True Grit | Burlesque - Prague, Czech Republic

Steinfeld, on the other hand, makes the film. Many have highlighted her haggling scene with horse trader Dakin Matthews, which indeed stands out, but it´s her interactions with Bridges and Damon and (by the end) Brolin and Pepper that lend a much-needed dimension to their roles; the Mattie Ross character is almost one-note in her quest for vengeance, but it´s Steinfeld´s presentation of the young girl burdened by this quest that makes a difference. The actress has been nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar (despite clearly being the lead here), and might surprise with a win.

True Grit is the Coen brothers´ second remake; it follows The Ladykillers, widely regarded as their worst. It puzzles me why talented directors sometimes choose these projects; I don´t think anyone was clamoring for a remake of True Grit, and whether the Coen´s admired the original film or wanted to improve on it, or more faithfully adapt Charles Portis´ novel, a cinematic version had already been done and done well (even iconically). While watching their version of True Grit, which is clearly superior in many definable ways to the original, I couldn´t help shake the fact that this was more or less the same film, and an important element of the cinematic experience had been lost.

But Burlesque isn´t just a bad movie, it´s the worst kind of a bad movie: a tediously conventional slog that denies us even the smallest pleasures that we might take from such an experience. The setup and opening scenes promise a PG-13 version of Showgirls, but the rest of the film can´t even deliver along those lines; there´s no camp, no over-the-top acting, no outrageousness, hell, no burlesque. Oblivious to the laughable material, which lies limp on the screen, the workmanlike direction seems to want us to take this thing seriously.

Christina Aguilera is Ali, the small-town Iowa girl with wide eyes and big dreams who quits her job at the local diner and takes off for the city. In Los Angeles, she happens by the Burlesque Lounge, attracted by a poster of Coco, the black girl who apparently headlines the club and is seen throughout the film but never utters a word. Ali is entranced (why, we never learn) by the scantily clad women dancing onstage, lip-synching to classics and being leered at by a rarely-seen audience; spurned in her efforts to audition for a dancing gig, she starts waiting tables and soon works her way up the ladder.

The first half of Burlesque is surprisingly tolerable, climaxed by a truly showstopping Christina Aguilera rendition of Etta James´ Tough Lover. After that, in-between all the plot idiocy, every last number becomes a music video, providing nothing that you might find in an actual burlesque club, and everything you might find at a Christina Aguilera concert. The film loses its one calling card, and quickly devolves into an atrociously-edited (there is no dancing, only the illusion of dancing) MTV mess.