Crazy Heart & Up in the Air

Over the past two nights I've seen a couple of movies, 'Crazy Heart' and 'Up In The Air'. The first stars Jeff Bridges as a burnt out country/blues singer playing crappy gigs across the Southwest and drinking/smoking himself to death. The story was familiar and reminded me a little of 'The Wrestler' with the redemption qualities, but what made it great was Bridges. I've always liked his style, especially 'The Big Lebowski' but that was just plain goofiness and this was some serious acting. I think he'll get nominated for an Oscar. I really liked the music as well and plan on getting the soundtrack. Shane had free passes for this pre-screening at the Arbor so I met him there with Fositi. The second movie is one of those rare ones that affect me the way 'Into the Wild' did. I saw it at the Drafthouse with Brett last night and was completely blown away. I laughed a lot since it's a comedy, but it had so much to say about us as a people today, about this time period (what a timely film with the unemployement story line), and also cried because I associated with the loneliness of Clooney's character and his flawed philosophy. The acting was unbelievable with Vera Farmiga as the tough companion in his home, the airport/airplane/hotel and Anna Kendrick, the young perky co-worker that has a lot to learn but still knows bullshit when she smells it. I knew I was going to love the movie with the opening credits showing the US from various locations as if seeing from a plane and edited in an amazing way, and with 'This Land is Your Land' (a funkier version) in the background. The music was also used well here and I'll be checking out that soundtrack too. While I associated with 'Into the Wild' as I was in my early 20's, this one shows that time period that comes in your 40's. It's so well written it hurts, and the comedy really bites at some points, but sometimes the truth is hard to hear. It's right up there with 'Inglourious Basterds' as my fave for 2009 now.

Avatar

Holy smokes! Just saw 'Avatar' with dad. Okay, so the story isn't very solid, but still a LOT more there than 'Transformers2' but watching it was like literally traveling to another part of the universe! Like 'Lord of the Rings' did before, this is a new definition of CG that will be hard to beat at least for a while. The faces of the avatars looking like their respective humans was nothing short of miraculous! The story got a little preachy at times and I'm not sure how well this will go over in Cracker America with 'US' marines being the bad guys and getting their ass' kicked but just like it's been on earth the story of history has been conquer the less powerful, ESPECIALLY if they are sitting on top of something that's precious. Pandora reminded me of some of the artwork Roger Dean did for Yes' album covers in the 70's. Great stuff!