MOVIE REVIEW: True Grit

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on January 16, 2011 - 10:17pm
At Large
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TRUE GRIT
 Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld

 
Reviewed by Seth Rogovoy
 

Is there nothing the Coen Brothers can’t do? They score again, this time BIG, with True Grit, which instantly belongs in the pantheon of neo-revisionist Westerns alongside the likes of Little Big Man, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Wild Bunch, The Missouri Breaks, and 1975’s Rancho Deluxe, which, interestingly enough, starred a young Jeff Bridges. From the first words to the last, the writing is as taut as the noose around one of the outlaws’ heads; the characterizations of every player, from the stars down to every bit part is extraordinarily three-dimensional; the storytelling is tight, and the tension and wit never let up. And, of course, the brothers garner another brilliant, career-defining performance out of Jeff Bridges – could he actually be the Marlon Brando of the last quarter-century? – and a stunning debut from a thirteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld. Easily the best picture of any year in which you see it.

 
[Currently running at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, Mass.]
 

Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living’s award-winning editor-in-chief and cultural critic.

 

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