Wow! Inside the Actors Studio is so much more enjoyable haveing recently watched all of the movies that they talk about. I felt in on the conversation, and the interview impacted me that much more.
Just the other night I told my acting coach, Jeffrey Marcus, that I thought Jeff Bridges' best performance so far was in American Heart. It was interesting to see that James Lipton agrees. If I hadn't embarked on this excogitating of genius I would most likely still have never seen that movie.
Mr. Bridges unveils a lot about his craft of acting. Whether it be doing improvs to build character relationships or empowering objects/wardrobe with the power to affect you in a certain way.
He also talks about how his parents were his teachers and that they studied with Michael Chekhov. I recently read Mr. Chekhov's book, To the Actor
Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 1/3 by HelensPage
Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 2/3 by HelensPage
Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 3/3 by HelensPage
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Starring: Bob Dylan, John Goodman, and Jessica Lange
Directed by Larry Charles
I really liked this movie. Even though I couldn't tell you what it is about. I could tell you what happened, but not what it all means. After watching "The Making of" featurette, it seems like a lot of the cast felt the same way. But that's okay, because everything about this movie is cool. Bob Dylan is cool, the cast is cool, the director is cool, the characters are cool, the music is cool, the cinematography is cool, all of it.
This was actually directed by the same guy who a few years later directed Borat and Bruno. And it stars Bob Dylan, who I thought did a mighty fine job, considering that he's not an actor and all. He did have an amazing supporting cast. I read that everyone was taking pay cuts just so they could be in a movie with Dylan. This is definitely one that I'll have to watch again one day.
As for JB's performance, I saw a lot of "The Dude" in it. It was almost as if The Dude was forced into work and begrudgingly carried out his duties as a reporter. And I think that's just what his character wanted, just to do his job and to get it over with. But Luke Wilson's character kept getting in the way. I feel like there was something deeper to his character that I may have missed. But, like I said, a lot about this movie was a mystery. A "cool" mystery.
Narrated by Jeff Bridges
Directed by Bruce Neibaur
Jeff Bridges and National Geographic take us on a journey from St. Louis to the Pacific ocean. It is the journey that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took two-hundred years ago. While the cinematography was beautiful and it is an interesting story of American history, I felt that this was basically a summary of the events. It could have been a lot more in depth, but I guess they were constrained to fitting it all into a certain amount of time.
JB must have gone on a big documentary kick in 2002. There were no movies released that he starred in, but he narrated two documentaries. And he's got a great narrating voice. I also think that I've come to the conclusion that it was not JB narrating Raising the Mammoth. Still no official statement concerning that issue from @TheJeffBridges.
Narrated by Jeff Bridges
Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe
Jeff Bridges' voice guides us though the making of...well, the attempted making of the movie, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, directed by Terry Gilliam. This was a very interesting and entertaining documentary. A look behind the scenes in Hollywood when things go wrong.
I can't say that I enjoyed seeing Terry Gilliam fail in completing his dream movie. But it is refreshing to know, when sometimes this business seems so hard, that it's also sometimes tough for the big wigs who have already "made it". But you have to keep pushing on! I'm off to direct my own movie!
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
Directed by Ian Softley
I really liked this movie. It is listed under the sci-fi genre, I think it is more of a psychological mystery. But I guess that it could be considered either, depending on the conclusions that you come to at the end of the movie. Jeff Bridges plays a psychiatrist who is treating a man who calls himself Prot and clams to be an alien from the planet K-PAX. JB tries to find out who this mystery man is and where he really came from, because surely he didn't come from outer space...or did he?
A big part of Jeff Bridges performances is his research. In preparation for this part, he went to different institutions and met with multiple psychiatrists. He even had a doctor on set as a technical adviser. He wanted his performance to be as close to how a real psychiatrist behaves as possible. JB says that a psychiatrist considers themself a detective, investigating what is going on inside of a person's mind and trying to solve the mystery.
Here is a great interview conducted by Charlie Rose. Jeff Bridges talks about his performance in K-PAX and the craft of acting. It's actually a great recap of his career up to this point:
Part 1(46 minutes in):
Part 2:
JB talks K-PAX with Jon Stewart:
This movie had potential, but it just didn't come together for me. It's supposed to be a crime mob thriller. It just seemed to drag along. And we're stuck in a van for most of it. It had a few interesting moments. It just seemed like they threw way too many story lines in and it got a bit confusing. In the end, I felt like not much had happened. A few people got killed.
From the synopsis, I thought Jeff Bridges was going to be playing a mobster type and I was excited to see that. But no, he's just playing a normal dad type...with some skeletons in his closet. Throughout the whole movie, JB just looks miserable and like he's wondering how he got himself into this mess. That could be because his character is tied up with a gun in his face the whole time. While not my favorite performance, probably do to him being stuck in the same situation the whole time with not much to do, it did have it's moments. I really wish he would have been playing a "Godfather"-like mobster. That would have been interesting.
This was a very intriguing political thriller. Vice President nominee, Laine Hanson, gets caught up in her own Weinergate (or should I say Vaginagate?) and her morality is questioned in a big hearing. Repubs and Dems hate on each other, yada yada yada.
I loved Jeff Bridges as the POTUS. He just had a certain gravitas and underlying fire. JB's President really loves his power, and loves to use it. As was shown when he repeatedly ordered all kinds of random food from the butler just to show people that he can, because he is the President.
From an acting standpoint, I observed JB's character as wanting...I want to say power, but he is the President of the United States. You don't get much more powerful than that. So maybe he wants assurance of that power, hence all of the food ordering. And the main point of the movie, him attempting to appoint a female VP, something that had never been done before. His power would definitely be assured if he could do something that no President in history had every done.
Jeff Bridges was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting role with this fine performance.
Yay! I finally got to see this short! It was shown as part of a short films showcase for Shorts HD at the CGV Cinemas in LA. I had never even heard of this theater, but it was a pretty cool place. I will have to check out more stuff there. I think "Steve" is showing there for one more day if you can make it.
CGV Cinemas
As for the film, I loved it! Steve, played by Colin Firth, just wants a friend. And he will try anything to get one. Colin Firth's performance goes from quirky/funny to crazy/scary in a matter of 16 minutes. It's been a little while since I watched CF's films and I was pleasantly reminded of how fun his performances can be.
Why the question mark Brandon, huh, huh? Everywhere I've looked says that Jeff Bridges narrated this documentary, but the narrator in the film sounds nothing like him. Unless his narrator voice is completely different than his normal voice. I am awaiting official confirmation from @TheJeffBridges on twitter. We shall see.
And yes, I think I am going to watch docs that the actor whom I am excogitating has lent his voice to. There may be something to be gained, if not a cool documentary I may not have watched otherwise. Cartoons too. I did watch The Last Unicorn for JBs voice.
Anyway, this doc wasn't bad, but left more questions than I had going into it. A bunch of Jarkovs go looking for a frozen mammoth in Siberia. Actually it was just a few Jarkovs, the Jarkov family, who showed our adventurers where the mammoth was buried. So they dug up a big block of ice and flew it away with a helicopter. I don't know why I'm still going on, because I don't even think that it was JB's voice narrating this thing.
Here, watch this and let me know what you think:
http://youtu.be/lhwd1waacuE
Agh! I hate when I see a rating of a movie before I watch it. I saw the incredibly low rating of 4.4/10 on IMDB and feel like I consequently was continuously looking for what I shouldn't have been liking about the movie. All in all, I thought it was a fine movie. Some great performances from some great actors. And some fantastic cinematography from Oscar winner, John Toll. Oh, and based on a play by Sam Shepard. I think I'll definitely have to watch this one again without thinking that I'm not going to like it.
Jeff Bridges has another fine performance. He and Nick Nolte play great together. Their characters eventually almost completely switch places, and I feel like it was rather sudden. I'm not sure what it was that caused the switch. I feel like I missed some important detail. All of a sudden, it was like JB was playing Nolte's character from the beginning of the movie. It reminded me of True West, another Shepard play. Except I understood that one better. But, like I said, I think I'll just have to watch this one again sometime.
I would like to see them together again in something. Maybe in a funny good-cop-bad-cop movie. Maybe I'll write it.
Never in my life have I seen this many cameos. Cybill Shepherd to Lorenzo Lamas, Martin Scorsese to James Cameron. Director/Writer/Star, Albert Brooks really has the hookup in Hollywood! And the movie still isn't really all that good. It was alright, but I found a lot of the dialogue to be quite campy. I don't know if that's just an Albert Brooks style, but it just came off a bad acting here. And these were some good actors, so I think it had to be the dialogue.
Jeff Bridges has a kind of extended cameo here, and he has fun as Brooks's bigwig Hollywood friend who first introduces Brooks to his Muse, played by Sharon Stone. He doesn't have much to do here, but I enjoyed his screen time. Especially the scene where he repeatedly tries to hit tennis balls over the net, never succeeding throughout the whole dialogue. Oops! Was that a spoiler? I think this movie would have been better with JB as the lead.
It's been a few days since I've watched this one. I usually do my post fairly close to the time of viewing the movie, so it's interesting to see if my thoughts about the movie have evolved at all with waiting a little bit to post. Hmmm, I think I like the movie more now than I thought that I did immediately after it ended. Without giving away any spoilers, the ending of the movie is quite unexpected and jarring, so I guess that it wouldn't be good to review this movie right away. There are a lot of nuances in this movie to think about that don't hit you until later.
Jeff Bridges gives a fine performance. You can really see the pain of losing a spouse. He doesn't really point it out or exaggerate it, the pain is just there. And all the while, he trying to cover that pain and just go on with life. Until he meets his oddball neighbors who start raising some suspicions. He then seems to direct all the energy of his pain into the investigation of his neighbor, and in everyone else' eyes, starts spiraling out of control until the shocking end.
St. Louis is mentioned about a million times during the course of the movie, which was pretty cool. Represent!
This is one of those movies that I can't help but have a silly grin on my face while watching. I'm not even sure what it is about it. The Coen Bros just do that to me sometimes.
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges, is forced into an absurd situation when a couple of thugs come looking for another, much richer, Jeff Lebowski's money. One of the thugs proceeds to urinate on The Dude's rug. This is unacceptable to The Dude. In search of repayment for the rug, The Dude pulls himself and his friends deeper into a twisting turning tale of F-bombs, "man"s, and white Russians.
I loved JBs performance in this. This is the first Jeff Bridges performance that I ever saw before I embarked on this quest. The Dude is unlike any other character that he had played up until then. He seemed to have a lot of fun with it. I loved his interaction with John Goodman's character, Walter. You can see how strong their friendship is, even with all of Walter's shenanigans.
An acting note: Before some shots, JB would ask The Coen Brothers if The Dude burned one on the way over. If the answer was yes, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before the shot. Brilliance!
It's funny, JB is on the poster art, even featured in the trailer, but he's in this movie for a total of about five minutes. False advertising? He plays a semi-asshole doctor who works with co-star Bruce Davison's character. He was also Executive Producer on the movie. This was definitely a vehicle for brother Beau, who delivered a fine performance. It was directed by Martin Bell, who previously directed JB in American Heart, which was awesome. Bell sure likes his depressing subject matter.
Not much to say about JB's little performance here. He was believable as an asshole doctor.
Next up...The Dude!
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