Movie Watch: Crazy Heart

Last Saturday, I watched Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall and directed by Scott Cooper and I found it to be absolutely fantastic.

Jeff Bridges was nominated and did win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in this movie and it was completely well-deserved. He turned in an unbelievable performance as Bad Blake, a down and out country singer who seems perpetually drunk, perpetually jaded and perpetually hard-assed.

But despite all that, you can see him as a real person. If you didn't know Jeff Bridges and if you didn't know that this was a movie, you would think that you would be watching a brief snippet of the life of some real country singer. Jeff Bridges was that good. He makes people forget that he is an actor playing a role. He becomes his role and owns it completely.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall were also great as the girl Bad Blake falls in love with on his one-man tour and as the best friend that stays with him throughout all his ups and downs. Colin Farrell was less so because... well he's Colin Farrell, playing a country music star, words that don't seem to fit well in a sentence at all. But it was refreshing to see the protege not stabbing his mentor in the back like in every other movie. Tommy Sweet, Farrell's character, seemed genuinely grateful for the start that Bad Blake gave him years before.

There are a lot of things that are unsaid and unseen in this movie, but they aren't really necessary. We can somehow see it in the way that Bad Blake moves, the way he talks and acts. The history is in the atmosphere of the film, and even without it being explicit, there is a kind of understanding that takes place between the viewer and the film. At least for me, there was.

That being said, Crazy Heart is a movie that is propped up by the strength of its actors, or in this case, actor. And while that might be said of a lot of movies, this is one of those times where if you change the actor, the film just doesn't work.

So congratulations to Jeff Bridges, you deserve it, and then some. Fifth time's the charm right?

Book Review: The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory by David Plouffe

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Audacity-Win-Lessons-Historic-Victory/dp/0670021334

As I first read this book, it started off pretty well as I was having dinner by myself at an awful restaurant. I was engrossed by the tale weaved by David Plouffe during the historic 2008 election where Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.

The content was pretty good, some of it I, and probably most people who followed the race closely, already knew from reading articles online, watching cable and local news shows (although mine consisted mostly of cable because I lived in another country) and acquiring other forms of information, directly from the then-nominee as well as the media punditocracy in the U.S.

There were, however, plenty of insight and although one must always take a grain of salt when reading the version of the "winners'" history, all in all, I thought it was mostly a truthful and refreshing take on the election from an insider's point of view.

Some highlights include:

• How a campaign stuck to its guns despite the overwhelming clamor for them to change their strategy and tactics.
• How the campaign placed a whole lot of trust on people; knowing if that they failed to deliver they wouldn't even have made it past Iowa.
• How despite the errors they made along the way, they dealt with it in a calm manner.
• Most impressive of all, was how the candidate stayed focus, trusted his advisers and the people on the ground and was always calm, rational and made good decisions along the way.

These points all illuminated for me that the choice for the Presidency in 2008 was not mistaken, and that despite all the haranguing about Obama right now, I think that the U.S. is in a far better place than it would have been had a different outcome occurred in November of 2008.

To inject a little bit of context in terms of the local situation, some terms of contrast can be made:

• Point: The 2010 elections are about change similar to the 2008 elections.
• Contrast: There is no change candidate in our country.

• Point: The 2010 elections offer an opportunity for greater participation due to the large hunger for said change that can be capitalized by candidates, similar to 2008 where Obama's campaign broadened the electorate both in the primaries and the general elections.

• Contrast: It is likely that turnout will have little to modest growth, but not in the way 2008 inspired young people, who carried Obama to victory in terms of both votes and effort, will have here in the Philippines.

• Point: Digital media has transformed the way campaigns are run.

• Contrast: This country is still very weak in terms of internet connectivity, having only at best 25% broadband penetration. Plenty are still in the dark about this game and world-changing technology.

I am sure there are other points and contrasts to be made, but is best to leave it for another time. My time reading this book was further made enjoyable by allowing me to compare how the 2008 U.S. elections fared compared to how the 2010 Philippine elections will fare. I'll be posting my thoughts in this matter at a later date.

Recommendation: Read it Now!