I saw the original “True Grit” when I was a child, many years ago. I do not judge the 2010 version against the 1969 John Wayne version. Each stands well on its own. The newcomer is simply a fine cowboy movie. Colorful characters. Not too long. Doesn’t try to be profound. Two extra things make it great. Hailee Steinfeld plays a confident-beyond-her-years 14-year-old girl that carries the movie by sheer force of will. And the script takes the language of the 1800s and turns it into poetry. It is an exercise in meticulous sentence structuring that brought me great pleasure.
Archives for posts with tag: Matt Damon
Ben Affleck obviously loves Boston, and Boston loves him right back when he sets a film there. When “Good Will Hunting” came out, Affleck and Matt Damon were hailed as multi-talented newcomers. Somewhere along the line, however, Damon became a superstar and Affleck became a joke (the “Bennifer” saga didn’t help). But then Affleck does something like “The Town” (2010), a moving film that seamlessly combines a love story with a heist flick and a warts-and-all ode to Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood. And then you rediscover Affleck, the leading man – and then you realize that maybe the joke was on you.
This is what I get for not reading reviews or paying close enough attention to what I rent. I thought Matt Damon’s “The Adjustment Bureau” (2011) was going to be like his other spy movies, but with a sci-fi twist. Instead, it’s the demon spawn of Rod Serling and Nicholas Sparks. Actually, it’s the opposite spawn of demon spawn (angel spawn?). It’s a sci-fi love story that ends up being an allegory on the religious concept of free will. With Emily Blunt (redhead alert!). Pleasant surprises all around. Maybe it’s the non-sucky, Cruiseless spawn of “Vanilla Sky” and “Minority Report.”
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