The
Coen brothers' adaptation of True Grit
from last year is a kind of
miracle — one of the greatest of all Westerns, one of the greatest of
all American films.  From shot to shot, sequence to sequence, it
displays a sublime mastery of cinematic form, and packs both a
moral and an emotional punch of remarkable power.  As Pauline Kael said
in a
different context, it makes most other films released in the 21st
Century look like something at the end of a toothpick . . .