A young girl hires
a U.S. Marshall to catch the man who killed her father.
There are only two (technically three) directors that I believe this next statement is true about: You really need to see their movies twice to appreciate them. Those directors are Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen brothers. For everyone else, that tends to be a cop out. I don't even feel great saying it about them. Saying you need to see something twice is just another form of "You just didn't get it", which is one of the most maddening arguments that people make. Normally, when someone says that as a defense, the issue isn't that I didn't get it. I got it. I just didn't like it. Which is fine, people can disagree. We all have soft/blind spots and pet peeves.
With PTA and the
Coens, their intent isn't normally apparent right away. PTA's Phantom Thread
is a comedy at heart, but unless you know that going in, you can spend a long
time figuring that out. I hated the end of There Will Be Blood the first
time I saw it to the point that it dominated my response to the movie overall.
It took a second viewing to really appreciate the acting and gorgeous
cinematography without getting distracted by the direction the story went in.
With the Coens, the trouble I run into is that I genuinely don't know where
they are going with a movie until the very end. Even when I know it's a Job
story (A Serious Man) or an Odyssey (O, Brother Where Art Thou?),
I'm not ready for the beats.
This isn't to say
I can't like a Coen brothers movie with one viewing. Inside Llewyn Davis
became my favorite of their movies by the end credits scroll in the theater. It
doesn't take much to be charmed by The Big Lebowski right away. I don't
appreciate what they are doing until at least the second time though. And I
like that. Their movies are worth that second viewing.
I've seen True Grit
before. It was only 7 years ago, maybe less. By all means, I should've had a
much better memory of that movie than I did. So, my recent second viewing of it
got to be both new and familiar. Time has only been kind to that film. I'm
starting to really love Westerns, which wasn't true even two years ago. I'm
especially fond of the more modern entries in the genre to see how they come to
terms with the unsavory elements that the older movies ignored. Josh Brolin
keeps getting better. Matt Damon is more established. It no longer feels like
his "trying out" as a Hollywood elite. Hailee Steinfeld has proven
with movies like The Edge of Seventeen
in particular, that her work in True Grit was more of a discovery than a
fluke. It also has my newly-named favorite actor Domhnall Gleeson
in a small role. Perhaps the only downside since the movie is that Jeff
Bridges hasn't lost the marble-mouth that he picked up for this (See: RIPD,
Hell or High Water,
Kingsman: The Golden Circle).
I liked this movie
a hell of a lot more the second time around. I forgot how damn good Haillee
Steinfeild is. She absolutely deserved that Oscar nomination she got, and my
hypothetical vote is going to her over Melissa Leo (who is very good as well in
The Fighter). If anything, Steinfeld should've lost to Natalie Portman
as a lead actress that year. The bickering between Rooster Cogburn (Jeff
Bridges) and LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is something I could watch for hours. Roger
Deakins knows how to shoot the Wild West. Between this and The Assassination ofJesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,
I don't want to see anyone else shoot that era. True Grit is a great
reminder that even middle tier Coen brothers is better than just about anything
else you'll find.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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