Crazy Heart

I've always had a thing for Jeff Bridges. Since he was a kid actor on Sea Hunt, then Starman, the Fabulous Baker Boys, and of course, the
DUDE (The Big Lewbowski), he has always been a naturally classic actor to watch. Not to mention how handsome he is! So when he won the best-actor Oscar this year I was over-joyed for him....We had not seen
Crazy Heart though, and just watched it this weekend. Oh.My.God.

It was a masterful slice-of-life movie that everyone was so good in -- but Bridges -- he was brilliant. You will forget you're watching a movie and think it's real, his acting is so seamless.

His character is Bad Blake, an alcoholic chain-smoking Country singer, who was famous once -- or at least well-known, especially as a songwriter...but now, mostly b/c his addiction has made him a bit unreliable and out of touch, he's relegated to playing seedy outskirts in bowling alleys with pick-up bands. Even though he's a mess, you care about him. He still cares about his craft, and he's always a sweet, care-worn guy. We all know someone like Bad. You find yourself rooting for him. That Bridges can sing isn't new. I didn't know Colin Farrell could sing, though. He plays a singer who Bad mentored, who eclipsed him in fame, but who admires him and wants to give him a leg-up. The woman Bad falls for who makes him 'wake up,' is an unstable high-strung single mom, and I wanted to see him with a mellower older woman, but I understood why they needed the plot tension.


The New Yorker reviewer thought the movie was too bland; that the plot needed to be more complex or something. I don't agree at all. In fact I wondered if he saw it -- or if he's too jaded by things that go boom.* It was very true-to-life, and bitter-sweet, and the kind of movie that when it was over, made me want to watch it again. I don't feel that way about movies very often.




* I have been accused of "liking things were people drink tea and nothing happens." Not true, but I grow weary of car chases and explosions quickly - and the action had better advance the plot -- and I've given up on Quentin Terrentino, though I liked Pulp Fiction. I will never tire of a Astaire-Rogers dance or the witty repartee from The Thin Man movies, and I have yet to find their equal. When they are 'on,' Woody Allen and Nora Ephron can come close...

PS: Two big mama 'coons brought up three baby coons this afternoon for their first taste of solid food -- they loved the dog food. They are between 6-8 weeks old. They sound like kittens. Excy promises to fix the koi pond and get it full, so we can watch them dog paddle around in it - always hilarious. Simple pleasures around here...

Yesterday I cut off a driver pulling into a gas station and she was so annoyed she followed me to tell me she almost hit me. I apologized profusely but didn't think then to tell her I shouldn't have even been on the road -- a friend had just told me a dear friend was being given last rites. He died a few hours later. Not that I wasn't in the wrong. Just wigged out.