She Tells Me What I Must See

I've seen Prince in concert twice, both times at the Landmark, of all places, and both times with the same person. She's a friend I met when I worked in radio and we immediately hit it off; she's smart, funny, an avid reader, music lover and die hard movie fan. And while we don't always share the same taste in books and music (there's more overlap in music than books), I absolutely respect her taste in movies. She sees far more of them than I do and when she raves, I listen.

So when she not only recommended Crazy Heart, but qualified it by saying that Jeff Bridges was certain to get the Oscar for his performance as the broken-down alcoholic country singer, I knew I needed to see it. And of course she was right on both counts.

Produced by T. Bone Burnett, it's a music movie for sure. But it's the character study of Bridges' Bad Blake, that was completely enthralling. I'm not an actor, so I don't know how difficult it is to play an alcoholic, but playing a dissolute and resigned human being has got to be challenging, and Bridges nailed it with his dead eyes and beaten posture. Every debauched choice of his life showed in his face and body. She was right, I needed to see this movie.

You have to figure out what your friends know better than you and follow their lead. Unless, of course, you're on the same page to start with and then you can just go forward jointly. Like seeing the Purple One together whenever he's in town; that she doesn't need to tell me.