We’re going to jump aboard the hype train for a spell here, as the trailer to the new Jeff Bridges-starring, T Bone Burnett-scored film Crazy Heart just dropped (via the Playlist) and the Oscar buzz comparisons to Mickey Rourke’s turn in The Wrestler are starting to ring vehemently true.
T Bone Burnett, the über producer behind Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand, the Walk the Line, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Big Lebowski soundtracks, Elvis Costello’s King of America, and a slew of other brilliant records, co-wrote, co-produced, and wrote the score to this film. Need we say more? Yes, I suppose so…
Here’s The Wrap’s Steve Pond on Burnett’s songs:
you can trace the character’s career in them. Here’s the rough, bluesy material with which he launched his career. Here’s the insanely catchy hit that put him on the map, the albatross he willingly dangles around his neck every night. Here’s the poppier tune that got him airplay once upon a time.
And here, finally, in the form of the haunting Burnett/Bingham song “The Weary Kind,” is the frank ballad of loss that Bad Blake wouldn’t have had the insight to write earlier in his career.
Check out some audio clips of the latter song in the trailer embedded below or watch Ryan Bingham perform “The Weary Kind” here. It sounds to me like Bruce Springsteen’s Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-snubbed song “The Wrestler” was turned into an entire movie. Still no sign of a “one-legged dog,” but we’re not complaining: