KWIF=Kent's Week in Film. This week, the big view was Tron:Ares which I covered doing a whole Recognizer-sized post about the film series. So that leaves three other sets and series I've been lured into as of late.
This Week:
True Grit (2010, d. Joel and Ethan Coen - dvd)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941, d. W.S. Van Dyke - dvd)
Final Destination 2 (2003, d. David R. Ellis - rental)
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Yes, True Grit was, and remains, the Coen Brothers' biggest box office success by quite a wide margin. Grossing over 250 million it was a legitimate blockbuster that went on to earn 10 Oscar nominations (and won none... Jeff Bridges would have been a shoe-in had the Academy not just given him Best Actor for Crazy Heart the year prior, a decision some say was more a "career achievement" Oscar rather than a reflection of the quality of film or his performance in it). It was a new adaptation of Charles Portis' novel that had been previously adapted in 1969, shortly after its publication, into a John Wayne-starring vehicle [Toasty's pandemic-era review] that was also a bit hit and won John Wayne his first and only Oscar, and is considered a classic in cinematic westerns.
In promoting the film, the filmmakers and cast were explicit about noting the film was an adaptation of the novel, not a remake of the movie. Remaking a classic means comparing one's film to the classic, and the risk is 9 times out of 10 that doesn't go very well. But there are always exceptions, and the Coen's True Grit proved to be one of those exceptions.
It's a fairly straightforward premise, as most classically-styled westerns tend to be. A young woman, Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld in her first role), arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, looking to hire a Marshall to hunt down the man who killed her father. Mattie is hyper-intelligent, educated, well-read, brash, and can talk circles around pretty much anyone... and regularly does. She fixates on U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he's been described as a man with "true grit" (that's the name of the movie!), and has a history of being less than lenient on the subject he pursues.
In reality, Cogburn is a one-eyed alcoholic who sleeps on a cot in the back of a grocers store. He's kind of gross, but also, he's pretty damn good at his job. Likely because of his perpetually inebriated state, Mattie can't really get a leg up on him, at least verbally, but money talks and Cogburn takes the job. But in taking the job he's unfortunately (at least in his perspective) saddled with Matty who persistently accompanies him on the trek, because she wants to see the job gets done personally.
Cogburn has also forged an uneasy partnership with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), who has been in pursuit of their prey, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) for many years now. LaBoeuf is cocky and dresses in clean leathers with fancy tassels and has the air of arrogance about him, which rubs Cogburn the wrong way (the gulf spreads further when the men realize they were on opposite sides during the Civil War).
The story is about how these three very different people interact with one another, how they want to let their differences divide them, but along the way find respect for each other.
I have not read the book, not seen the original adaptation, so I don't know how much of this True Grit deviates from the past of either story. Compared to almost every other Coens film, there doesn't seem to be much Coen-isms in this, but I'd bet pretty heavily I would see them were I to actually compare. (The one standout Coen-ism is LaBoeuf pronouncing his last name LeBeef).
It's a film that would have succeeded without a doubt because its source material is solid and the directors are master craftsmen, but the casting elevates everything. Hailee Steinfeld has to carry the first act pretty much on her own, and she does so exceptionally well. Adopting a drawl at the same time as performing exceptionally twisty, fast-talking dialogue, while still retaining a twinkle of mischievous charm at 14-years-old...she's a once-in-a-lifetime find, able to punch her weight against the likes of Bridges, Damon and Brolin. She was exceptional on-screen from moment one, and she's only gotten better in the 15 years since. She's one of my favourite actors, and it's awe-inspiring seeing how good she's always been.
Bridges's post-The Big Lebowski career seemed to always be in the shadow of Lebowski. It's like his relaxed, Californian dude-ness was allowed to come front and center in that film, and he couldn't get it back in. Suddenly, on the press circuit, Bridges wasn't just "actor Jeff Bridges", he was actually the Dude. But on screen, when it called for it, Bridges could bottle that all up and pull out completely different personas, and Cogburn was definitely one of those other personas. Bridges does some incredible physical work based around Cogburn's eye patch alone, but he dances on pin heads stepping between hypercapable, soused boor, and endearing mentor to Matty.
