FILM

Staying in touch with the common man is brutal work. (Points to brain, calls it a uniform.) Barton Fink, 9:20 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre. $11

GALLERIES

Washington City Paper contributor John Anderson's exhibition about the role of guns in society weaves D.C. crime statistics and philosophical arguments about the Second Amendment into drawings, videos, and other works. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Washington Project for the Arts.

PLAY "ECHOES" RIGHT AS THE JUPITER SEQUENCE BEGINS

2001: A Space Odyssey at the Crystal Screen in Arlington.

MUSIC
Locals Alma Tropicalia are a tribute band, sure, but their area of interest is the Brazilian psychedelic pop of the late 1960s. Their shows feel authentic and look trippy, plus they're a lot cheaper than the reformed Os Mutantes, the biggest band to emerge from the Tropicalia movement, whose shows in recent years have had a distinctly Putomayo vibe. Dissssss! But yes: Alma Tropicalia. Free. Good deal! Kennedy Center Millenium Stage at 6 p.m.

Trumpet Grrrl leads tonight's "The Garden" open mic at Bloombars. 8:30 p.m.

FILM
Coen Brothers retrospective continues! Intolerable Cruelty is at AFI Silver tonight at 9:10 p.m. $11.

DAMN
There's just not a lot of stuff going on today. That doesn't mean you should settle for Kid Rock.

Now comes the Coen brothers’ version of the revisionist Western. The siblings have directed from their own screenplay, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Charles Portis. Jeff Bridges is in the lead role; last year, Bridges won an Oscar of his own for playing another dissolute, over-the-hill protagonist in Crazy Heart.

True Grit is set on the American frontier in the 1880s. For a film of this genre, locations are crucial. Tyson Bidner, the chief location scout for True Grit, says, “For me, finding the right locations for the film began when I read the book a few years ago, before we started the scouting process. From the book, I could feel the tone and get a feel for the era. Once I received the script, we were able to roll up our sleeves and start scouting.”

New Mexico became the location of choice–a state where both the Coen brothers and Bidner had worked before. The Coen brothers shot No Country for Old Men in New Mexico, and Bidner had used locations in the state for Did You Hear About About the Morgans? “Once in New Mexico, it became apparent right away that we could find what we were looking for,” said Bidner. “The Coens know what they want. Planning and story boarding is a huge part of their pre-production organization. They will push me to keep going until it is right, never compromising.”

As Bidner began looking for specific sites, he "was able to get some great local scouts and we fanned out to find the pieces to this puzzle.” The film was based in Santa Fe, and though Bidner tried to find locations as close to Santa Fe as possible, “In the end we ended up spread out and quite a distance from Santa Fe for most of the shoot.”

Scouts weren't the only locals who helped in New Mexico. “Finding the right location relies on looking at things that don’t quite work, and asking the locals for what you need,” says Bidner. “For instance, I had recalled that the radio personality, [Don] Imus, had a large ranch in New Mexico for sick kids. We called him up. Although his ranch didn't have what we were looking for, he recommended the Buena Vista Ranch for some of the sweeping views we needed."

Once the locations were found, shooting wasn't always simple. “The real trick to many of our locations was access," says Bidner. "Although it might be possible for a 4x4 SUV to get to some of these out of the way locations, getting large trucks and equipment would be difficult. Let’s just say I got us stuck more than once having too much confidence in my car getting to these locations.” Bidner actually had to lobby for e construction of basic infrastructure. “Negotiating for roads to be built to get crew and equipment parked in variable weather conditions became a big part of my job.”

You won't see those new roads at the sites today. Bidner is keenly concerned with restoring locations to their original condition after the shooting concludes. “What is always critical in the success of a shoot is making sure that in the end the property looks exactly as we initially found it," he says. "It’s very important to always think of the environmental impact.”

The new Coen Brothers trailer is here! Last year, the bros announced their plans to adapt yet another classic western: Charles Portis' dark comedy True Grit, in which a young girl teams up with two weird-ass lawmen to avenge her father's murder in the Wild West. Most folks know True Grit as a John Wayne vehicle, but the Coens didn't remake a Duke movie; they adapted Portis' novel from the ground up. The bros share Portis' macabre mirth, and only make great movies, so True Grit, which also features Coen alumni Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski) and Josh Brolin (Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men), as well as first-timer Matt Damon (who had a pretty shitty time of it in the adaptation of McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, but will hopefully not fuck up this glorious ensemble) is sure to please almost everyone.

Everyone except my grandmother, who loves John Wayne and hates it when things change. After the jump, I ask Gaga (due to a minor speech impediment that I lost around age 9, I could not say "grandmother" as a small child) how she feels about someone making a new True Grit.

Gaga: HEY MICKEL MAN!

Washington City Paper: HEY GAGA! How are you?

Gaga: Well, thank you! How are you?

WCP: I’m great. I’m calling to interview you. Again.

Gaga: OK.

WCP: Had you heard that someone was remaking True Grit?

Gaga: I had not.

WCP: Have you seen True Grit?

Gaga: Yes I have. It’s one of the most wonderful movies in the world.

WCP: What do you think about—

Gaga: Katherine Hepburn and John Wayne! *

WCP: Right. What do you think about someone remaking it? Or making another version based on the book?

