movie every single day. But I do something movie-related every day, whether that's seeing a movie, reading a movie news story, or even having a fun movie conversation with someone. That being the case, what I'll do is write this blog in a diary format.

Mind you, I will still write reviews of movies in theaters, and I will definitely continue the He Said/She Said reviews I've been doing with my Cox colleague, Hannah Poturalski. I'll still predict the Oscars, opine on  trailers and all that fun stuff. I'm just repurposing the content.

It will look something like this. Entires will typically be a bit longer than what I've posted here.  - consider this Condensed Cream of Criticism.

Jan. 1, 2010

Bells Are Ringing (Vincente Minnelli, 1960): Not the finest hour of Vincente Minnelli, Arthur Freed or Comden and Green, but still quite charming all the same, with a winning lead performance by Judy Holliday, in her swan song. GRADE: B




Jan. 2, 2010

Flipped (Rob Reiner, 2010): The first movie I started watching in 2011 is the best movie no one saw in 2010. It's also a return to form for Rob Reiner, with this being his best film since The American President. Give this one a try. You won't be sorry. GRADE: A

All Good Things (Andrew Jarecki, 2010): A quite intriguing mystery/drama, powered by an excellent performance from Kirsten Dunst. When she disappears from the last third of the film, however, the movie slides off the rails as it becomes too bizarre and moody. Still very much worth a look. GRADE: B




January 3. 2011


(Insert thoughtful tribute to Pete Postlethwaite here)


Jan. 4. 2011


Sir Critic returns to the newspaper with a look ahead at 2011's movies!


Jan. 5 2011


The PGA has announced its nominees. These could well be the 10 Oscar nominees too.


127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit

Also saw Tron Legacy (Joseph Kosinski 2010): a bit like the original – great visuals, iffy story. What makes it a clear step down from the original is it takes itself too seriously. As ahead of its time as the 1982 Tron was, it still had that Disney cheesiness that was typical of the period. I missed that sense of fun here. 


(Note: I will post a full He Said/She Said review of this later.)


Jan. 6, 2011


Black Swan continues to resonate in unexpected, funny ways. Had this conversation with a friend on Facebook.


Friend: (I saw) Black Swan. For the first time, not the 101st like you. ;-)


Me: So I have a thing for leotards. Sue me! ;)


Friend: Perfectly understandable. I think I may have a thing for several things I didn't necessarily have a thing for before, as a result of seeing that movie. :)


Me: Like Tchaikovsky, I'm sure.


Friend: ‎...if that's what you want to call it. ;-)


Me: ‎...if that's what you want to call it. ;-)


Other friend: Eric - only you could come up with a link from that movie to the Beatles.


Me: I gotta be me.


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Insular? Obsessively detailed? Well, yeah! Ya wanna make something of it?


In all seriousness, this is a work in progress. But let me know what you think. Meanwhile, I think I'll go free up some space on my clogged DVR ....

Every movie I saw in 2010

On the BIG screen

1. It's Complicated    B
2. Up in the Air         A+
3. Sherlock Holmes    C+
4. Avatar     A+
5. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus B
6. The Lovely Bones B+
7. Leap Year B-
8. Crazy Heart A-
9. Edge of Darkness B+
10. A Single Man D
11. Shutter Island  x3 A
12. Precious A-
13. The Blind Side B+
14. Inglourious Basterds B
15. Up A+
16. A Serious Man A+
17. The Hurt Locker A-
18. An Education A
19. District 9 A
20. Alice in Wonderland C
21. Green Zone B+
22. How to Train Your Dragon A
23. Chloe  B+
24. The Ghost Writer B+
25. The White Ribbon B+
26. Diary of a Wimpy Kid B-
27. Blade Runner B
28. Ink D+
29. Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission B+
30. Sleep Dealer B+
31. Godzilla vs. King Ghidora C+
32. Star Trek A
33. Galaxina F
34. 2010 B
35. The Runaways B+
36. Hot Tub Time Machine B
37. Kick-Ass B+
38. Iron Man 2 B
39. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo A
40. Greenberg C
41. Robin Hood C+
42. Shrek Forever After B+
43. Splice B+
44. Singin in the Rain A+
45. Get Him to the Greek B-
46. Some Like It Hot A+
47. Toy Story 3 X2 A+
48. Sherlock Jr. A+
49. Seven Chances A-
50. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? B+
51. Waking Sleeping Beauty A
52. Knight and Day C-
53. The Music Man A
54. All About Eve A+
55. Psycho A+
56. Despicable Me A-
57. Inception X6 A+
58. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid B
59. The Girl Who Played with Fire B+
60. Salt B+
61. National Lampoon's Animal House B
62. Winter's Bone B+
63. The Kids are All Right A
64. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World B+
65. Eat Pray Love C
66. Casablanca A+
67. I am Love C+
68. Restrepo B
69. The Expendables B-
70. Please Give B
71. The American B
72. Solitary Man: C-
73. Machete B
74. Pirahna B
75. Easy A A-
76. The Town A-
77. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps B-
78. Catfish B
79. Let Me In  B+
80. The Social Network X3 A+
81. Best Worst Movie A-
82. Troll 2 Z
83. Scream A
84. Evil Dead B
85. Child's Play B+
86. The Exorcist A
87. Buried A
88. Never Let Me Go B
89. Notorious A+
90. Breathless A
91. Nowhere Boy B+
92. Hereafter A
93. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger B-
94. Waiting for "Superman" B+
95. The Tillman Story A
96. Inside Job A
97. Morning Glory B+
98. Unstoppable B+
99. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 A-
100. Tangled B+
101. 127 Hours A
102. Fair Game B
103. Love and Other Drugs C+
104. Meet Me in St. Louis A+
105. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest A
106. Enter the Void D+
107. Black Swan X3 A+
108. The Fighter A
109. How Do You Know C
110. True Grit A-
111. The King's Speech A+

