Movie Review - Super 8

Coming off of his success re-launching the Star Trek series, J.J. Abrams gives us nostalgia for those early Spielberg classics with his new film Super 8.   And in many ways he pulls it off.   What I think is lacking in many movies these days are films depicting real kids, acting like real kids.  This is what Spielberg perfected in E.T.  It's so refreshing to see kids seen as full realized characters, not just set-pieces to create drama.  For some reason, movies in the 80's were full of movies driven by kids as the main actors, with stories that adults could not only tolerate but really enjoy: E.T, Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Lost Boys, Karate Kid.  Rarely do we see movies involving kids that approach anything worth spending $11 for these days.

But J. J. Abrams takes a play out of Spielberg's playbook here, and puts the story of a mysterious creature running a muck in small-town U.S.A. in the hands of child-actors.  And it pays off big time.  The early scenes when we are meeting the characters and watching this gang of kids make a home movie, is probably the best part of the film for me.  The kids are witty, funny, and emotional, but all with that innocence you can't get with adult characters.  Actually, the kids are so good, it highlights how weak and little developed the few adult characters are.  The adults (the two father-figures) are clearly playing types to set-up the big heartfelt reunion at the end.

But that feel of early Spieberg is for the most part a welcome sight, even if it is pretty heavy-handed in some places - heck, even the setting of late 70's America evokes those films.  And although it was an original score by Michael Giacchino, you would swear John Williams was behind the music.  There are many scenes and shots that are direct homages to E.T.:  the mass of flashlights running through the dark, the mad dash through town by the kids during a climactic scene, and a menacing scene inside a government-run labratory.  But although noticable to any Spielberg fan, I thought all of this hat-tipping rarely took away from the story or the fun of watching a good sci-fi thriller - until the last scene that is.

doing their best E.T. impersonation

Once the screen faded to black, I couldn't help imagine J. J. Abrams struggling with how to the end this film, and after days of getting nowhere he watches the end of E.T. for inspiration.  He thinks, well, it worked in E.T., let's just copy the ending.  Within a couple minutes of the end of the film, all the conflicts in the movie are all neatly wrapped up to set up that perfect E.T. ending, as all the main characters look on with tear-filled embraces and watch the space-ship with the departing alien aboard as he speeds away into the night.  End credits.  And if E.T. was on-board I may have understood the scene repeat, but here's an alien that (yes, deserves sympathy) but just ate half the town!  You can't have an E.T. ending when the heartfelt goodbye is to a mass-murderer.  Plus, the moment of heartbrake as the child symbolically let's go of his missing parent, played out to perfection in E. T., is so deliberately thrown in here for emotional impact as to be laughable.  Did I mention this scene bugged me?

Ok, Ok, despite the ending and the wooden adult characters, the movie was still a lot of fun and a great, family-friendly summer flick.  Enjoy!  3 Stars.

Bernard Herrmann at 100

Check out this great photo essay of one the first masters of film scores.  Bernard Hermann wrote music for a film the way a screenwriter would create drama and intrigue for their characters.  He would write music to suit a character's mood, heighten a scene's tension and turmoil, and bring a bit of the inner phsycology of a character out in the open.  Although par for the course these days, he was the first to work with the filmaker from early shooting through editing, crafting music for the film, and doing all the orchestrations.  He learned his craft in the trenches with Orson Welles, conducting the music for his radio productions in the late thirties.  What he perfected on those radio broadcasts is use of music to transition between scenes and tie dialogue together.  He took those lessons learned from radio and went on to score Citizen Kane, some of Hitchcock's greatests: Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, and many sci-fi classics.  Below is some of his work, including a tribute with a compilation of his scores.

I've thought for a while that there needs to be more symphonies touring and playing film scores.  That would be a fun show!  And if there were scenes of some of those great films playing as a backdrop - even better!

Movie Review - The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

 

32,000 year-old cave paintings, all perfectly preserved as if sketched yesterday, surrounded by bones and footprints of animals long since extinct.  I don't think Werner Herzog could have picked a more awe-inspiring topic for his latest documentary, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  The title refers to the dreams of prehistoric man, and the unknown motivations they had for creating their artwork.  Werner investigates this theme throughout the documentary, all the while interviewing quirky researchers, and devoted caretakers of the Chauvet Cave in Southern France where the paintings are found.

As expected from a Herzog documentary, he intermixes serious philosophical questions with his characteristic off-beat, dry humor, all in his Bavarian accent, which makes everything seem more profound and worldly.  For instance, after talking to an archeologist about ongoing research at the cave, he will talk to a perfumist that puts his keen nose to use by sniffing rocks to try and find new cave systems.  But among the odd interviewees he also finds truly insightful, humble folks that are never short of interesting observations and different perspectives, bringing depth to the story.

But the movie really shines when Herzog remains quiet and lets the paintings do the talking for themselves.  Herzog made a conscious decision to film the paintings so movie-goers would see them as closely as early man would have viewed them.  He uses moving electric lights to mimic flickering torchlight, and in the best use of the technology I have seen, uses 3D to show how the texture of the walls themselves played a critical role in the composition of the paintings.  There are long stretches of the film where the camera pans across the paintings with only aboriginal chanting to accompany the images.  These sequences are worth the price of admission alone.  Herzog allows the viewer to contemplate these ancient sketches in solitude.  It's as if prehistoric man is trying to reach out to us, to share a piece of themselves, those dreams long forgotten.  It's as close to a spiritual experience as you can come in a movie theater.  3.5 stars.

The Hobbit - Behind the Scenes (Part 1)

I must admit that when I heard a few weeks back that Peter Jackson chose to film The Hobbit using 3D for dramatic effect, in order to "give a point of view" I got a pretty bad feeling about these movies.  Did anyone who saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy think, yeah this is good but if only it was shot in 3D... How does adding a third dimension add to the great storytelling of Middle Earth?  I could go on, but I think this recent surge in the third dimension in films will die all by itself life just like all the past incarnations.

So coming in with this skepticism I saw Jackson's first installment of the behind the scenes filming of the Hobbit.  Needless to say, just getting a glimpse of the care and detail that Jackson puts into filming these epic stories reminded me of the miracle he put together to get the trilogy filmed.  So, I will put my skepticism aside and be optimistic that he will do an amazing job just as we have come to expect.  Just hearing the Hobbiton theme song and seeing the sets in this video got my nerd-side excited.

Marwencol - Independent Lens

I was watching tv the other night and stumbled upon this documentary on PBS Independent Lens and it sucked me in.  It told the story of a man finding his way while  recovering from a brutal attack after a night at the bar.  He was targeted by a group of guys just because they overheard he liked to cross-dress.  The attack left him in a coma, and emotionally and physically scarred almost beyond repair.

The story of his recovery would have been interesting in itself, but his choice of self-therapy is what really blew my mind.  To escape the torture of the memories, he buried himself in a make-believe world of his creation.  He created a miniature town in his yard, Marwencal, and filled it with characters from his life.  He dressed up dolls to represent the townspeople and played out imagined story-lines.

But his creation would have gone unknown to everyone but a few people close to him, if not for his photography skills.  It turns out he had an instinctive knack for photography that he would use to capture scenes of his dolls in his imaginary town.  The documentary shows how by chance his photos were seen by a professional photographer, which lead to his very private collection of photos being exposed to the art-world.

At the core of this amazing film is the story of this genuine underdog.  A man with his world torn to shreds, and in the aftermath finds a way to channel his pain and anger into works of art that transcend his private experience and go on to inspire others.  It's a must-see.  You can check out re-runs on PBS.  Below are some of his amazing photos and the trailer for the documentary.  Here's the website for the film.

The Civil War - A film by Ken Burns

I am a huge Ken Burns fan. It's funny, when you watch a Ken Burns documentary, you think yep, this is exactly the way a documentary should be.   But then you realize no one made documentaries quite like this until he came along.  We all know it when we see it, that now-famous Ken Burns style: 1) telling a story from the perspective of a range of characters (from presidents to housekeepers) that we'll follow through the whole unfolding drama, 2) a 3rd person narration throughout the film with voice actors filling in quotations from characters in the story, 3) photographs depicting scenes from the subject matter that are zoomed in on and panned to mimic a moving image and provide better context, and 4) a musical soundtrack with a mix of era-specific tunes and modern-day originals to highlight story events.

Of course, these are the technical details of the Ken Burns style that wouldn't matter much if Ken Burn's story telling skills were not on the same level.   Luckily, Burns is up to the task.  He can take on a topic as focused as Lewis and Clark's expedition or as broad as Baseball or our National Parks, and tie together a compelling narrative that he can hold together for a 10-part, 10-hour miniseries, just as easily as an hour-long episode.

