Hype Can't Cover a Very Uncomfortable Moment

Rating: 1/10 (14 June 2018)

I did not know that Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for this until I was a quarter into it. I was shocked. The first thing I thought was that it must have been a very weak field, indeed. I love Jeff Bridges but you can see every bone in his body acting as he tries but fails to find the character or a great performance. Too obvious, insincere Kristofferson gravely voice. He has done better and for which he deserved an Oscar. Shame he got one for this, and I imagine he is more than a little sheepish, esp if he is the genuine actor I think he is and can still see through his ego.
This movie has been made many times, and much, much better. Tender Mercies, Payday, A Star is Born, Rock Star (even the Kristofferson version is much, much better than this movie, and you get the real guy). Not to mention more recent fare, like Walk the Line and the James Brown biopic (I dare you to compare Juaquin Phoenix's Johnny Cash to Bridges here!). That is a list of movies to see and unlike this one, they are memorable in a way that makes you rewatch them. True Oscar worthy performances in many. There is not a creative bone anywhere in this movie. The writing and direction are phoned in. Character motivation is zip, esp for Maggie Gyllenhaal, which makes the relationship between them gross. No convincing motivation for anyone. Colin Farrell is the class of the cast in his small role as Bridges' old student now famous. In a *good* movie, Farrell wouldn't have stood out as much, as the bar would have been so much higher and Farrell's performance expected.
Robert Duvall has a couple scenes (fitting, since this tries to be Tender Mercies II) and in one he manages to completely negate and dehumanize a Mexican immigrant. The truly sad thing and why I bring this up is that this scene is completely redundant and unnecessary. Duvall speaks Spanish to a guy he calls 'Jesus', who is pushing a mop pail across the floor. Duvall abruptly says, irritated, "Someday I am going to teach you English!". When Juan or Bridges (I forget and am NOT watching it again) points out that his name is really Juan, Duvall says, "Juan, Jesus, whatever your name is, who cares?" Juan is immediately turned into "one of those". The man is not important enough to be correctly named. Just "one of THEM", even though he is the only one left who is helping keep the bar open and has perhaps known Duvall a while. No, there was no appearance of Duvall being a spacey old coot, just mean-spirited and as if Juan was generic and replaceable, as many see immigrants. Duvall is powerful enough that he doesn't have to speak lines like that, but he did. I am just wondering how desperate Richard Gallegos was to do the role of Juan. They could have written any character into that role. Duvall's character's crusty old wife, a crusty old friend, his son, his best friend, and on and on. To be fair, the doctor who attends Bridges', earlier, seems to be Hispanic (they ARE in New Mexico and Arizona, after all) and that was a very good call. But that good diversity moment was negated with this unforgivable, stereotypical and insulting scene.
But the director must take all responsibility for this nonsense, in the end. So he has written a terrible script (not just because of this, which seemed ad libbed, anyway) and directed a terrible movie, shot like a commercial, only slower. We never get a good look at some of the beautiful scenery the movie is shot in. I have lived in the southern New Mexico wasteland and was looking forward to that odd beauty, as well as driving into the gorgeous mountains as you go north, but the cinematographer doesn't allow us to settle our gaze upon the scenery.