Monday, January 10, 2011
ALMOST AS MUCH OF A SHOCKER AS "SECRET DWARF HOOKER:" Based on box office returns and this blog's demographics, seems safe to assume that pretty much none of us saw Country Strong over the weekend. Heck, even though it got a 1,400 nationwide screen release, it had only 4 prints in Manhattan. (Contrast Black Swan, which has a similar screen count, but 7 locations and at least 10 prints in Manhattan.) But Vulture's spoiler of the film's ending (it's not even close to what I would have guessed) makes it sound like it does something a little unpredictable, particularly for a vehicle that's being pitched as a dark horse Oscar candidate for Paltrow.
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I saw this, and it was as horrible as it sounds. Not just horrible as a plot, but even from some movie-making basics: basic storytelling, introductions to characters, or even interesting camera shots/framing (you make a movie about stars performing in front of sold-out stadiums and you don't feature one shot of the stadium-sized crowd??).
ReplyDeleteOne of the more interesting aspects of the movie was watching Tim McGraw try to act sad, or frustrated, or worried, using only two facial expressions - either a goofy grin or a too-large frown where you suck your cheeks in. You can also tell his character is a bigshot music mogul because they dress him in a blazer in every. single. scene his character is in.
Can you tell I was dragged to this by my significant other?
I always thought that cornbread and iced tea took the place of pills and 90 proof.
ReplyDeleteThat's it. Gwyneth Paltrow is dead to me.
ReplyDeletei'm just impressed that you got indirectly mocked by Adam Baldwin on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteDid they put her head in a box again?
ReplyDeleteThat's also how Lefty Frizzell died.
ReplyDeleteVideogum has some thoughts, too: http://videogum.com/261582/the-videogum-movie-club-country-strong/franchises/the-videogum-movie-club/
ReplyDeleteI am sooo seeing this movie this weekend, and I may actually like it as Ebert gave it 2.5 stars saying it was a really good pic for 1958. Just what I want from it.
ReplyDeleteBut wooo boy on that spoiler (although I prefer it to the ending where people get magically over addiction because they are adored by fans).
So it doesn't even have a good of a twist ending as Orphan? Booooooo!
ReplyDelete<p>I would love to see Gwyneth as a Secret Dwarf Hooker...
ReplyDelete</p><p>
</p><p>I saw the film on Saturday and was totally shocked by the ending - it comes out of NOWHERE! You of course assume it's the triumphant comeback story ending and that Gwynnie and Tim (or, as she probably called him during the shoot, Timothy) reconcile and yay everyone wins. Instead, you get this totally depressing message that women cannot possibly hope to have both career success and love and they are totally idiots to think otherwise (as evinced by Leighton throwing away the opportunity to seize the country star crown and instead going to hang out in a bar with her boyfriend).
The movie itself is incredibly uneven - I liked the songs, though - Garrett Hedlund can SING, and Leighton Meester acquits herself nicely as well.</p>
This review is 100% correct and absolutely cracked me up - thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed he's not a Baldwin brother, though.<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was, like,"the Maryland basketball coach"? And then I googled.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair though I don't think the "love and fame" thing in the movie was
ReplyDeletemeant for just women. Beau abandoned fame for love too.
On Jan 10, 2011, at 4:47 PM, Echo <
js-kit-m2c-LNM992THVUJT5F9K031JBJF6IRQSNEHVDVC9GAND1JR3OI7QAJAG@reply.js-kit.com>
wrote:
New item from *bella wilfer* on A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes
Ago<http:>
I would love to see Gwyneth as a Secret Dwarf Hooker...
I saw the film on Saturday and was totally shocked by the ending - it comes
out of NOWHERE! You of course assume it's the triumphant comeback story
ending and that Gwynnie and Tim (or, as she probably called him during the
shoot, Timothy) reconcile and yay everyone wins. Instead, you get this
totally depressing message that women cannot possibly hope to have both
career success and love and they are totally idiots to think otherwise (as
evinced by Leighton throwing away the opportunity to seize the country star
crown and instead going to hang out in a bar with her boyfriend).
The movie itself is incredibly uneven - I liked the songs, though - Garrett
Hedlund can SING, and Leighton Meester acquits herself nicely as well.
To respond to this item, you may simply reply to this email or visit the
page<http:>.
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Beau didn't seem to ever WANT fame, though. He was the "I'll go back to playing at the bars tomorrow" guy the entire time, whereas both Gwyneth and Leighton's characters wanted both.
ReplyDelete(By the by, I did appreciate the headline; I just needed to link to that wonderful Gawker story about it.)
ReplyDeleteHim, too.
ReplyDelete"Country Weak," indeed. What a stinker!
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeleteThis should explain. (And to be fair, a while back, Baldwin immediately deleted a tweet he'd posted linking to a 9/11 Truther website when I pointed that out, and thanked me for it via an @.)
ReplyDeleteI might see this movie just for the ending.#iloathegwyneth
ReplyDelete