So I had seen just about every Burns documentary, except for his first and maybe his most famous, The Civil War.  Recently I started reading Gore Vidal's book Lincoln and decided I could watch the Civil War documentary sort of simultaneously (recently getting Netflix streaming on my blu-ray player also helped).  So I'm watching it, and it's awesome.  And you might think that 11 hours is a little more time than you'd like to spend watching a documentary.  But I find it's just like the WWII drama Band of Brothers. Once you finish the last episode, 10 hours in, you are easily ready for 10 hours more.

Below is the trailer for the series.  And just because I can... below that is Bob Dylan's video for "Cross the Green Mountain," which is a great song (shortened for the video) from the perspective of a confederate soldier from the soundtrack for the film Gods and Generals.  Dylan loves to play dress-up.

THE CIVIL WAR SERIES: Movie TrailerJason Robards, Ken Burns

The Tree of Life

Just saw the trailer for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, and I must say I'm pretty stoked.  I come into it a little biased since I hold his previous film The Thin Red Line above all others.  Yes, it is my favorite movie, and yes, it even surpasses The Goonies ;) (Although that movie wins the most viewed award for me).  I know for many people, his film The Thin Red Line was a failure.  Maybe what was most unfortunate was that it was released the same year as the hugely popular Saving Private Ryan, and though both films are about WWII, they couldn't be more different.   I guess I could try and explain how The Thin Red Line was much more than a war film, how it was a film about the human experience that used WWII as a backdrop to try and explain the underlying truths of  human nature.  But in reality my description would come up short because Terrence Malick is the only one that really could describe his vision.  And even then, the movie can mean something very specific to Malick, yet say something completely different to a viewer.

But regardless of what the movie was supposed to be saying, it has always spoken to me. The singing of the aboriginal peoples, the score of Hans Zimmer, the cadence of the nature images, and the raw emotion from the characters have all worked for me at a level so much deeper than any other film I have ever watched. Ebert describes this sort of feeling we can experience while watching a film as "Elevation."  He writes about it here.  He explains that for years when people asked him "how do you know a movie is great?"  He always replied "I feel a tingling in my spine.  People look at me blankly.  I explain that I feel an actual physical sensation that does not depend on the abstract quality of the movie, but on--well, my visceral feelings."  That's exactly right. The movies I hold higher than all others, are the ones that literally make my spine tingle.  And The Thin Red Line does this for me more than any other.  Ebert goes on to say "I have observed before that we live in a box of space and time, and movies can open a window in the box. One human life, closely observed, is everyone's life.  In the particular is the universal.  Empathy is the feeling that most makes us human.  Elevation may be the emotion caused when we see people giving themselves up, if only for a moment, to caring about others."

Just think about the movies that have really stuck with you.  I bet those films have brought you "elevation" moments.  For me, how about when Elliot hugs E.T. at the end, or in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, when Steve Martin brings John Candy home with him, or in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when (after both having their memories erased) the couple meet each other a second time and can't help but fall in love again.  Everyone has their own favorites.

So, my expectations are high for The Tree of Life.  Maybe too high...we'll see.

Movie Review - Rango

Think Pixar on an acid trip and you get Rango.  Rango may be in the category of "kids" movie but really it's just a great adventure/comedy that will appeal to everybody.  I haven't had that much fun in the theater since The Hangover.  Rango (Johnny Depp) is a fish...or ahem...lizard out of water that is thrown out of his aquarium home (quite literally) and left to fend for himself in the wild west.  Rango is not your average underdog hero, he is a quirky self-proclaimed thespian that is lonlier than he knows - since he is too busy living in his head to notice.

I guess it's a typical "kids" movie plot where an unexpected downtrodden character finds adventure everywhere he turns, and ultimately finds friendship and love along the way.  But unlike your average kids movie the laughs are bigger.  Kinda like Shrek they really push the adult humor - just out of reach of a child's comprehension.  Plus, the characters are fully-formed and not just your stereotypical plot fillers, which makes this much more engaging than you'd expect.

The whole movie takes on a sort of surreal look, starting off with the wierd-featured Rango, and all the supporting cast of misfit animals.  Plus, there are some really trippy moments when Rango is wandering through the desert, hallucinating, and asking that age-old question "who am I."  Does the "man with no-name" have the answer?  You'll have to watch and see.  4 stars.

Best Movies of 2010

Below are my movie rankings for 2010.  Yes, I am a nerd, and I have been doing this since 2007.  I know there are a few movies I still want to see but it seems clear this wasn't one of the best movie years.  Since 2007, this year was tied with 2008 with the fewest 4 star movies (6) and had the fewest 3.5-4 star movies (13).

