"Crazy Heart"...so much more than meh.

So, I loved this movie! I was sort-of excited to see it. More like it was by far the movie I was most interested in seeing the day we had the chance to dump the kinder-leibchen for lunch and movie. I figured it would be pretty good and that Jeff Bridges would be very good. Because everyone had been saying that he was just super in this movie.
In all honesty, "super" doesn't even begin to describe how good he is as Bad Blake, the semi-washed-up country singer who still has some good shit in him but who is stuck playing gigs at bowling alleys and redneck saloons. And I cannot stop being tickled by that name. Bad Blake. And he refers to himself as "Bad". How great is that? I'm thinking about forcing FS to refer to me, heretofore, as Dirty Danni. Just "Dirty", for short. Only in Bad's honor, of course. Who am I trying to kid? FS would totally get-off on something like that.
Anyway, I am trying to think of someone in recent memory who played a part so perfectly. You all know how much I loved, loved, loved Mickey Rourke as The Wrestler, right? He was perfect. But he was not quite as good as Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake.
Bad is a dirty birdy, an alcoholic, a deadbeat dad, a drunk driver, you name it. He is on the road constantly, working for little more than motel room & board. And drinking. A lot. He meets-up w/Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a single-mom and aspiring music writer and, naturally, they do the bangety-bang. And they play it like Lionel Ritchie. All. Night. Long. I feel the need to insert here that I am told - not everyday but not never, either - that if I have a movie star doppelganger, Maggie would be her. Lucky bitch.
Their romance blossoms a bit. Bad meets Jean's young son Buddy (played by Jack Nation who is quite adorable and quite good in the film, BTW) and they hit it off, as well.
At some point between the alcoholic-puking and the Gyllenhaal-banging we meet Tommy Sweet, the hot young country star who was mentored by Bad and has since risen to stardom. Tommy is fortunate enough to be played by Colin Farrell. What is there to say about that? Wow. Maybe I'll just leave it at that.
My understanding is that Farrell (along with the others) did his own singing in the film. And he was really pretty good. Not that I gave a shit. I was too focused on just how undeniably perfect-looking he is. He struggled w/his accent a few times (just one or two times, literally) but was really good and believable as a cowboy.
So Bad pursues both Jean and a return to stardom and I'll just say he gets one but not the other and leave it at that. In case you haven't seen it. And you should. See it.
Gyllenhaal is good. The chemistry between Bad and Jean was a little weird for me at times. I thought they were totally believable during their boudoir scenes but not quite as much in their, umm, non-boudoir scenes. Like they had sexual chemistry but no real romantic chemistry. Yeah. Like that. I guess that's possible. If I could count the times in my life when I had sexual chemistry with a man I otherwise hated...hahaha. Just joking, FS. Just checking to see if you were reading carefully.
So, as I was saying, maybe Maggie was just being especially excellent at being disgusted by Bad while also wanting him as a daddy/husband/father to her son-type figure that I mistook it as a lack of romantic chemistry. I'll ask FS what he thought. I think I mentioned (somewhere) that he loved the movie, as well. He expected Bridges to be amazing but had heard that, beyond him, the movie was just meh. Take it from the FSW, this was much more than meh. The actors were all good, the movie didn't have any annoying unrealisticness (like that?) and I enjoyed every scene.
What are you waiting for? Go find it at your local arts theater! If you've never been there you'll feel smarter just for walking through the door!

The Good:
Jeff Bridges (The Great, really)
Colin Farrell's whole person
The music. Some of those songs actually moved me and I do NOT do country music outside those true-blue-blooded cunts also knows as the Dixie Chicks. And Tim McGraw. Don't even get me going on Tim. I will not be able to stop myself. humina humina

The Bad:
Nothing really comes to mind. M.G. was too thin, as usual, but usually I don't care because 1) telling bitches what they "should" weigh is not my thing (it shouldn't be anyone else's thing either, incidentally. Yes, David E. Kelley - I'm talking to you. How about trying on a bitch who's NOT anorexic...just once?) and 2)I don't normally have to see her nekkid and getting fingered by Jeff Bridges. I hope she puts on about 15 pounds for the sequel. Or at least for the next time she's being fingered on camera by anyone other than her queer husband (who I enjoy very much as an actor, BTW, but who needs to come out of the fucking closet already. For goodness sake, who do you think you're fooling, Peter?)


The Ugly:
That hideous skank Bad bangs at the end of the first night. Blast! I've seen better heads on boils!

I'm back, motherfuckers!!!

FSW is back! That's right - have some! I am ashamed to admit that I needed FS to figure out how to get me back into my own blog. I had put it aside for those few fleeting months when I actually had a job and by the time I made my way back to the blogosphere I had forgotten all my shit and couldn't get back in. Dur. Hats off to you, FS for getting me up and running and all that jazz.

First up - I will review "Crazy Heart", starring Jeff Bridges. I saw this w/FS on Valentine's Day (awwwwww, shucks) and we both absolutely loved it. JB was perfectly perfect for the role. Now that I've got you all back under my spell...you'll have to actually read the review to find out what I thought of Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Laters!