by The Flickcast, Dec 22 2010 // 9:00 AM
By Jarrett Mellenbruch
Just go ahead and give Mattie Ross whatever it is she demands. Trying to bargain with this 14 year old , played by Hailee Steinfeld, will eventually leave you weakened and bewildered. Her relentless pursuit of justice for the murder of her father calls upon her vast reserve of cunning, quick wits, and masterful tongue.
Cast opposite the craggy and weathered drunkard U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn, masterfully played by Jeff Bridges, she holds up her part and then some in this perfect balance between a game innocent and an extremely experienced, blunt yet perceptive hired gun.
Thanks to Hailee Steinfeld, the young actress who plays Mattie, women viewers who venture out to see one western every decade would do well to make True Grit their choice for the Teens. This may be the one movie where a mother/daughter night out to see a shoot-em-up may rival the father/son crowd. That’s not to say the men should stay away, only that there is something for everyone here, including the strong central heroine.
Matt Damon, Barry Pepper, and Josh Brolin nicely round out the cast and offer some extra color and comedic moments. Damon’s LaBoeuf is the cowboy nerd who rides the fine line between charming and annoying, and he rides it well. Pepper plays bad guy Ned Pepper, who probably is the grittiest part of the whole movie. And Josh Brolin is the seemingly simpleminded crook who killed Mattie’s father and kicked off this whole goose chase.
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Posted in: Action · Adaptation · Movies · Reviews · Westerns
Tagged: Action, Adaptation, Barry Pepper, Coen brothers, hailee steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, true grit, True Grit 2010, Westerns
by Bob Starr, Sep 24 2009 // 2:15 PM
With films like
Resident Evil and
I Am Legend commonplace in Hollywood, it’s hard to imagine a post-apocalyptic tale that isn’t sensationalized somehow. The big screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning best-seller
The Road set out to change all that. The story follows the journey of a father and son as they do whatever they can to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. There is a lot of anticipation for this film and now we can all rest easy knowing we’ll be able to see it November 25th.
Starring Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road seeks to distinguish itself from similar fair by bringing a real look at a post-apocalyptic world. Director John Hillcoat drew inspiration form contemporary tragedies to capture the essence of the film, “…instead of just looking at other post-apocalyptic films, we ended up going to documentaries and photos of actual apocalypses or ones that didn’t go global. Within that small area, it’s the equivalent, so we looked at Hiroshima, Katrina and 9/11.”
The timing of the release cannot be overlooked either and could be somewhat strategic by Dimension Films. A November date puts The Road in Oscar contention for this year. While uncommon for genre type films to get Academy recognition, it wouldn’t be the first time McCarthy’s work received Oscar buzz. The film No Country for Old Men, based on McCarthy’s novel, won four Academy Awards thanks, in large part, to the Coen brothers. Considering the serious tone of the story and Mortensen’s dramatic level of acting, The Road just may lead to more Oscar gold again.
Posted in: Adaptation · Dimension Films · Drama · Movies · News
Tagged: Coen brothers, Cormac McCarthy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, No Country for Old Men, The Lord of the Rings, The Road, Viggo Mortensen
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