Movies!

I had an afternoon alone yesterday and two Netflix movies to watch.

This was the first movie I put in the player. Precious is a film about a 16 year old girl in Harlem, NY. She is horribly abused by her mother, raped and pregnant by her father, and illerate. She's pregnant for the second time, removed from public school and then sent to an alternative school. She has some rather vivid fantasies about who she wants to be or who she could be. Precious leads a very sad life, an oppressive life.

I couldn't watch this film; I turned it off after about 20 minutes. I know it won Oscars; many movies that I have not enjoyed have also. I took the disc out after this girl stole a bucket of chicken. There was nothing enjoyable about that 20 minutes, I don't care how well the parts were acted. (2 stars)


After removing the first disc, I put Crazy Heart in. This story follows Bad Blake, an alcoholic, washed up country music singer. Bad Blake is not a great guy. He's self-absorbed and mostly bitter -- the man he mentored and taught has an amazingly prosperous career, leaving Bad in the dust. Bad is playing bars and bowling alleys in small towns. While in Santa Fe he meets Jane, a newspaper music writer. Jane has a four year-old son and a past she doesn't want to repeat. She falls in love with Bad knowning she shouldn't.

Cue the music. This movie wasn't bad, just predictable. You knew what was going to happen before the characters did. Jeff Bridges was very good as an alcoholic has-been, and Robert Duvall was wonderful, as always. (3.5 stars)

Have you seen either film? What did you think?