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True Grit (2010)
Modern-Day Western Classic
For starters, I believe this film will revitalize westerns the way Unforgiven did in 1992. The Coen Bros. have created a remake far superior to the John Wayne classic. I had the advantage of seeing the original, but not reading the original book (I plan on reading it since I got it for Christmas). IMO, John Wayne shouldn't've won an Oscar for this role, it was a usual, run of the mill Wayne character. In other words, Jeff Bridges blew Wayne out of the water. His Rooster Cogburn is a much more deeper, sincere (and obvious) drunk, which strengthens him. At first I had trouble understanding what he was saying, but I gradually figured it out. This further solidifies Bridges' comeback as a really talented, skilled actor. Matt Damon's performance was the most like the original character's, that of LaBeouf; this isn't a bad thing, it's still a great performance. I was disappointed at how little I saw of Josh Brolin, he only has maybe at most 20 minutes of screen time; he's one of my new favorite actors, he's like Daniel Day-Lewis: he can play any role and totally disappear in the role. This is probably the only major criticism I can offer the film: too little Josh Brolin. Now Hailee Steinfeld, she's got a real career ahead of her. She was by far better than Kim Darby in the original film; she made the character more disciplined and determined and believable. It seemed Darby played the role as a little girl trying really hard to act adult and not always pulling it off, she was frequently irritating at it; but Steinfeld plays the character perfectly, by making her totally adult, not trying to act adult, but making her believably adult; as in it's not some act she's putting on, it really is a part of her character. Also, the look and feel of the film was spot-on; although it doesn't establish an exact time (as in, for instance at the beginning it would say,"Arkansas, 1875" or something like that), you know where and when you are the whole time, every detail of the film is precise and accurate, from the costumes to the setting to the Southern dialect. The Coen Bros. are among my favorite filmmakers (Fargo is one of my all-time favorite movies), and they just keep on spitting out classics; I still think Fargo is their best, but this one is definitely yet another classic.
Fight Club (1999)
Mind-bending and Intense Revelation of Film
I've always wanted to see this movie, and it was playing on TV recently and saw it for the first time. I was simply blown away. Everything about it is unbelievably genius: the story (main thanks to Chuck Pahlaniuk), the acting (especially the two leads, Norton and Pitt), the tone, the twist at the end. David Fincher is a modern day genius who keeps putting out masterpiece after masterpiece (keep in mind before this he did Se7en, another modern day classic). The highlight of the movie is mainly Edward Norton, as the perfect unreliable Narrator, a man who doesn't even really know who he is for most of the movie. And of course there's Brad Pitt, in his best performance he'll probably ever do. Tyler Durden is a destructive, philosophical radical revolutionary, who hates all form of consumerism and probably society itself. He's probably the most powerful amazing, deep character to come in recent movies (well along with the Joker in the Dark Knight). Overall, this is such an incredible movie, it would be bad for you to miss it, well if you're old enough to see it of course, but still, something to really see and think about, seriously, shouldn't be missed at some point in your life.