For me, there were 6 great movies this year.  Only one is somewhat of a surprise, You Don't Know Jack, which was a movie on HBO depicting the life of Jack Kevorkian.  Al Pacino was amazing to watch.  He transforms into Dr. Kevorkian, and fully immerses himself into the role  The movie shed's light on the life of a man who has mostly been written off as a villian in this country, or laughed off as a joke.  No-one wants to talk about death, and for a longtime Dr. Kevorkian has been one of the few fighting for the rights of the dying.  Living in this country has afforded all of us an innumerable number of basic rights, but the fundamental right of choosing how we leave this world is out of our hands.  Great movie, great message.

The rest of the best are expected, and are all nominated for a best picture Oscar.  I've posted quite a bit on True Grit and still think it's the best, though I think an argument could be easily made for The Social Network.  Should be interesting to see what the Academy says!

My ranking of the best movies of the year (4 stars):

1. True Grit

2. The Social Network

3. The Fighter

4. You Don’t Know Jack (HBO)

5. The King’s Speech

6. Toy Story 3

Really good movies (3.5 stars):  Easy A, Inception, Shutter Island, Ghost Writer, Get Him to the Greek, The Other Guys, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1

Good movies (3 stars):  The American, Date Night, Dinner with the Schmucks, Paranormal Activity 2, Let Me in, Tron: The Legacy, Hot Tub Time Machine

Movies I wouldn't recommend (0-2.5 stars): Death at a Funeral

Still want to see:  Shrek The Final Chapter, The Town, Buried, Hereafter, Nowhere Boy, Morning Glory, I love You Phillip Morris

Movie Review - The American

The American is a good-looking thriller about a lonely American hitman who's searching for love.  Edward (George Clooney) just shot and killed his last girlfriend after suspecting she set up the ambush that awaited him at their Swedish retreat.  And being the old pro that he is we are left to wonder how many other girlfriends he's had to off in the past.  One thing this movie makes clear is that he is a master hitman and gunsmith that goes about his work with exacting precision.  His new job is to lay low in a beautiful Italian city and put together a hitman bag of goodies for a fellow assasin.  While there, he befriends a local priest and has some conversations about morality.   He also finds love in an Italian prostitute, Clara, but as you could imagine he finds himself hesitant to trust her.

The film is shot in a very quiet, introspective style, with long stretches of scenes with little to no dialogue.  This solitide works well to personify the loneliness in this hitman's life.  He clearly is a man that is desperate for some human contact other than screwing and killing.  But besides the loneliness, we don't get a lot of character development.  By just giving us the very surface of Clooney's character, and barely introducing us to his love interest, this film misses the emotional impact it could have had.  But in the end, lots of sexy women and scenery, and some compelling espionage makes for a fun movie.  3 stars.

Movie Review - The Fighter

If I told you this movie featured a montage of boxing bouts showing an old, washed-up fighter making a comeback while "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith is playing in the background, would you think this was a movie nominated for 6 Academy Awards?  Although this movie has all the boxing movie cliches you come to expect (including a second montage with the boxer racing his trainer down the street while obligatory classic rock music plays in the background), the great acting all around and gritty in-your-face feel of the movie sets this sports movie apart from the rest.

The movie depicts the life of a 31 year-old Lowell, Massachusetts boxer, Micky (Mark Wahlberg), as he vies for his last real shot at boxing glory while struggling to overcome the clutches of an opressive family.  His brother Dicky (Christian Bale) was Micky's childhood hero and taught him the game.  Dicky is known as the Pride of Lowell for having knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in a fight 14 years ago, but now is known more for his addiction to crack and many stints in jail.  The movie centers around Micky's fight to find his own voice amongst his drugged-out brother, over-powering, controlling mother (Mellisa Leo), and a whole gaggle of sisters that seem to have nothing better to do than cling to his every punch in the ring and obsess about his life.  And when Micky finds a new girlfriend (Amy Adams) that is helping him find his own path in life, one that doesn't require his family, the shit hits the fan, culminating with his girlfriend slamming one of his sister's heads into the ground.

The core of the movie is Micky's struggle to distance himself from the brother that has taught him everything he knows, but who's self-destructive life style is ruining Mickie's last shot at a title fight.  A fortunate stint in jail for Dicky gives Micky the opportunity to find his own inner strength and regain his confidence.  And when he finally let's Dicky back in his life, it's on his own terms.

