Old Henry (2021)
Directed by Potsy Ponciroli
A widowed farmer and his son warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the money, the farmer must decide who to trust. Defending a siege of his homestead, the farmer reveals a talent for gun-slinging that surprises everyone calling his true identity into question.
2 connections found
View:
2 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Old Henry to
He also starred in other films like “Get Shorty,” “In The Loop'' and “All The King's Men.”
When Nelson appeared as the singing cowboy dressing in gleaming white as the title character in the Coen Brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” there was a “Bronco Billy” vibe that came with the role, referencing the 1980 Clint Eastwood Wild West comedy.
Old Henry opens with Henry's narration, and it's hard not to recall Nelson in as Buster Scruggs in the opening segment of Joel and Ethan Coen's anthology Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs , narrating with a cheerful bounce and twinkle and singing songs.
He has done variations on this role in films from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” to “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” and the thing about it is that each time Nelson goes Full Hick, you don’t feel like he’s acting; you feel like he just is .
Tim Blake Nelson sheds the “aww shucks” camp that helped him steal every scene in the Coen Brothers’ Oh Brother, Where Art Thou and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to star as the titular Henry here.
The last time most of us saw Tim Blake Nelson in the saddle, he was the warblin’ deadeye from the title of the Coen brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” a jovial caricature of the philosophizing cowboy (and the filmmakers’ own reputation for cruelly funny storytelling).
A couple of years ago, Nelson was unforgettable singing “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” in one of the vignettes of the Coen brothers’ anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which had its world premiere in Venice before going on to get an Oscar nomination for that very song.