What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann

CRAZY HEART has already won two Golden Globes -- Best Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Song for T-Bone Burnett, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. And we've still got Independent Spirit Awards  and the Big Kahuna of the Academy Awards to go. No less a critic than Roger Ebert predicts Bridges is a "virtual certainty to win his first Oscar."

"Bad" Blake (it's not his real name, but "I was born Bad. My tombstone will have my real name. Until then, I'm going to stay Bad.") is a too-hard-drinking, too-hard-living, too-hard-loving country singer. Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a woman young enough to be his daughter, with a four-year-old son, is the good woman who wants to give the lie to that Badness. She's also got an Oscar nomination.

It's not the first time this iconic story has been told. It's a country song rolled up in a screenplay. But this time it has those ineffable qualities that make for a hit. With an 92% rating on RottenTomatoes.com and an 83% rating on Metacritic.com, "it's a mesmerizer," says Rolling Stone. Come for the acting. Stay for the music. And enjoy a " a well-done, adult American movie—that is to say, a rarity." (Village Voice)

I'm pleased to see that the Tropic is bringing back AN EDUCATION, which had a brief run early last Fall before any buzz had built about it. It's now got three major Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress. First-time screenwriter Nick Hornby crafts a script with the clever, engaging plot and dialogue we've known in his novels (About a Boy, High Fidelity). Carey Mulligan is Jenny, a prep school senior who discovers there's more to life than aceing your A-levels and getting into Cambridge, when she meets David, a forty-something bon vivant.

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Check out the Tropic blog, where you can leave comments on all the films.  TropicCinema.com/blog.

Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com