Garrett Hedlund: this should have been his apex with Tron and Country Strong but it did not happen; his apex was probably 2004 and this was his lost Apex Mountain.
Hedlund's karaoke audition and country training; Paltrow emailing Robert Downey Jr.; Hedlund and McGraw's Friday Night Lights history; Hedlund crying off-camera; Paltrow losing Kelly Taylor to Jennie Garth; Paltrow turning down The Ring; Paltrow learning guitar; Meester's mother's prison birth
Garrett Hedlund auditioned at a Koreatown karaoke bar singing Pearl Jam's "Better Man."
The director said he took four months off, learned guitar, took voice lessons and went to Nashville early to work with producers.
Paltrow emailed her Iron Man castmate Robert Downey Jr. to understand addiction and rehab, and he wrote back an amazing email; some would find that pretentious.
The director said that in the Dallas goodbye scene, shot on Gwyneth's side first with the camera on the back of Garrett's head, Garrett cried for her performance.
Paltrow lost the Kelly Taylor role on 90210 to Jennie Garth.
She would have been an amazing Kelly Taylor, though she probably would have left after about four seasons. — Bill Simmons
She turned down The Ring in 2002; her filmography lacks a good horror movie about a house with something wrong with it.
Paltrow learned guitar from scratch over several months, and Chris Martin told her she played better than U2's frontman, though her playing in the movie is not great. — Liz Kelly
Leighton Meester's real mother gave birth to her as a prison inmate, and her character's mother is also in prison. — Liz Kelly
Going off the board: create a new character, a successful generational rival for Kelly, seen in one or two scenes being condescendingly friendly, played by a famous country star or actress; this would solve the Dion Waiters Award and the recasting couch. — Bill Simmons
Objection: Leighton Meester is already the rival; reply: she is the younger rival, while this is the rival from Kelly's own generation.
Support: the rival must be successful and really mean, e.g. apologizing for not reaching out after the baby died but saying they were praying for her.
Aside: the Leighton Meester character is likable, though she could be recast.
Objection: the rival would send Kelly over the edge faster; she already lost it when Chiles took her song.
Suggestion: a cameo for Reba ten years ago, followed by "I don't know."
Suggestion: Carrie Underwood if you want a country star; objected to as too young, conceded as a thought about remaking it now. — Amanda Dobbins
Faith Hill is proposed and seconded: Tim McGraw brings her on set; she looks a bit like Kelly but has her life together.
Tim McGraw's underwritten husband; dismissal of Chiles's pop crossover; no social media for Kelly's drunk bar performance; Bo's disheveled oversized clothes; dry-bar barrel-curl hair and 2010 styling; the reviews
The movie is dismissive of the Leighton Meester character going outside country music to find success, which is dead wrong about how the last ten years worked.
Tim McGraw is given little to work with: an unlikable character with confusing motivation, 100% responsible for his wife's death.
The character needed more on stage as a former star, or a recast; there is little chemistry and it is hard to believe they were married.
Dissent: one host bought the marriage and says they watch the whole movie with rose-colored lenses.
He flirts with Meester and visits her hotel room, though he is not cheating on Kelly, who sleeps with others including her tour manager.
Alternative fixes: make him cartoonishly evil like the Shawshank warden, or a former country star who lost his voice and sings with her near the end; the Star Is Born formula works.
No social media for Kelly's drunk bar performance, though there were cell phones in 2010.
A proposal to make Kelly 25% drunker and meaner is contested since she already hits Tim McGraw; others agree the movie keeps the safety rails on, e.g. her tour-manager hookup stays clothed.
The speaker's wife's note: Bo's disheveled oversized clothes.
Contender: the dry-bar hair of side part, straightened bangs and big barrel curls, which the speaker wore to every dance for the next six years.
The hair is of the dry-bar moment and also a country-music aesthetic of tall blonde women such as Carrie Underwood and Faith Hill. — Amanda Dobbins
Gwyneth goes from straight hair to full barrel curls within two minutes, a two-hour process; tiny bandage dresses, peplum and heavy under-eye liner are circa 2010.
The reviews: a Guardian quote mocks Paltrow singing her own material in a self-indulgent movie, and a New York Times quote finds her seriously miscast as an unreformed alcoholic with a thin, serviceable voice.
A Hollywood Reporter quote: cliches plucked from country lyrics fuel an unconvincing show-business story that is hard to synopsize.
A Boston Globe quote: the film ends nine times, and Festi mistook her protagonist for Lindsay Lohan or Courtney Love; its writer, Wesley Morris, has since warmed to the movie.
