I love Christmastime, when mainstream theaters suddenly get filled with thoughtful, unique films for grown-ups. I especially love it when small films come from out of nowhere and have the potential to rocket to the front of the Oscar race. This year's Christmas surprise is "Crazy Heart," from first-time writer/director Scott Cooper in one of the most exciting filmmaking debuts in years.
"Crazy Heart" is not a masterpiece. But in a year when American films were horrendously cautious, focused on currying favor with the most mindless critics and audiences, "Crazy Heart" stands out for at least having some artistry.
Jeff Bridges, in one of the best and most authentic performances of the year, plays Bad Blake, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking bluesman long forgotten by the mainstream. He struggles to make ends meet by playing holes in the wall across the Southwest. In the opening sequence, Blake is reduced to performing in a bowling alley. By curtain time, he is so drunk he can barely stand up. The handful of fifty- and sixtysomethings in the audience are enthusiastic anyway. The crowds may be small, the venues shabby, and the frontman drunk, but everyone knows they're hearing the best country-blues left in a bland, suburbanized America filled with cookie-cutter franchises. If there's one thing Bad Blake is not, it's a franchisee. Amen to that.
One could say the same thing about Jeff Bridges himself. Let's hope this is Bridges' Oscar year at last. It's been a long time coming. Perfectly coiffed movie stars like George Clooney and Brad Pitt get all the attention, but Bridges has put out vastly more interesting material than they have for 25 years running.
I also hope Scott Cooper gets an Oscar nod as Best Director. But I'm not hopeful, as the directors' wing is notoriously averse to heralding newcomers. While we're at it, let's say a prayer that the deeply soulful and original Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall receive Supporting Actress/Actor nominations. Based upon the Golden Globes' near-complete dismissal of "Crazy Heart," I'm not hopeful about that either.
Ms. Gyllenhaal here plays a single mother struggling to become an independent journalist. Romantic embers begin to glow almost immediately when she meets Blake to conduct an interview in a broken-down motel. Duvall, playing one of Blake's only long-time friends, as usual gets deep into the fiber of his character's being. (Duvall also was mesmerizing this year in a short but indelible sequence in "The Road" -- another film way too heavy for the mainstream this year. Should 2009 be dubbed the Year of the American Idiot?)
"Crazy Heart" drifts a bit into soap opera at the end, but it still stands out as one of the best films of the year. I rank it the second-best American film of 2009, after "Hurt Locker." It also contains the greatest music I've heard in a film since "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" If "Crazy Heart" does not at least win some awards for music, I might hang myself.
2 comments:
A gorgeous and wonderful film. Thank you for trying to give it more attention
You're very welcome. But it looks like we're going to be in the minority on this one. I'm not seeing the film on anyone's Top 10 list, and the Globes failed to nominate it for Best Drama.
The Village Voice just published its Top 10 list, which is compiled based on the views of 100 critics, and Crazy Heart wasn't named. Get this: Jeff Bridges didn't even get named as a Best Actor. They named five men, and Bridges didn't make the list. FREAKY.
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