Gaga: I think that’s like remaking Gone with the Wind.

WCP: Well, it’s from the guys who made Raising Arizona.

Gaga: Say what?

WCP: The guys who made Raising Arizona. Do you remember that movie? The Coen Brothers? They’re remaking True Grit.

Gaga: Raising Arizona was a phenomenal movie. I laughed my head off. But you know, I feel like True Grit and To Kill a Mockingbird, they’re just movies that ought not to be messed around with. Of course, I’m just such an afficianado of John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn that I don’t see how you could cast people to come up to their level in that movie.

WCP: What if I took you to go see it?

Gaga: I’d give it a fling, yeah. So. I’m giving you the answers you expected, I’m sure.

WCP: Yes.

Gaga: Ole dyed in the wool John Wayne fan here! And Katherine Hepburn! I just read the story of her life, you know. And the book is called, It’s All about Me! [Laughing]

WCP: This is an autobiography you just read?

Gaga: Yeah!

WCP: Katherine Hepburn is still alive?

Gaga: No, she’s dead. This was written when she was in her later years. Hold the phone for just a sec, Michael.

[On hold]

Gaga: At the time it was a No. 1 best-seller, and it’s called Me: Stories of My Life.

WCP: Did you just grab that for my benefit?

Gaga: No, Marnay brought it over. It has marvelous pictures. And you know, she had a fling with Howard Hughes; this one, that one; but her true love was Spencer Tracy.

WCP: Of course.

Gaga: She leaves it until the very end of the book to talk about. She makes an outlandish statement. She says, “I fell in love with Spencer, and we began to see each other.” Then she says, “I’m not so sure that he wasn’t a little cautious, he may have thought I was a lesbian, but by God he found out in short order that I was not.” Don’t you love that? [Laughing]

WCP: Yes. Very candid.

Gaga: Anyway. It’s a good book and I really enjoyed reading it. So, there’s that.

WCP: Are you excited about me coming to visit?

Gaga: Of course I’m excited about y’all coming down! Do you have anybody to pick you up at the airport?

WCP: Um...

Gaga: Well, if you need me to pick you up, let me know. Did you get the interview you expected?

WCP: I did. It’s great.

Gaga: I love you!

WCP: Love you too.

Gaga: Bye sugar!

* CORRECTION: As an astute reader points out, Hepburn starred with Wayne in the True Grit sequel Rooster Cogburn ; Kim Darby was in True Grit.

I then called Gaga. Her response: "Oooooooooh, you're right! Well I meant Rooster Cogburn. True Grit was an OK movie, too. I don't care if they remake it. But to remake Rooster Cogburn would be a travesty."

A Serious Man: Thumbs are largely up for the Coen brothers' latest, a dark and semi-autobiographical comedy about a Jewish family in the '60s Midwest.

Coco Before Chanel: Audrey Tautou may finally shake her Amelie pixiehood with this turn as the before-she-was-famous titular couturier.

Good Hair: Chris Rock's documentary about African-American hair — what's considered bad, what's considered good, and how expensive and time-consuming it is to trade one for the other.

Couples Retreat: Don't go to see this. Don't even queue it or wait for it to hit cable. Unless you're looking for reasons to stop liking Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Malin Ackerman, Kristin Davis, or Kristen Bell.

Oregon folk-rock posse Blitzen Trapper this week released a music video for the song "Black River Killer," off the band's 2008 record Furr. The song is a sociopath's anthem; the diary of a murderer who keeps getting released by the state then consistently kills the first person he encounters. The video, directed by newcomer Daniel Elkayam, depicts the faceless recidivist's travels from victim to victim and jailhouse to jailhouse in a series of scenes sewn together as a single, swooping tracking shot.

(Video embedded after jump.)

Elkayam's video seems to draw heavily from the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, which emphasizes the song's thematic similarities with the Oscar-winning film (and book). The the song's chorus, "Oh when, oh when / Will the spirit come a-callin' for my soul to send? / Oh when, oh when / Will the keys to the kingdom be mine again?" evokes not Anton Chigurh, No Country's wayward mercenary, but Sheriff Tom Bell (played in the film by Tommy Lee Jones), who in the penultimate scene tells his invalid brother, "I always thought as I got older, God would just sort of come into my life somehow. And he didn't."

Bell's struggle to maintain his faith against the inexorable cruelty of the world is the film's central tragedy; in the song, this tragedy unfolds within the Black River Killer himself. "I've been wandering in the dark about as long as sin / But they say it's never too late to start again." The songs puts this optimism on trial. By its end, the Killer comes to the same conclusion as Bell, replacing that hopeful axiom with a much bleaker one: No man can expel darkness from the world, or himself–and neither can God.

In the music video, "Black River Killer" seems less a tale of a troubled ne'er-do-well and more a criticism of the criminal justice system. The civil authorities–particularly the sheriff–seem at once outraged by the Killer's behavior and eager to give him yet another change to go straight. Elkayam gives the lyric "It's never too late to start again" to the sheriff (played by Jeff Gorham), whose evangelical bluster only reinforces the phrase's naive reductionism. To wit, the next scene shows the sheriff dead with a knife in his back while the Black River Killer breezes off to Oregon in search of his next victim.