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Dec. 23rd, 2010
True Grit (2010) NYT Critics' Pick
Dec. 23rd, 2010 11:51 pm
Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers’ remake of “True Grit,” the 1960s western.
Wearing Braids, Seeking Revenge
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 21, 2010
That old-time American religion of vengeance runs like a river through “True Grit,” a comic-serious tale about some nasty, brutish times. Beautifully adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen from the parodic western novel by Charles Portis, it turns on a 14-year-old Arkansas girl who hires a “one-eyed fat man” to hunt down her father’s killer. First published in 1968, Mr. Portis’s tall tale was brought to the screen the next year custom-fitted for John Wayne, who rode the role of that fat man, Rooster Cogburn, straight to an Oscar. Now it’s the thinner scene-stealer Jeff Bridges who sits and sometimes drunkenly slumps in the saddle. More
Somewhere (2010) NYT Critics' Pick
Dec. 23rd, 2010 11:53 pm
Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning in a scene from “Somewhere.”
The Pampered Life, Viewed From the Inside
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: December 21, 2010
The opening shot of “Somewhere,” Sofia Coppola’s exquisite, melancholy and formally audacious fourth feature, prepares you for what is to follow in a characteristically oblique and subtle manner. A black Ferrari circulates on an otherwise empty desert speedway, driving in and out of the stationary camera’s range as the noise of its engine oscillates between a distant whine and a full-throated roar. More
Secret Sunshine (2007) NYT Critics' Pick
Dec. 23rd, 2010 11:57 pm
Jeon Do-yeon’s character navigates layers of tragedy and grief in “Secret Sunshine,” which is making its American debut.
Fierce Tests of Endurance and the Resilience of the Spirit
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: December 21, 2010
“Secret Sunshine” — a 2007 film by Lee Chang-dong now making a tardy but welcome American debut — takes place in a South Korean town called Miryang, described by one of its residents as “just like every other place.” This is true enough, and Mr. Lee is certainly attentive to the routines and rhythms of everyday life. But there is nothing ordinary about this movie, or about the story it tells. More