On the small screen

1. The Girlfriend Experience B
2. Dodsworth A
3. The Heiress A+
4. The Fox and the Hound B+
5. The Great Mouse Detective B+
6. The Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes A-
7. The Major and the Minor B+
8. A Guy Named Joe B
9. Moonlight Serenade C
10. Baby Doll B+
11. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof A-
12. The Paradine Case C+
13. Deception A-
14. Cleopatra (1934) B+
15. In the Loop C-
16. Seven Days in May A-
17. Lady for a Day A-
18. Zero Hour! B
19. Confederate States of America C-
20. The Diary of Anne Frank A-
21. Life After Tomorrow A-
22. American Pimp B
23. 3 Godfathers A-
24. Where the Truth Lies B
25. The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer B
26. Bugs Bunnny Superstar   B+
27. The Uninvited B
28. The Nun's Story A
29. Broken Embraces B+
30. Summertime B+
31. Red Cliff B
32. A Foreign Affair A-
33. Targets A
34. Seconds A-
35. Make Way for Tomorrow A
36. Annie Oakley B+
37. The Eastwood Factor B+
38. Rumble Fish B-
39. Peggy Sue Got Married B
40. Tetro  A-
41. New Moon C
42. Picture This A
43. Reds B+
44. American Madness A
45. Only Angels Have Wings B+
46. Wild Boys of the Road B+
47. The Old Man and the Sea B
48. Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte B
49. Following A
50. The Devil and Miss Jones B+
51. Panic in the Streets B
52. The Misfits B
53. My Neighbor Totoro A
54. The Snake Pit B+
55. The Defiant Ones B+
56. Hi Mom C
57. Detour B+
58. The Elephant in the Living Room A
59. Who is Harry Nilsson A
60. Calamity Jane A-
61. Heaven's Gate C-
62. She's Out of My League C+
63. The Hunger C+
64. The Fan D-
65. American Grindhouse B+
66. Black Christmas B

He Said/She Said: The King's Speech

Unless I see a new movie in the waning hours of 2010, my theatrical filmgoing ends with The King's Speech - and what a wonderful finale that is.

I was actually rather surprised that I loved the film. Typically, I'm not into what a friend of mine once called "tea party movies" - otherwise known as period pieces. Years ago, while every critic was raving about Howards End, I could give it only a respectful shrug. Well acted, certainly - but stories of Brits struggling with their social status simply didn't ring many bells for me.

So what made The King's Speech different? Simply put, the story can't fail to be inspiring. Colin Firth plays Prince Albert, who has trouble cutting a regal figure, especially with the rise of the radio. In the old days, it was enough for a king simply not to fall off his horse. But Albert has a more difficult time than most because he has a debilitating stammer, which makes speaking in public an embarrassment.

Albert goes to see several speech therapists, all of whom fail miserably. Then, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) hears about a specialist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush)  with unorthodox methods. Albert reluctantly agrees to see him, scoffing when Lionel insists that his problems are not physical but psychological. The stakes get higher when it becomes clear that Albert's brother Edward (Guy Pearce) has little interest in being king.

My co-worker Hannah Poturalski enjoyed the film more than she expected as well. She writes:

I was pleasantly surprised while watching The King’s Speech from Director Tom Hooper (“EastEnders”) and writer David Seidler (The King and I). English films while usually always good in the end, aren’t top picks for me. I’d much rather watch American actors and directors. But I wholeheartedly enjoyed seeing into the life of English royalty and the hardships that connect all people by transcending culture and classes.

Firth and Rush both shine in their roles. The film surprised me by being so funny, and that's due primarily to Rush's work. His character has no qualms about breaking rules, cracking jokes and making people mad to get results. Most importantly, he sees a regal bearing in Albert that most people don't - and the crucial part is getting Albert not only to speak it but believe it.

With Firth's performance, that wasn't hard for me. Albert has tremendous issues, to be sure, but Firth must also convey a strength and resolve in spite of them, and Firth does so with the kind of sure-handedness that doesn't seem so much like acting. He simply is the king.

