True Grit

Rated 5.0

The Coen brothers have done it again, this time taking over the Western genre with this stunning remake of the John Wayne classic. The film is actually quite faithful to the dialogue of the original, but Jeff Bridges is a far more realistic and scary Rooster Cogburn than Wayne was, with 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld claiming the role of Mattie Ross as her own. Rooster and Mattie set out to find her father’s killer (played hilariously by Josh Brolin) with the big-mouthed Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon, also getting laughs) tagging along. Watching Steinfeld’s Mattie outsmart the adults around her never gets old. Shot beautifully by Roger Deakins, with a terrific score by Carter Burwell, the movie is easily one of 2010’s best, and another masterpiece from one of cinema’s all time consistent movie-making teams.