I've managed to watch a flurry of movies over the past few weeks given my monk-like existence living by myself, and I've gotten quite behind in throwing my Cheetos of endorsement to some mighty good flicks this season.
First up, No Country For Old Men. This may be the best movie of 2007. This film seems a bit less quirky than most of Joel and Ethan Coen's earlier works, but still holds up to the fine quality of moviemaking we're all accustomed to from them. Based on a book by Cormac McCarthy (whose prose doesn't easily lend itself to movie adaptations), No Country For Old Men follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a nobody guy hunting on the plains of west Texas who stumbles upon a Mexican drug deal gone bad and ends up with a briefcase full of cash. Hot on his trail is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a hired bounty hunter who seems to embody the devil himself, seemingly having no one to answer to except fate itself. Throw in a gang of Mexican drug dealers trying to recover their money, and a Tommy Lee Jones as the local sheriff trying to keep Moss out of trouble, and the entire mess becomes a bloodbath where you're not really sure what's lurking around the corner.
If for nothing else, this movie is worth watching strictly for Javier Bardem. This may be one of the scariest villains on film in quite some time, ranking up there with Jack Nicholson in The Shining or Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. You may never feel comfortable around a tank of compressed gas again. And if Bardem doesn't get an Oscar for his performance, I can truly say he got robbed. The Coen Brothers manage to use only lighting, camera angles, and some strategic moments of sustained silence that will keep you on edge for the entire movie--all of this with nary a soundtrack to use as a crutch.
What's the central theme of this film? I'm not quite sure, other than an exploration of evil, and the influences of fate that seemingly have no bearing on whether we are good people or bad. There are forces of nature that exist that we can't control which will kill you or allow you to live with seemingly no reason at all other than the a flip of a coin. Like Cormac McCarthy's books, it takes some time to really digest the deeper meaning of it all, and I haven't yet had the time to figure it all out. Still, if you want a movie to chew around for awhile, this one is it.
Next up--Beowulf. Beowulf was one of those epic poems I actually enjoyed reading back in high school. Telling the tale of an ancient hero slaying monsters and dragons, I'm surprised it hasn't got the high-dollar Hollywood treatment before. I was actually a bit hesitant to see this, though, given the use of that motion capture animation Robert Zemeckis has grown so fond of. I guess it's sort of cool to be able to manipulate actors at will using this technology. How else to get Anthony Hopkins to cavort around in nothing but a sheet in a beer hall, give Ray Winstone six-pack abs, and get Angelina Jolie to show full frontal nudity? Still, just a brief glimpse in those animated eyes gives you a soulless body staring back at you, which is kind of freaky.
The action, though, is top notch, and you don't need much in the way of soulful eyes to ramp up those types of scenes. The kinetic scenes alone probably saves me from giving this a "Stale" rating on the Kool-Aid Gang Cheetos scale. Given the freedom of computer animation, the laws of physics can be thrown out the window to provide the means to have epic-sized battles between mere men and dragons that will get your heart rate pumping along. And because it's all in 3-D, I managed to give it a pass on those animated zombie eyes, and stepped up it's rating just a bit. But watch this movie without the those special glasses, and I'll call this movie kind of "Bland."
Finally, to round out my backlog of good films to review--Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. There's nothing spectacular about this movie about a simple jewelry heist that goes terribly wrong, but it's a good drama nonetheless. The beginning scene, watching Philip Seymour Hoffman's naked white chubby ass having doggy-style sex with a very naked and beautiful Marisa Tomei kind of puts you in an awkward situation, not knowing whether you're enjoying what you're watching or not. It's seems wholly out of place, a pairing that seems to be totally mismatched, and almost seems to be foreshadowing the whole clusterfuck that's about to happen.
Everyone in this cast has "Academy Award Winner" or "Academy Award Nominee" attached to his or her resume, so it goes without saying that the performances are great. Nothing that will get more Oscar credentials for them with the next Academy Awards, but good nonetheless. This is one of those movies that probably would play just as well in the comfort of your home on DVD as it did on the big screen.
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