4 Razors

True Grit (2010)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: True Grit
  • IMDB: link

More than four decades ago John Wayne won an Academy Award for his performance in True Grit as the drunken U.S. Marshall hired by a young woman to track down the man responsible for killing her father. It would be the first, and only, time the actor would take home an Oscar.

Deciding to remake the film, the Coen brothers went back to the original novel by Charles Portis to give us their reinterpretation of the story. The result is the brothers most mainstream film to date: a traditional western filled with strong performances and splashes of the filmmakers’ trademark wit.

The film begins and ends with the narration (provided by Elizabeth Marvel, who plays the character in later scenes) of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who at the age of 14 travels to collect the body of her recently deceased father and hire a bounty hunter to track down his murderer (Josh Brolin).

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Black Swan

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Black Swan
  • IMDB: link

Darren Aronofsky is a weird dude. Talented, but weird. The latest from the director who has given us The Fountain, Pi, and Reqiuem for a Dream is a journey into madness. Black Swan, his companion piece to The Wrestler, examines the the insular world of ballet through the tormented mind of a rising star.

Nina (Natalie Portman), a sheltered but talented ballet dancer, is on the cusp of stardom after being chosen by a demanding director (Vincent Cassel) for the lead role in his new interpretation of Swan Lake. The pressure of the role added to the smothering affection of an over-attentive mother (Barbara Hershey), and the arrival of a talented new dancer (Mila Kunis) begin to fracture Nina’s world as she starts to have experiences that cannot be rationally explained. These include, but are not limited to, hallucinations of strange bird-like creatures, seeing herself on the street, a growing paranoia, and an odd rash on her back as well as fingers which bleed without cause. No one else notices what is happening to her.

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Castle – Last Call

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Castle – Last Call
  • tv.com: link

I do love this show. “Last Call” involves a 135 year-old bottle of scotch, a rustic tavern, and murder. This isn’t the best episode of the show (oh, it is a darn fine one!), but it does have a little of everything that makes Castle work including some great moments for its two stars to shine such as this scene between Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion) before questioning a murder suspect.

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127 Hours

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 127 Hours
  • IMDB: link

There are certain movies that become impossible to separate from your specific movie-going experience. 127 Hours is such a movie for me.

I had heard the advance hype on Danny Boyle’s dramatic and joyous 127 Hours from the festival circuit: People are passing out in the theater because one particular scene in the movie is so intense.

Without giving too much away, the film is based on the true story of college student Aron Ralston (played by James Franco), who found his right arm trapped under a boulder on a solo mountaineering weekend in a remote Utah canyon. The infamous scene occurs towards the end of the film.

Through a combination of sound effects and music (along with the added dread of knowing what was coming for the 80 minutes leading up to the scene), Boyle created a sequence that had me raising one hand in front of my face. There is certainly a bit of a gory element to it, but that is unavoidable—and I humbly submit that it’s not the gore that is so affecting.

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The Spirit #8

/ / Comics

It begins when the Spirit catches sight of Ophelia Ottoman at the funeral of her husband, gangster Jimmy Bauhaus. Concern for the attractive widow, and a nagging suspicion that everything isn’t quite as it seems, lead the hero to shadow Ophelia and try to uncover the secret she’s hiding.

After she kills the son of one of the other crime families tensions immediately rise and our gallant hero steps in, only to discover that the death of the accused rapist and the apparent death of Jimmy might not be what they seem.

Aside from the cover (ugh, can we get rid of these “First Wave” bars at the top and bottom, please!), there’s much to enjoy here. David Hine has gotten better over the series and here seems to have gotten the tone and humor of the character just right, and the art by Moritat proves to be seductive, humorous (I love the Sprit’s smirk!), and a little bit naughty. The comic also includes another b&w Spirit adventure by Walt Simonson. Worth a look.

[DC $3.99]

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