Hannah agrees, writing:

Firth’s character was able to go from stubborn and shy to opening up and letting himself have a true friendship with his unconventional but hilarious speech therapist Lionel (Geoffrey Rush). Rush almost stole the show for me. He played such a thoughtful character that just happened to use tough love as his approach for getting King George over the big hump that was his low self-esteem.

Truly, every performance, large and small, is outstanding. Helena Bonham Carter brings a pleasing light touch to her role as the long-suffering but steadfast wife, and even though his role is minor, Timothy Spall is a standout, absolutely capturing Winston Churchill. I'd love to see a biopic about Churchill with Spall in the lead.

Writer David Seidler and director Tom Hooper bring it all together with excellent craftsmanship. The movie could have come across like a filmed play, but Hooper opens up the action well, and Seidler strikes just the right balance in the story that keeps it from being too stuffy or maudlin.

It's giving nothing away to say the king succeeds in the end, but as Roger Ebert so rightly says, it's not what a movie is about, it's HOW it's about it. The King's Speech doesn't just talk. It sings.

UPDATE

I took a second look at the film, and if anything came away even more impressed. This time, I was able to pay more attention to the craft of the film, and I am no longer so surprised at all the technical nominations it has earned. They are all deserved, most especially for Danny Cohen's photography. Cohen cleverly frames the shots to drive home the point of how the king feels dwarfed by his duties, with wide-angle lenses enhancing the effect.

 The King's Speech is so good, it compels me to emphasize that in NO way is would this film be an unworthy Oscar winner. As Bertie himself might put it, those buggers who decry the film's status as the front runner can cut the shit. They really need to fucking get over themselves.

Read Hannah's full take here:

GRADE: A+

Oscar's One-Two Punch: The Fighter/True Grit

The Fighter

Upon hearing about The Fighter, one might ask, "What? Another boxing movie?"

Yes, when it's as good as The Fighter.

Most boxing movies are primarily just the boxer's story. There may be a few other key figures, but the boxer is always the central figure. What sets The Fighter apart is that it's truly about the dynamic that exists between the boxer, and his family and friends - some of whom are helpful, some who are poisonous, and some who are both.

This dynamic, sharply directed by David O. Russell, is shaped in such a way that for a good long while, I couldn't really tell where the story was going. Boxing movies tend to follow predictable patterns, but this one dances outside the lines and serves up the best kind of sucker punch.

Much has been made of the performances by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, and rightly so. Bale (whom I would argue is really a co-lead with Mark Wahlberg) once again puts his chameleon act on display, being nothing less than utterly convincing as a washed-up crackhead. Amy (have to call her by her first name) shatters her goody-goody image once and for all playing Wahlberg's girlfriend, who does not have a trace of Princess Giselle in her. And Leo is so convincing in her role, I actually didn't recognize her at first.

Not to be underestimated, however,  is Mark Wahlberg. He may have the least flashy role of the bunch, but he is the solid center around which everyone revolves. If he doesn't deliver, the movie doesn't deliver, but he and the movie do.

GRADE: A

He Said/She Said: True Grit

This may be one of the Coen brothers' more disappointing works in that it plays much more conventionally than usual for such deliciously unorthodox filmmakers. Maybe that's what you get for making a movie as out there as A Serious Man, then following that up with a fairly straight-ahead Western.

But that doesn't mean it's not a very good film. It is indeed.

Unsurprisingly, Jeff Bridges plays grizzled very well, and he makes a great Rooster Cogburn. John Wayne devotees may kill me for saying this but he outshine the Duke's performance in all respects. Wayne's Oscar-winning role was really not that much different from the typical John Wayne character, but Bridges' Cogburn makes for a lout of a man who nevertheless is keenly aware of who he is and what he needs to do.

The true star of this movie in my mind, though is young Hailee Steinfeld as the girl who hires Cogburn to hunt her father's killer. She is absolutely fantastic as a girl who simply won't take no for an answer, wearing down everyone around her with her unstinting logic and determination. This is the second best female performance of the year, after Natalie Portman in Black Swan.

Hannah Poturalski also enjoyed the dynamic between Bridges and Steinfeld, writing, "The continual razzing between Bridges and Steinfeld’s characters added a legitimacy to their character’s budding friendship. It was like they quickly became longtime friends. What I liked about the dynamic as well, was that Cogburn was one of the first people to actually take Mattie seriously on her adventure instead of dissuading her just because she was a young female.  The two actors were sensitive to their character’s motives and feelings and I really hope they make out well during the awards season."

For me, the movie fares best in the first half, when Bridges, Steinfeld and Matt Damon playing a Texas ranger let rip with the Coens' unique cadences of dialogue. It's more unsteady in the second half when the action becomes fairly standard and the third act resolves itself a bit too quickly.

By that point, however, the movie had won me over. It may be one of the Coens' more conventional movies,  but it's also one of their most flat-out entertaining. Hannah liked it even  better than I did, stating that "Ethan and Joel Coen certainly lived up to their potentials on this film. The atmosphere and quality was typical of the Coen brothers, and this is one of their most enjoyable films."

Read her complete review here.

GRADE: A-