With Roger Deakins behind the lens, it of course looks fantastic. Carter Burwell's score leans heavily into conventional western territory with absolute purpose. It's a masterfully executed production by all parties involved. It's seems so breezy a production to watch and quick immerse one's self in, that it's easy to undermine how complicated it must have been to pull off. The Coen's films almost always tend to challenge the audience's expectations, to toy with genre and storytelling conventions, so it's True Grit's lack of these qualities, and only the absence of those "Coen-isms" that make this a lesser production in the portfolio...in almost other director's portfolio it would be their masterpiece.
[Poster talk... when did character posters become a thing. I remember two main posters for the film... the one above which was all about font, resembling an older timey parchment poster, and the one which features grizzled looking men with guns. The "men with guns" one was to sell it to the guys who like men-with-guns movies. The parchment one is meant to sell it to the art house movie crowd who like to read, I guess. Look! Words! But I didn't realize that True Grit had a series of character posters, and now I'm wondering when the whole character poster trend started...a quick *something* search finds character posters for the original Oceans 11 though the individual character one-sheets are rare, but Batman Returns was maybe the first big one where it's really spotlighting individual characters, not just the actor...TBC]
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A jockey has been murdered at the track and now Nick has been roped into working on the case by the ever-annoyed Lieutenant Abrams (Sam Levene). There's been a task force afoot to root out the criminals who have been fixing the sporting events in the area, and they think the jockey's murder is a part of it.
As is common with a Thin Man film, the story gets twisted and complex as more and more players filter in, additional murders happen, and Nick reluctantly investigates while Nora insinuates herself into the investigations with less and less resistance from Nick. And there's plenty of drinking.
Shadow of the Thin Man leans the more heavily on the comedy than the last two films, and keeps Nick and Nora closer (acknowledging even in film how it's better when they're together). Also, the return of Levene as Abrams is more than welcome, although the script does make Abrams out to be much lest competent than he seemed last time (a lot of the comedy from Abrams is how he understands what's really going on but then asks Nick to explain it to him). The story, though gets way too convoluted in its plotting and when it reaches its endgame (the usual Thin Man end game, where Nick gets all potential suspects in a room and then figures out the killer on the fly), well, the stakes feel alarmingly low.
I probably shouldn't enjoy the comedy of the Charles' alcohol abuse as much as I do, but it's presented whimsically, without ever a hint of how it's an impediment to their lives, as if it was a magical joy elixir that makes everything better. It makes me miss being able to have a nip, as it seems it should be especially fun to pair up some cocktails and drink along with the film.
[Poster talk... while that kinda looks like Myrna Loy, it's really not doing her any favours.This poster is telling you nothing.]
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With the second of the Final Destination films, the filmmakers (including series creator Jeffrey Reddick) decided to do what so many horror franchises do in their initial sequel: build mythology.
The first film presented the idea that sometimes people get visions, and then they escape death, and maybe help others escape Death. That escape is only temporary and death will come calling again, and there's a "design" to Death's approach. However, there are also signs, that, if you're paying attention, can foretell Death's plan. ("Death" is not an actual character, but the way that Death is talked about in this film, it's as if it is an actual being).
Final Destination 2 both expands on the ideas of the first one, but also breaks the structure in a way that threatens to lessens the entertainment value.
The film opens with college student Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) heading out on a road trip with her pals to Daytona Beach, only to get on the highway and immediately become part of a horrifying sequence of events involving a logging truck. It's an absolutely spectacular and delightful sequence as it introduces us to Cook and her annoying friends who we look forward to watching die, as well as these super-funny quick-hit introduction to all these other drivers on the highway who, likewise, we look forward to watching die because they're all mostly awful. And yeah, they all die real, real quick when the logging truck spills its load and chaos ensues.
Of course it's all Kimberly's vision as she's sitting on the on-ramp, and she freaks out, block the ramp and effectively saves the lives of many of the drivers immediately behind her when the accident triggers shortly thereafter. I'm not sure how Kimberly and only the people she saw die in her vision all wound up at the police station together (I guess they wanted to see if any of them needed crisis counselling?) but they do and they all have varying levels of skepticism over Kimberly's prognostication.
