Crazy Heart
Director: Scott Cooper
Year Released: 2009
Rating: 2.0
Drink-sodden, un-ambitious country singer "Bad Black" (Jeff Bridges) goes from dingy bar to bowling alley to sing the songs that once made him famous and along the way reconnects with a protégé (Colin Farrell) and fumbles his relationship with a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal). It's of note for the fact that it lacks a distinct 'human' antagonist - Bridges' acolyte Farrell is actually a decent guy and eager to help - and more or less boils Bridges' problems down to drinking (and one awkward sequence where he loses Gyllenhaal's boy in a bar). It rambles and demands redemption for its star, but it's never clear why he's earned it. Bridges won an Oscar for this, but I'll pretend it's for The Big Lebowski ("Bad Black" is essentially the Dude but infinitely less humorous).
