True Grit – 3 Buckets

If last year’s A Serious Man was Joel and Ethan Coen’s crowning achievement in personalism, then True Grit is their crowning achievement in formalism. This is as tried and true as westerns come — an expertly crafted, old-fashioned yarn that shares Charles Portis’ source novel with the 1969 film that won John Wayne an Oscar. [...]

Women in Trouble – 1 Bucket

It’s around 9:30 p.m. on a chilly Sunday night outside Downtown Austin’s Paramount Theatre, the premiere venue at the South by Southwest Film Festival. I’m beat after a day of watching movies, but the all-star cast of Sebastian Gutierrez’ Women in Trouble beckons. I walk inside the venue, hoping the film will at least be tolerable [...]

SXSW 2009: Day Three

Two days after my last post, here I am in San Diego, fully recuperated from a surprising amount of jetlag. The flight from Austin to the West Coast is only a bit more than three hours, but I conked out for 13 on the night of my return. Maybe it was all those Auntie Annie’s pretzels I ate in the airport terminal at the recommendation of Emily Blunt, who devoured one of the garlic twists a few nights ago on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” after discussing what a life-changing find they were for her while shooting the recent Sunshine Cleaning in New Mexico. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you thought you were looking for SXSW film festival coverage, you’ve come to the wrong place: The Bucket ‘Blog has now officially become a source for long-winded descriptions of simple foods I enjoy. [Read more]

W. – 1 Bucket

At no point during its cumbersome 131 minutes does Oliver Stone’s W. prove much more about President George W. Bush than that he’s nearly impossible to make an objective movie about at this point in history. But perhaps I’m just saying that because it’s equally impossible for any politically-savvy viewer to objectively judge an attempt. Watching W., [...]

In the Valley of Elah – Zero Buckets

Dear Paul Haggis, Who do you think you are? Your latest film, In the Valley of Elah, displays such a deep-seeded hated for the American Military that it could be quite easily confused for a propaganda-film made by al-Qaeda as a means of recruiting anti-West terrorists. Through your deceptive screenwriting and direction, you depict United States [...]