Film #4: No Country for Old Men

As I seem to be WAY behind the times, I have to admit a certain admiration for the Coen brothers. OR, as the Bard would say, the Brothers Coen. Maybe. Anyway, last weekend I saw O Brother, Where Art Thou, and enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. Some of you may recall my bitter, bitter feelings towards NCFOM without having seen it, but you must likewise remember that I am a simple person, and thus, a pushover for the movie Juno.

At any rate, I really, REALLY loved this film. I was not without moments of sheer confusion, disgust, and, somehow, amusement. Watching this movie reminded me a bit of the Kill Bill volumes: the violence is somehow a character in addition to the characters' actions. And somehow it becomes not only a strangely artistically choreographed event, but, well, it no longer IS an event.

There's very little music. The hardest adjustment is when you KNOW something bad's about to happen. No creepy music. I heard no music at end credits, too. So simple.

What an eye these guys have. There were so many scenes where I wish I had just paused and looked. Particularly when Ed Tom (Tommy Lee Jones) enters a hotel room and you can see his shadow... very Western... And after the first few scenes where death has either just visited or is just around the corner (first few scenes), there is that element, that unmistakable proof of the human struggle. I mean, Crazy Anton strangles a police officer, and there are so many scuff marks on the floor, you can just imagine how tough that is. I'm reminded of a Hitchcock film that I've never seen where a woman's trying to kill a man and he just doesn't seem to die! What is that? The perseverance of life?

Tommy Lee Jones is amazingly versatile as an actor, and they way he just takes on the exhaustion, the disbelief and yet complacency with the state of things today (which, we learn, is no different from 100 years ago) ... it makes me want to weep, it's so beautiful.

Javier Bardem -- WOW. This guy has creepy psycho DOWN. Excellent.

Josh Brolin -- Very surprising character, at least to me. The first few scenes where he just utters a word are SO powerful and ironic and strangely funny. MY favorite line? "Yeah."

Woody Harrelson -- Wow, um, Woody's kinda hot. Sorry to move away from acting skills (he, of course, did an excellent job), etc, but he's VERY attractive in this movie. I have no clue why.

Okay, I'll stop. To warn those of you who haven't yet seen this movie, it's pretty darn violent, and it's quite long. But I didn't realize it was that long until I put the DVD back in its netflix sleeve and saw the duration. It's a complicated movie (to my brain), but I didn't feel as if it moved slowly.

Rating: 5/5 stars OR netflix "I loved it"