Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a studio ‘fixer’ in the studio system in 1950s Hollywood, dealing with communists, divas, scandals, gossip columnists and the untalented.
Fun, funny and gorgeous – this is one of the Coen brothers’ lighter films, with a top cast and great lines. I guess my only criticism is that it all just seemed a bit too easy; often the Coen brothers films really challenge my viewing, but this was like a bubble bath. Nice and relaxing and familiar.
Abby (Frances McDormand) and Ray (John Getz) are having an affair and when her husband, Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya), finds out, he wants to end them. Add in a strange Private Detective, Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) and things get really messy.
This is the first of the Coen brother films, and it’s a really interesting one. It’s confusing and almost stilted at times and it feels cheap and dated, but essentially, it’s a bloody good first film. And with a maddening and amazing final shot.
For me, I think this was one of the few Coen brothers films that I have never heard of (there are a few, but they have made just so many). It’s one of my less favourites.
There is an elderly black woman, Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), highly religious, who lives in a large house with a ‘root cellar’ (a cellar with dirt walls). A very odd man, “Professor Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr, takes a room upstairs and uses the root cellar for rehearsals of his medieval music ensemble. Without the knowledge of Munson, they are not rehearsing but planning to rob a nearby casino, tunneling in from the root cellar. Things do not go well.
It’s an excellent cast, and some excellent, over-the-top character acting from Hanks and many of the others. The story is alright, although it really only kicks in for me in the last half an hour or so. I learned that this is actually a remake of a 1955 film featuring Peter Sellers – I want to check that one out.
No matter how many times I see this film, I can watch it more. It’s funny, tragic, quirky and ridiculous, and is one of my favourites ever.
So, there’s a guy called Lebowski who is better known as The Dude (Jeff Bridges). He’s an old hippy who potters around, getting through life somehow until one day his house is broken into by thugs who threaten him and urinate on his rug. When realising it is a case of mistaken identity, his best mates and bowling buddies Donnie (Steve Buscemi) and Walter(John Goodman) advise him on how to resolve this issue. And along the way are nihilists, artists, acid flashbacks, kidnappings, beating up cars and a lot of swearing.
If you’ve not seen the film, you may well not like it. Because if you have friends who like the film, they’ve probably forced it on you. If you didn’t like it, you may no longer have those friends – it’s one of those films that people get crazy passionate about. Use this as a test: watch this clip that shows the entrance of Jesus (John Turturro). If you don’t think this is the most magnificent introduction of a character in cinematic history, you may not like the film. And I’ll chuck it out there: what other character entrances are magnificent? (My second would be Ray Winston in the opening of Sexy Beast. Find that one yourself – I couldn’t find it on youtube. You need the full version with Peaches by The Stranglers)
When out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across a group of dead bodies at what was a drug deal gone bad. He tracks down the money to take he and his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald) to a different life, initially unaware that he is being hunted down by psychopathic killer Anton Chugurh (Javier Bardem). Meanwhile, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is following, trying to make sense of what he sees.
This film is totally and utterly brilliant. Tense and scary with the odd edge of humour, weighed down by morality and the lack of morality. I expect a lot of the Coen Brothers, and more often than not, they produce solid, strong, good films. Every now and then, they chuck out perfection. Big call, I know, but I’m putting it out there.
No Country for Old Men won Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Javier Bardem) Best Achievement in Directing (Ethan and Joel Coen) and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen) and was nominated for Best Achievement in Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Best Achievement in Film Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing and Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a teacher whose wife is planning to leave him, who has two children who barely notice him, whose brother has been living on the couch for quite some time and who has a student attempting to bribe him for a passing grade. He doesn’t seem to have any emotional response to any of this. The main response he gets from any of his friends and colleagues is to ask if he has consulted a rabbi. He visits various rabbis getting confusing responses.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Coens for so long that it is so disappointing to come across one of their films that doesn’t totally work for me. I loved the pacing and the feel of the film – really reminded me of early work like Barton Fink. Perhaps it was just there were some parts that I reckon I didn’t get as much because I don’t know all of the ins and outs of the Jewish religion – or how it would be to be a middle class Jew in the suburbs of America in the sixties. I just accepted that some stuff was important even if I didn’t know why. Still, every time that I felt I wasn’t enjoy the film, a scene came along that gave me the Coen brothers love back.
A Serious Man was nominated for Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
ireckonthat 