This takes place in the same region as the last movie, and so everyone's familiar with Flight 180. After one of the survivors dies shortly after, Kimberly thinks what happened to the Flight 180 survivors is going to happen to the survivors of the crash. Not only does she think it, she knows it, because she keeps getting difficult-to-interpret visions (rather than the signs that the survivors of the past film would see).
Paired with overprotective Police Officer Thomas Burke (who's too old to have an obvious crush on this teenage college girl, played by one-time Jimmy Olson Michael Landes) they seek out the only remaining survivor of Flight 180, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) who resides on her own volition at a mental health facility, paranoid that death will find her. After more deaths, Clear takes Kimberly and Thomas to see the guy at the mortuary from the last film (Tony Todd) who seems to have special insight on Death. He tells them the only way to interrupt Death's design is to bring new life into the world. The surviving Scooby gang recall a pregnant woman from the highway, and determine that they need to find her and ensure her baby is born in order to break the cycle.
Of course, Death finds them along the way in a series of gleeful and gruesome accidents, until only a few of them are left. But before they're all dead, they all learn that they are all alive anyway thanks to some knock-off effects from the survivors of the first film. So in a way Death is still trying to clean up the mess that happened in the last movie.
For what was a pretty simple premise in the first film, Final Destination 2 tends to overcomplicate things, but that actually works in its favour. The more ridiculous it gets, the more entertaining it is. The first Final Destination was literally life-or-death for its characters. It was a serious movie when a host of unfortunate events happened killing off a crew of very scared teenagers who already lived through a big traumatic incident. Here, it's so evident that the film just wants us to root for the invisible spectre of death to just take everyone out in as elaborate a fashion as possible.
The Rube-Goldberg-ian set-ups here leading to the kills are absolutely delicious, and director/stunt coordinator David R. Ellis revels in the fake out. Each kill presents many different ways that the target may die, whole sets are constructed with danger after danger such that the audience is constantly led astray as to what will actually be the victim's inevitable demise (a guy walks up the stairs only to reach the landing where all kinds of balls, marbles and wheeled toys lay to be stepped on sending him back down the stairs, only he makes it through that death trap completely unscathed. His actual death involves a dozen stages and an absurd level of confluence that makes the kill a comedic set piece rather than a horrific one).
It's really Kimberly's visions, though, that weaken the film. The visions prognosticate the deaths, somewhat with oblique visuals that are intentionally difficult to interpret. The visions threaten to undercut the surprise of the deaths, and yet, the hints of what's to come actually wind up engaging the audience in a guessing game as to how the deaths are going to play out (and the film's defiance of those expectations most of the time is part of the fun). Yet, the visions feel like such a cheat for the film. The "signs" that were foretold by Clear (and also used in the last film) are only presented once here, and "signs" are much more creative and engaging than "visions". Kimberly's reliance upon her visions, and the surety upon which she believes she's interpreted her visions correctly, as well as the other characters so blindly following her visions...well, it makes the characters both dumb and unlikable. Kill them all! Kill them all!
Final Destination 2 really is so stupid, and yet it's exceptionally well-crafted stupidity. It's clear that while maybe not the greatest of attentions were paid to building its characters or writing dialogue, the level of detail work and care put into the deadly scenarios, and the execution of those scenarios are phenomenal. I always liked the first Final Destination, but Final Destination 2 may be one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen.
[Poster talk... there was only one poster for the American release of Final Destination 2, and main part of that poster is presented in the rear-view mirror of the French poster for the film. There was this trend for horror movie posters post-Scream, I think, that put all the young cast's heads on the poster in a slightly stylized way with a slight indication of what was coming for them, all presented in heavy blacks with a monochromatic accent. The horror posters of the late-90s and 2000s were so annoyingly same-y same-y and dull dull dull. FD2 is such a lively movie that largely takes place in the daytime that this grimdark shadowy poster with headlights doesn't represent the film in the slightest.]
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