Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin
Rating: PG-13

Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld star in True Grit. (Courtesy photo)

True Grit, the new Old West flick from the illustrious Coen Brothers, has received mixed reviews, some saying it pales in comparison to other Coen Brothers movies, others saying it pales in comparison to the original True Grit, for which John Wayne won an Oscar in 1969. For my part, I can't see what the whining is about. It might not have the violent glee of Fargo or the grim vastness of No Country for Old Men, but True Grit is one of the Coen Brothers' better recent films. More importantly, they have found in Hailee Steinfeld someone who can kick off the next generation of great actors, if she can stay away from vampires and werewolves.

In this adaptation of Charles Portis' novel, Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) is trying to find Tom Chaney, who killed her father and ran away to a band of criminals hiding out across the frontier. She teams up with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a rugged bounty hunter, although ragged might be a better word. He has a bit of a drinking problem, and he's not the friendliest, but Ross has heard that he has "true grit," so she is determined to procure his help in hunting down her father's murderer. Cogburn gives in to her stubbornness and goes along with her into untamed Indian territory, where they are racing against the equally unfriendly LaBoeuf (pronounced "La-beef") to bring Chaney to justice. LaBeouf (Matt Damon) is a Texas Ranger who has been looking for Chaney for years, but has always been a couple steps behind the fugitive. At times, LaBeouf teams up with Cogburn and Ross, and at times they go their separate ways, but they always maintain a sense of professional competition. After all, that's what this is; it's not a question of whether they'll find Chaney, but rather one of who will find him first.

The most noticeable thing about anyone in this movie is Jeff Bridges' voice. A whole family of frogs has become stuck in his throat, it seems, and the garbled grunts meant to show Rooster's masculine gruffness border on the incomprehensible. While the Crazy Heart star might overdo his part at times, his moments of stating-the-obvious deadpan are great comic relief against the movie's harsher landscape. Matt Damon (The Departed), on the other hand, pleasantly understates LaBoeuf's personal vendetta against Chaney (played by Josh Brolin in a brief and satisfactory appearance) and is perhaps the most entertaining of the three leads to watch. Steinfeld, for her part, handles the darkness of the movie like a professional. Her lines are a mixture of Ye-Olden-Times wordiness and matter-of-fact starkness, and she speaks them like she's been talking this way since she first opened her mouth. Amazingly, she's only 14 years old. Hopefully this means she has a long and Coen Brothers-oriented career ahead of her.

The Coens, in the meantime, have with True Grit made yet another great film about the darker side of Americana. Rife with scenic views of the heartland, this is a beautiful movie to watch. As for pairing natural beauty with gruesome acts of violence, as is the Coens' wont, True Grit is tame compared to their previous films. Don't get the wrong idea—it is definitely a violent movie, and graphically so. But the violence lacks the suddenness and intensity that other Coen Brothers movies are known for. To some, this may be a drawback; I think it's a great lesson in temperance, and the movie is better for it. It helps that the screenplay is based on someone else's story, but the Coens have shown great self-control in their adaptation.

What impresses me most in terms of the production as a whole is that it works as a modern western. You've got your gunslingers and horseback riding and bandits and so on, but at the same time nothing in this movie feels antiquated. True Grit succeeds tremendously as a revival of a genre that went out of style decades ago. I'd like to see the Coens do the same with the saga genre. It's high time for a new Apocalypse Now or a new Godfather, and the Coens are probably the best directors out there for the job. Here's hoping.

Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.