The movie is shot in a very gritty, documentary style, which works great for this lower middle class neighborhood full of raw characters that make no excuses for themselves.  The number of  close-ups in the movie makes for an almost claustrophobic experience, but really works to bring you into the lives of these people (whether you like it or not).  And enough can't be said about the great acting in every role in this film.  Christian Bale is definitely the stand-out here, with the most physically and emotionally demanding role.  But not to be outdone was Mellisa Leo as the Mother.  As the leader of her daughter minions she was pitch-perfect.  And speaking of those sisters, they bring all the humor into the film.  Just watching their intense, desperate lives, with those early 90's clothes and hairstyles is about the funniest thing I've seen in the theater in a long time.

 

Movie Review - The King's Speech

You might think that a story about royalty would leave little for us commoners to relate to.  But this King of England has an impediment that I think all of us have experienced, and I don't mean a stutter.  The core of his suffering is insecurity, being uncomfortable in his own skin.  Although an heir to the throne of England, a man with title and every privilege, he lacked all belief in himself.  For King George VI, this hidden lifelong fear is made painfully public every time he tries to speak.  We later learn that his stuttering started in childhood with the abuse of a nanny, and then solidified with the early death of a sibling and constant teasing by his surviving brother. 

What gives this movie it's core is the unlikely friendship that slowly develops between the would-be king (Colin Firth) and his speech therapist Lionel (Geoffrey Rush).  It's great watching these two actors play off one another, with Colin playing the troubled, pathetic noble and Geoffrey perfect as the eccentric self-made therapist.  We later learn that the king had no friends until meeting Lionel, and with his personality you have to wonder if he ever would have found friendship if this patient, humble man didn't enter his life.  Surely every other doctor he would have seen would have let their pride get in the way to become "the man that cured the King of England."

For a movie primarily about a man's speech impediment and his striving to overcome it, it's surprisingly engaging.  You see the everyman in the King and can't help but root for him as an underdog, which is not something you expect from a man of privilege.  When leaving the theater, the one "miss" that  I saw for the film was how it used the backdrop of the impending second world war.  I thought the grim reality of what another global war would mean to the King's country was only used as a plot device to set up his big speech.  But now I think that maybe the insulation the movie exhibits from the events of the "real world" is an accurate depiction of the life of a royal, especially in modern times.  At the end of the film, when the King has his triumphant speech announcing his Empire's entrance into WWII, you realize how a King's moment of personal victory, can quickly be humbled by the dire events of the day.    

Ebert Presents: At the Movies

Roger Ebert debuted his long-awaitied return to TV, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, this past weekend on PBS.  It's been 36 years since Roger, along with his co-host Gene Siskel started their weekly hour-long movie review show, originally called Sneak Previews.  This new show largely has Mr. Ebert working behind the scenes as producer.  Throat and salivary cancer has robbed his voice but you can't stop this man's ambition.  He will have a short segment at the end of each show, where he will review a new film.  The first episode had director Werner Herzog narrate Roger's review which was pretty cool to hear.  It would be awesome if he talked for Roger every week!

So with this new show, Roger's left the bulk of the movie reviewing to movie critics Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com.  The first thing you'll notice is how young the Russian-born Ignatiy is (24).  During the first show, the two hosts didn't really seem to have much chemistry,  but we'll see how that develops once they get into a groove.  Interestingly, Christy gave a "thumbs down" to all 5 films they reviewed, while Ignatiy gave a "thumbs up" to each of them.  It's just one show, but to me it did seem like Ignatiy was way too forgiving when it came to a lot of the movies' flaws.  But, maybe the contrast will keep things interesting.

Being a huge Orson Welles fan, it was cool to see all the Wellesian references throughout the first show.  They reviewed the great, classic noir film, The Third Man, probably Welles most famous acting role.  Plus, they introduced the critics in the style of Welles famous trailer for Citizen Kane.  Then they finished off the show with Ebert's face replacing Welle's famous entrance in The Third Man.  Not to mention using Anton Karas' Third Man theme as the theme for the show!  The vain Welles would have been sick with pride.

The One-Eyed Man Is King - New York Times article

Although I already thought True Grit was the best 2010 movie I've seen so far, I just assumed that the more relevant and timely, and most buzzed-about film, The Social Network, would be a shoe-in for the prize of best picture at the Academy Awards.  However, since this morning's announcement that True Grit garnered the second most nominations (10), 2 ahead of the Social Network, Mr. Ebert now believes that True Grit is the front-runner to win Best Picture.

