True Grit (1969) & A.I. (2001)

January 18 True Grit - 1969, 35mm Henry Hathaway 8.5 Kim Darby’s father is shot and killed by some asshole, so she seeks out the help of U.S. Marshal John Wayne to help her out because she’s heard he’s got “true grit”, and then some Texas Ranger who is after the same guy tags along with them, too. Darby is really fucking good in it, and despite being third billed, is clearly the centerpiece, and I took the movie to be about her own display of the truest of grit. John Wayne, whose career I’m largely unfamiliar with, was also very likable and awesome. Really good Western. This played as a double feature at the New Beverly in L.A. with A.I. Both movies were selected by one of my favorite directors, Stuart Gordon, but apparently he had nothing to do with randomly pairing them. Also apparently, he was there for the previous night’s screenings, but unfortunately, I was unable to make it because I was just arriving in town. There may actually be a theme between the two movies, in that they’re both about someone young starting out alone, then meeting up with others and going on a journey, determined to find someone. I don’t know if it was intentionally programmed that way, but either way, double features of two vastly different movies are always awesome.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence - 2001, 35mm -Rewatch Steven Spielberg 8.5 A robot named David gets adopted by some parents who think they’ve lost their son, and the robot is programmed to love the mother, but he’s a little creepy and oft-putting, so once the real son turns out ok and comes back home, the mother drops off the robot in the forest, and he sets out to find the Blue Fairy because he thinks she can make him organic, and then the mother will love him back. He meets up with a sexbot named Jude Law who helps him along. There’s some really great stuff in this movie, mostly involving amazing special effects, like the robot girl’s face opening up in the beginning of the movie, David’s face melting when he tries to eat food, the various deformed robots, and every single moment with his adorable stuffed robot Teddy. I love pretty much any movie about robots, and I like how this one plays as kind of a maudlin fairy tale. The much-detested ending is pretty ok, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not as strong as the rest of the movie, but it serves it’s purpose of giving David some closure, and it’s got just the right amount of sentiment to satisfy me, without taking it too far. Had it ended sooner, with David submerged underwater staring at a statue for all eternity, then certainly that would’ve been preferable; fucking amazing, even. But I feel that way about the endings of about 80% of the movies I watch. Most films reach a point where it would be incredible if it ended there, and sometimes they’ll even tease you into thinking it actually might, as this one did, but every time, it continues on for something more traditional, cheerful, sentimental, etc., and I’m long past being disappointed about it. And in this case, I thought all the stuff with the futuristic aliens was actually pretty neat.