Writer's Block

Now, I've always believed that writer's block is something that happens to people that think they're writers, as opposed to people who are actually writers. That may sound overwhelmingly arrogant, but bear in mind that this is me talking here, and I am overwhelmingly arrogant.

I've never before suffered from writer's block. I write for a couple of hours every single day and even though I know most of it actually isn't that good, I'm still kinda happy with the way it turns out. I'm not that difficult to please, it turns out, which helps. But right now...

Basically, a little while ago one of my classmates told me about a BBC sitcom competition that closes mid-February. Now, as it's for untried writers and my friends are entering, I thought 'awesome, I'll get right on that'. And I did, I've had the idea for Barstaff knocking around in my head for a while now and I want to get it onto the page.

And it sucks.

I mean, seriously, I typed it up, did a second draft and we had a read through of it this afternoon. And yes... it sucks. It is not so good. I don't actually like it and it's not funny.

Now, that's not that easy to take. I feel really quite disappointed in myself, and that's not something I'm used to (although looking at myself, I probably should be).

To make matters worse, my classmates then read out their entry for the sitcom competition and it was sodding hilarious, simple and brilliant. It really blew mine away.

Which didn't help.

Ah, man up already.

Naturally, I shouldn't just take this and let it get me down, I should do something about it, go back to the drawing board and carry on. Problem is I don't think I've got it in me. I've never really considered myself to be a comedy writer, I was only really going for this in order to actually send something off to the Writer's Room. Is it worth it?

...

...

...

Yeah. It is. I'll redo it. I'll sit down and I'll make myself do it. Because that's just what I do. Writer's block is something that happens to people who think that they're writers, but aren't really. It isn't something that happens to me. And while that may sound overwhelmingly arrogant, just remember who you're talking to here. I'm the writer. Someday, someone else will realise that, because I knew it all along.

TRUE GRIT.

Right, this is a re-adaptation, in an odd way. Obviously, John Wayne was in a version of this film back in the 60's, but that doesn't make this movie a remake. This is an adaptation of the original novel and tries to stick even closer to it than the Wayne version did. If it did that or not, I don't know, since I haven't seen either the Wayne version or read the book. So I have to judge this film purely on its own merits.

Pretty good. Pretty damn good.

Surprisingly easy to follow for a Coen Brother's film, since so many of their offerings are jarring and confusing, with hints of true brilliance smothered beneath bizarre stories and twisting narratives. They are the masters of what they do, I'll give the Coen's that, but I'm just not sure that I always like what they do. They're definately an acquired taste.

So, True Grit. This is a classic story of a girl seeking revenge of her father's murder by an outlaw, and hiring a US Marshall to do it for her. They team up with a Texas Ranger and head out into the hostile Native territories in the north, in order to track the murderer and the gang he'd fallen in with down. That's it, a very simple and effective story.

The thing that makes this movie is the quality of the performance from Jeff Bridges. Jeff is never one to let us down, he always, always gives an awesome show, but this is probably one of his most memorable. He's gruff, he's rude, he's arrogant, he's drunk, he's so decidedly human that he makes other humans look like cardboard cut outs. The others... well... they all do their bits good, most especially Ed Corbin, who's cameo as Forester is simply joyous to watch. The dialogue is another star, the overly complicated and slightly out of place talk of the Old West is kind of pointless yet really interesting to listen to and muddle through.

I've always compared the dialogue of all westerns to 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford'. Now that wasn't a particularly enjoyable movie, but it certainly felt damn authentic, since the Old West American accents were so thick that they needed subtitles. Grit was almost there with that, Bridges certainly was, but the rest of the film was a little left behind and stagnant compared to him. Mattey, the main girl, seemed to lack any kind of actual development in her character, she kind or remained the same throughout, which was a little disappointing, I was expecting a bit more.

All in all, pretty good movie, but not all that memorable with the exception of Jeff Bridges, who was brilliant.

Next time: The Fighter (I think)