On that note, I saw this interesting article written by op-ed columnist Frank Rich in the New York Times.  He argues that contrary to what you would expect, True Grit provides the view of America that audiences seem to prefer.  Unlike the setting of unaccountability, greed, and selfishness presented in The Social Network's realistic depiction of the 21st century, True Grit offers up a morality tale from the mythical wild west: a place where loyalty and honor are still tangible things.  Until I read this article I didn't realize that these were exactly the reasons I had so much more fun during True Grit than The Social Network.  Should be interesting to see who get's the grand prize!

Snubbed Comedies of 2010

After watching the Golden Globes last night it was really hard not to think there was some vote rigging when it came to the nominees for the best musical or comedy.  The two suspect nominees were The Tourist and Burlesque, which both were given 2/4 stars by Ebert and received 20% and 37% positive reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.  Maybe if one sneaked through no-one would suspect anything, but both?  The worst thing is that there were some pretty damn good comedies that got screwed out of the nomination. 

The number one film screwed over was Easy A.  I just saw this one the other day and really liked it.  Emma Stone was  perfect as the non-adulterous adulterous, and very deservingly nominated for best actress last night - they got something right at least.  It's a really funny high school comedy that's a sort of loose re-telling of The Scarlett Letter - kinda like How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days' retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. 

Two other screwed over movies were Get Him to The Greek, an over-the-top Russell Brand/Jonah Hill unlikely buddy comedy, and Dinner For Schmucks, a really good Straight Man/Funny Idiot routine played by Paul Rudd and Steve Carell.

Jeff Bridges on American Masters

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners."

Last night's show of American Masters on PBS featured The Dude, Jeff Bridges.  And until watching this I didn't know that he really was The Dude.  Not that he is a drugged-out ex-hippy, that was just a role he played.  But watching the documentary you see the way he carries himself, having a very Dude-like quality of letting life come his way, instead of trying to take control all the time.  And you see his Dude-ness in all the unorthodox movie roles he's chosen over his career, always looking for new acting challenges and new experiences.  Over the years he has also become an accomplished musician, photographer, and artist.

Zodiac

Ever since watching David Fincher's recent great movie Social Network I wanted to re-watch his 2007 film Zodiac.  I did and it's better than I remember it.  Great characters, better acting, and a great crime drama setting of 1970's San Francisco.  Pretty amazing how Fincher can create tension and drama out of what would normally be pretty mundane scenes.  And that basement scene is about as spine-tingling as you will see.

Movie Review - True Grit

Like pretty much everyone else I had pretty high hopes for this movie and it did not disappoint.  I really liked the Coen Brothers last three films: No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man.  But they all sort of left me with a sour taste in my mouth.  I think it's because they all seemed to be commenting on the randomness and entropy of life, with characters that are for the most part all out for themselves and stumble upon some crazy shit everywhere.  Even though that is fun to watch, for me it limits how engaged I feel with the characters and ultimately how much I enjoy the movie.   So it was pretty refreshing to see the Coens make a movie that had some clear direction and had characters that believed in something other than themselves.  

As usual for a Coen brothers movie it looked amazing.  The bleak setting of the wild west never looked better.  My favorite scene was when U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and his current employer, 14-year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), are wating to spring a trap on a gang of outlaws, one of which is believed to be Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man that murdered Mattie's dad.  First off, it is a beautiful scene with our heroes perched up-high in a moonlit canyon where down below sits a one-room shack with flickering light leaking through it's cracks and smoke rising from it's Chimney.  The tension is high because up until this point the audience and the characters have only heard about the outlaw Cheney and the gang he rides with and don't know what to expect.  Without describing it to death, it ends with the surprise entrance of good-guy Texas ranger Lebouf (Matt Damon), followed closely by the gang of outlaws.  Great climax to a perfectly set-up scene.

But as amazing as Bridges is in the role of the grizzled, run-down Marshall, and solid acting from Damon and Brolin, the 14-year old newcomer is by far the standout.  From the first scene she is perfectly believable in that role, and commands your attention the whole movie.  That was pretty damn risky for the Coens to have an unknown kid lead this movie, but boy did it pay off.

Great movie, and so far I think this edges out The Social Network for best movie of 2010.  But how the hell do you compare the Social Network with True Grit?  For me, True Grit was more fun, so it wins first prize (so far anyway).