Crazy Heart (2009)

Director: Scott Cooper (his directorial debut)
Stars: Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, The Muse)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight, 40 Day and 40 Nights)
YesNoSoso: 2

I'm pretty jaded (fed up?) with the Hollywood music biopic and I hate country music, so logic would imply that I would dislike this movie. But Jeff Bridges gives an amazing performance and is particularly (and somewhat surprisingly) adept at singing. A lot of comparisons have been made with The Wrestler, which is certainly called for, but I thought Crazy Heart was even better. Washed up country singer Bad Blake plays one-night-stands for cash when he falls in love with a reporter that interviews him. It sounds as trite as can be, but I assure you, it actually comes through feeling original. Combine that with the awesome music (yes I described country music as awesome) performed by the unlikely sources of Bridges and Colin Farrell and its a truly re-watchable film.
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Into the Wild (2007)

Director: Sean Penn (The Pledge, The Crossing Guard [both decent])
Stars: Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door [actually pretty good], Speed Racer)
Vince Vaughn (Made, Four Christmases)
YesNoSoso: 0

I'm probably gonna catch some heat for this, but I flat out didn't like this movie. All of Hollywood seemed to get behind Penn's project. The supporting cast includes Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook and Zach Galifianakis. I appreciated Chris McCandless's story and how many lives he evidently touched along the way, but I found it flat out boring. Its not my style but I can certainly understand the whole shedding-the-shackles-of-society mantra that Chris adopted, but I found myself more annoyed at his disdainful attitude than identifying with his message.
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I'm Not There (2007)

Director: Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven [I've never seen anything else he's done, but hear this is good])
Stars: Christian Bale (Batman Begins, Reign of Fire)
Cate Blanchett (The Good German, The Gift)
YesNoSoso: 2

6 different actors play 6 different "aspects" of Bob Dylan's persona: the Poet (A British actor I've never heard of), the Musician (Christian Bale), the Troubadour (a little black kid), the Actor (Heath Ledger), The Drugged Out Counter Culturist (Cate Blanchett) and the Mystical Outlaw (Richard Gere). If that doesn't immediatly incite your desire to see this movie stop reading this blog. Seriously. YesNoSoso is no place for your damn negative attitude.
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Persepolis (2007)

Director: Vincent Paronnaud (Something called Raging Blues that I've never heard of and nothing else, Marjane Satrapi also gets a credit, cause writing a graphic novel does most of the work for a director, especially of an animated movie)
Stars: Chiara Mastroianni (A bunch of French shit I've never heard of)
Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion, Dancer in the Dark [both these movies are sweet, but almost everything else is french, plus I dig her style so fuck off])
YesNoSoso: 2

Awesome. The more movies I see the more I appreciate the genre of animation. This doesn't mean that there aren't assloads of terrible animated features, but I am very comfortable stating that the overall quality of a randomnly selected animated film is higher than its live-action counterpart. The plot is rather original and the stylistic animation is not only aesthetically mesmerizing but also like nothing I've ever seen. Plus watching cartoons do drugs is hilarious.
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