This film was released 19th February 2010, and is no longer screening.

IFI TEEN SCREEN
Special Crazy Heart screening for our monthly teen film club (age 15-18). For more information text your name to 085 1737232.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Jeff Bridges has long been one of American cinema’s best-loved actors. Good roles have been thin on the ground since his unforgettable turn as the Dude in The Big Lebowski (1998), but the long wait ends with Crazy Heart, which boasts one of the actor’s finest performances. The film looks as though it might have been conceived as a worthy vehicle for the talents of the now 60-year-old Bridges. Adapted from Thomas Cobb’s novel by first-time director Scott Cooper, it has something of the feel and pace of a ’70s American independent production. Bridges plays 57-year-old Bad Blake, a washed-up country musician who just about keeps his act together to perform in dismal bars across the American Southwest. Blake may embody every known cliche about wayward country singers, but Bridges somehow manages to capture the charm, dignity and humanity that lie beneath the self-destructive bluster. Give theman his Oscar! Please see page 11 for details of a Jeff Bridges season. Notes by Peter Walsh.