The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and other cinematic undertakings

Some background: I was at my dad’s place last weekend, and I had a Saturday night to kill (weird, I know), so I decided to watch two movies I had downloaded the week before: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Gone Baby Gone. I had heard good things about Gone Baby Gone (weird, since Ben Affleck is involved), so I sat my ass down and prepared for 4+ hours of the finest laptop-sized movie-going experience imaginable.

Two hours later, I was floored. One of my coworkers (a self-proclaimed cinephile and graduate of the prestigious MCTC school of film) had claimed the movie was sub-par, and tried too hard to be ‘morally ambiguous’. Whatever the hell that means. This movie was amazing. Casey Affleck, supported by Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris as morally bankrupt cops, is a private detective who is hired by the family of a missing child to find their daughter. Since, I don’t want to give too much away, I’ll just say Casey Affleck is awesome, as is Amy Ryan as the crack-addicted mother of the missing girl.

Now, the main reason for this post: The Assassination of Jesse James…etc; I’ll just say I think it’s the best movie of 2007. Hands down. No contest. Critics don’t like slowly paced westerns (and slowly paced movies in general), but as someone who, in his own opinion, has good taste in movies, I would recommend this above any other movie in 2007. Also, it has one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard (dark instrumentals and folksy stuff I guess).

~ by absinthedreams on February 5, 2008.