True Grit and Tangled

These films should actually never be side-by-side. Or SHOULD THEY? Let's look at the FREAKISH SIMILARITIES:

Both are remakes of classic stories (True Grit is an old school Western, Tangled is based on the Rapunzel fairy tale), spun with contemporary sensibilities (Coen brothers their signature hilarious quick-paced dialogue, meanwhile Rapunzel looks like Blake Lively), featuring precocious adolescent girls with long hair, danger, hijinks, outlaws, restoring order to the family unit (Daughter avenging her father's untimely death, Daughter returning to be with her Father and Mother). At the end of each film, precocious adolescent girls have some limb or hair follicle severed in a surprising manner. Walk off into some wide-angled sunset. Or some other stark lighting choice.

Overall, I would say True Grit is the superior film. It's just sort of charming and straight-forward, in the efficient Western kind of way, where there is one central conflict and it's clear that once that has been solved, the film will conclude. However, that does limit the Coens a little, known for their sort of off-beat tangents where random characters appear to sort of sidetrack the protagonists (see: Fargo, No Country, O Brother). That being said, they do weasel in some of their quirky charm in the form of amusing banter, unusual for a Western (where characters usually speak in bruting one-word sentences a la Clint Eastwood). Much appreciated. My only complaint is the epilogue, which doesn't add, or really even coalesce with the rest of the film, either thematically or structurally. I could go on a little bit of a rant about this, but I'd rather end my movie monologuing on a positive, which is this is a fine film which will fare well during the upcoming season.

Namaste!

And on a coffee-related note, the only game in town, besides the well-trodden Starbucks, is a Christian-owned coffee shop where the wireless password is Jesus1. You could probably skip that. Get a Sbux Via in cinammon spice. Not too bad to (not) brew at home.