|
This movie stars Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake a fairly popular yet waning country singer who has been around the horn a few times and also previously mentored a current superstar. The name Bad is a nickname he has taken upon himself, that mires into the major conflict of the film. He is now a bit older, and has squashed what has been a rising stardom by excessive drinking and smoking, a somewhat careless lifestyle not connecting to better health and also conflicting with his core personality which he seems to be rejecting by doing this, Yet he has in the past demonstrated some great song writing ability and one of the possible ways back might be that he could write some hit songs for the mega star. He meets Jean, who is a younger writer getting his story and they start to form a relationship. The tenderness between them is palpable, and hopes rise. But his being drawn to drink represents the steps away from this, and you begin to see that the conflict goes even deeper, to his inability to more fully see his own goodness which pours out of him in song and in his tender feelings towards his new good friend. This movie brings about the opposite of the usual living a lie, instead of the bad guy living a lie as the good guy, the good guy is living a lie as the bad guy. The movie stars slow but them mounts into some beautifully felt scenes. Most of the songs and guitar work why quite good even if viewer was unfamiliar with the more country oriented format. Robert Duvall has a nice cameo as Wayne and gives a strong performance late in the film. This film is rather fantastic in bringing a lot of light to the performances, yet having a realistically sad undertone as to how much more could have been had he not gone down the road of excess, and lived more to his true identity and authentic self and more fully trusted in his intrinsic goodness, that others saw, but he didn’t quite believe in for himself.
Related Articles -
music, movies, country, Jeff Bridges, ,
| 
