Tucker: The Man and His Dream at 25

by Tony Dayoub

As you've no doubt noticed from the last few entries in this series, the waning days of 1988's summer didn't feel quite like the blockbuster season we now see extending all the way up to September. Opening on August 12, 1988, Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream was the kind of prestige project you'd more likely associate with awards season. For Coppola, it is among his most personal films, not only because it spent the longest time in gestation, but because it's the closest the filmmaker has ever come to a confessional about the professional betrayals he'd contended with in his career, and the virtues and flaws of mounting a creative collaboration.

CONTINUE READING AT SLANT'S THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR

Movie Review: True Grit (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

Richard T. Jameson has an excellent piece up on his blog, Straight Shooting, entitled "also-true 'Grit'". You can (and most definitely should) read it for yourself, but in it he compares the new Coen Brothers film with Henry Hathaway's 1969 original. His conclusion:

So if I had to pick only one True Grit movie to take to the proverbial desert island, it'd be Hathaway's, Wayne's, Ballard's and, while we're at it, Elmer Bernstein's: that gentleman was Wayne's music scorer of choice in the Sixties, and the Bernstein sound laid over one of Lucien Ballard's high-country shots of quivering aspen and immeasurable, clear-air vastness imbues the moment with mystery. (The score of the 2010 version, by regular Coen collaborator Carter Burwell, runs variations on "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," a folk hymn best known from Night of the Hunter.)

The beauty of it is, though, that we don't have to pick one True Grit. Both are worth having. We take for granted that any Coen picture is going to be a work of impeccable craftsmanship, and yes, Roger Deakins is at the camera once again. The brothers' fidelity to [Charles] Portis' novel not only honors a great literary achievement but also makes for a narrative with fascinating interruptions, digressions and enigmatic encounters - in short, storytelling of a perversity the Coens usually have to generate on their own.

Like the book but unlike the 1969 movie, their True Grit has a narrator, Mattie, and keeps faith with her point of view. What she doesn't know, we don't know.

There are a few things I find particularly cogent about Jameson's review: his perceptive connecting of the Coens' True Grit to The Night of the Hunter; "What she doesn't know, we don't know..."; and, "The beauty of it is, though, that we don't have to pick one True Grit."

Crazy Heart: The Invisible Man Emerges

by Tony Dayoub

With Jeff Bridges a seeming lock for Best Actor in this year's Oscar races, there come the inevitable disclaimers, "Yeah, he deserves one, but this isn't necessarily the performance for which he should be getting it." True that in the past, Oscar has been bestowed on notable actors in second-rate roles as compensation for being overlooked in other more important performances. Most famously, Al Pacino got one for Scent of a Woman (1992) despite three instances (okay, maybe two) in which he could and should have received one for his captivating minimalist performance as Michael Corleone in The Godfather series, forever justifying his irritating inclination to play it big. Indeed, Denzel Washington was another actor who received one of these Oscars for Training Day (2001) when he really deserved it for Malcolm X in the year that Pacino got his award. What no one seems to be saying about Bridges' performance as country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart is that in this case, the honor may actually be deserved.


Part of the reason, no doubt, is the "been there, done that" issue that arises when one looks at Crazy Heart and the debt it owes to its predecessor, Tender Mercies (1983). So greatly do the two films stories of aging alcoholic country singers dovetail, it was necessary to cast the latter's Robert Duvall (who won an Oscar for that, concidentally) and throw him a producer credit just to acknowledge the inevitable comparisons between both films.

This is not to diminish the film's warmth and genuine relish in allowing one to observe Blake's self-loathing so closely. Director Scott Cooper presents Blake as a functioning alcoholic who has the old leather-feel of an endearing curmudgeon rather than the off-putting antics of an obnoxious scoundrel. Bridges invites the viewer into his charming sphere of influence much the same way he does his paramour Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal). He simply turns up the defensive allure an actor must rely on the same way an alcoholic has become accustomed to doing when evading the underlying predicament of his own existence.

This easy charm is what has thus far undercut Bridges chances for recognition. If all of his vastly different performances in great movies—from Duane in The Last Picture Show to the Dude in The Big Lebowski; from Bone in Cutter's Way to Scudder in 8 Million Ways to Die; from the titular Tucker to Max Klein in Fearless—can be made to look so easy, then is it any wonder that it's taken so long for Bridges to be acknowledged? Here, finally, is a role that stands out in an otherwise average film, and perhaps by aiming low Bridges has finally achieved the measure of success he has merited all along.

Movie Review: Iron Man - Fun Flick Marks Start of Summer Movie Season

by Tony Dayoub


Iron Man, based on the Marvel Comics superhero from the 1960s, opened Friday nationwide. Directed by Jon Favreau, it tells the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), a less charitable Bill Gates-like (updated from Howard Hughes in the comic) multi-billionaire who makes most of his fortune from the lucrative weapons development division of his company. Injured when he is captured by rogue terrorists, he has a change of heart (literally and figuratively) about his role in the scheme of things, after seeing the terrorists using his weapons to subjugate the innocents of their country, and defeat American soldiers. Forced to make a missile for them in return for his release, he instead makes the first clunky version of the armor that will lead to his new endeavor as Iron Man.

The film is everything a fun summer flick should be. It's topical, updating the comic book origin to take place in Afghanistan rather than Vietnam. It's exciting, particularly whenever Stark takes exhilarating flight as he tests his armor. It has enough humor to let you know it doesn't take itself too seriously. One running gag involves a government agent frustratedly seeking a moment to debrief Stark after his escape from captivity. The gag is amusing on that level, but it's also a nod to the geeks (if they listen to what division he's from, they should get the joke right away). And it has a brilliant cast.

Downey is perfect for the party boy savant Stark, whose lifestyle parallels much of Downey's own brushes with addiction. Gwyneth Paltrow, as his assistant Pepper Potts, is clearly having fun with her role, but is integral to saving the day, a role rarely assigned to females in this genre. Terrence Howard as Rhodey is the everyman that must manage his friend, making sure he doesn't screw up his naive pursuit of justice, but secretly happy that his friend has the guts to go outside of the box in his crusade.

Jeff Bridges is a strong adversary. His Obadiah Stane is the real workhorse who's built Stark Enterprises to what it is today, and won't see it, or himself, flushed down with the refuse because the mercurial Stark has had a sudden notion to save the world. Bridges wisely plays the villain without twirling his mustache too much. Instead, he makes us understand the business obligations that drive Stane to do what he has to do, delineating the contrast between Stane's pragmatic persona with Stark's, until now, more flighty one.

By the way, if you're a fan of the comic books, stay till after the end credits for a special surprise that sets up future adventures. You will not be disappointed. Iron Man is a solid entertaining way to start the summer movie season, and I hope the rest of this season lives up to the benchmark established by this film.