jeff bridges – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

IN THE COMPANY OF WOVES – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

July 7, 2026July 12, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Anna Kirsch, conservation, documentary, In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey, jeff bridges, Jon Coleman, national parks, Susan Kucera

The documentary In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey is an ambitious one, hopscotching around history while noting some threats to wolves, now returning to places they haven’t been seen in decades.
Director Susan Kucera (Wild Genius) assembles some impressive footage of these animals and other storied beasts the American West such as bison and horses. Yet while some interviews prove as thought-provoking as the stunning imagery of canyons and prairies, the film ultimately is as wild as the wolves in its title, needing more focus to bring its points home.

Reviews

MINIONS & MONSTERS – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

June 29, 2026July 1, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Allison Janney, Christoph Walz, George Lucas, Illumination Entertainment, jeff bridges, jesse eisenberg, Minions & Monsters, Pierre Coffin, Zoey Deutch

Minions & Monsters is adorably meta, a loving salute not just to movies but to filmmakers, artists, and audiences. It’s easily the best of the three Minions films, packed with affectionate and funny nods to silent and Golden Age movies, from Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon to Citizen Kane. Illumination Entertainment’s typical opener of three greeting Minions becomes black-and-white rubber-hose-style animation this go-round as Minions & Monsters begins, teasing the references in store. These immortal imps soon gallop behind Eadweard Muybridge’s horse in motion and wait for the Lumière brothers’ train as a modern-day tour guide schools children and adults on their place in Hollywood history.

Reviews

TRON: ARES – Review by Diane Carson

October 5, 2025October 11, 2025 Diane Carson Evan Peters, gillian anderson, Greta Lee, IMAX, Jared Leto, jeff bridges, Joachim Rønning, Tron: Ares

Director Joachim Rønning’s Tron: Ares comes roaring, literally in ear-piercing sound, to reverse the original Tron and first sequelTron: Legacy concept. Instead of game creator Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) becoming trapped in the digitized Grid, racing to escape on the coolest of motorcycles, what if that A.I. world invaded the reality its designers, that is, what if “we’re not going there, they’re coming here.”

Reviews

THE OLD MAN – Review by Diane Carson

August 23, 2022August 27, 2022 Diane Carson alia shawkat, Amy Brenneman, Hiam Abbass, jeff bridges, John Lithgow, Jon Watts, The Old Man

The Old Man reinterprets and reinvigorates spy drama. A great mix of distinctive characters pays dividends episode after episode, humor and great repartee alternating with terrifying suspense. Increasingly important as the plot disentangles, the women prompt some disconcerting developments with multiple levels of meaning.

Reviews

THE OLD MAN – Review by Susan Granger

August 8, 2022August 10, 2022 Susan Granger alia shawkat, Amy Brenneman, fx, jeff bridges, Joel Grey, John Lithgow, Jonathan E. Steinberg, Robert Levine, The Old Man

Jeff Bridges delivers one of his most compelling performances in The Old Man, playing Dan Chase, a weary, disillusioned CIA agent who’s been living incognito in Vermont since he went rogue decades ago. He’s a gruff widower, guarded by two ferociously loyal dogs; ever cautious, he communicates with his beloved daughter Emily only by burner phones. When he’s ‘discovered’ and assassins invade his home, Dan goes on the run, picking up a lonely, troubled divorcee, Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman), along the way.

Reviews

AWFJ Women On Film – “True Grit” – Review by Susan Granger

December 19, 2010August 24, 2019 Susan Granger awfj women on film, coen brothers, hailee steinfeld, jeff bridges, susan granger, true grit

When Joel and Ethan Coen (“No County For Old Men’) decided to remake this iconic Western, they turned to the source: Charles Portis’s 1968 novel. Yet comparing Jeff Bridges’ irascible Rooster Cogburn with John Wayne’s is inevitable, since Wayne placed an indelible imprint on the role, winning his only Oscar in 1969 and reprising it in the 1975 sequel. That’s perhaps why the Coens focus on the character of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a fearlessly determined 14 year-old Arkansas girl who hires Federal Marshall Cogburn to track down Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the hired hand who killed her father.