True Grit

For what it's worth, I finally saw the new version of "True Grit" and highly recommend it.

This film is so much truer to the novel, which was extraordinary. John Wayne did a reasonably good job in the earlier version but Jeff Bridges is a far better Rooster Cogburn. [I recall being disappointed that Richard Boone wasn't given the role instead of Wayne but The Duke was clearly a bigger box office draw. That's a pity. Boone had the right amount of menace.]

The film is almost stolen by Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. Some other good news: This time around, they didn't completely botch the casting of the Texas Ranger.

Not just a good film, but a great one.