Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 24 September

Crazy Heart (Cooper, 2009)

Jeff Bridges is back on TV in the second sea­son of his spy thrill­er The Old Man. We enjoyed the first sea­son and I wasn’t expect­ing anoth­er so it’s a pleas­ant sur­prise to see the algorithm sug­gest it to me.

We are a bit backed-up for TV, though, so it might be a few weeks before we get to it.

While I’m think­ing of Bridges (and Disney+), I thought I would check in on my March 2010 review of his Oscar-winning per­form­ance in Crazy Heart:

Performance of the year so far is the great Jeff Bridges as coun­try sing­er Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. Bridges has always been a won­der­ful screen pres­ence but his recent per­form­ances have some­times seemed a little like tread­ing water (for every Big Lebowski there seems to be a Stick It) but this turn as an age­ing hero on a lost high­way may well be his finest ever. Blake was one of the legendary singer/songwriters of the Outlaw era and Bridges gives him the stage pres­ence of Waylon Jennings, the singing voice of Guy Clark (he does his own singing and play­ing I should emphas­ise) and the drink­ing habits of Townes Van Zandt.

For all the great­ness on dis­play from Bridges, Crazy Heart itself is a bit of a let-down. The cent­ral rela­tion­ship with beau­ti­ful single mom Maggie Gyllenahaal doesn’t work for a nano­second and the happy end­ing comes too easy – it’s as unearned as Blake’s own redemption.

So, not a whole­hearted recom­mend­a­tion today but I should point out that Gyllenhaal also won an Oscar for this film and that the soundtrack was steered by the great T‑Bone Burnett and fea­tures per­form­ances from Bridges, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell.

Also reviewed in that Capital Times column: Scorsese’s great Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Campion’s beau­ti­ful Bright Star, Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker in the “dire” Did You Hear About the Morgans?, a “little gem” of an Algerian com­edy called Masquerades and a 3‑D double fea­ture of Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

Thanks to every­one who respon­ded to the offer of a 50% dis­count on a paid sub­scrip­tion yes­ter­day. It’s very grat­i­fy­ing. That deal is on until the end of September so if you’re wavering …

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Where to watch Crazy Heart

Aotearoa, Australia, Canada, Ireland & United Kingdom: Streaming on Disney+

USA: Digital rental