A Conversation With My Father About True Grit

I'm on the phone with my father, who has just seen True Grit.

Did it hold up? I ask.

We both like the old John Wayne movie, if only for the line That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.

Yeah, he says, pretty much. The spy played a better part than the musician.

The spy? I say. We seem to be crossing genres.

I don't know, he says. You know. The guy who's best friend is Africa.

Huh. I try to make the necessary intuitive leaps.

Then I get it. Ohhhh, I say.

Matt Damon, who plays a spy in the Bourne movies, and whose best friend is Ben Affleck, is better than Glen Campbell, the singer, who played the same part in the original. Is that it?

Yup.