anyone else have trouble warming to "No Country for Old Men"

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:46am

Boy, this film is a tough one to dissent about. Let's face it, it's just not cool in any quarter not to love this movie. But the unrelenting, unexplained, improbably sadistic MO of the creature (not exactly a character, any more than Michael Meyers is a character) who drives the Coen Brothers film just alienated me in extreme and totally left me disconnected from all the accolades. The film's combo of bleak terrain, nihilstic behavior and drily humorous homespun tweaks at every bloody turn just feels too cynical for even these dark times. I saw a lot of talent, wit, and technical brilliance in service of something neither tragic nor in any way illuminating. From the minute the Brolin character wanders into a grand guignol-esque crime scene in the desert and behaves as no human being in my experience would ever behave ... I knew I was going to resist the film's cold-blooded pull. If the whole point of the film is to burrow deep inside the Tommy Lee Jones character's traumatized pov about the violent nature of our culture ... then why the hell do we sit there laughing our heads off at Badem's murderous antics? Watching him measure human life in a coin toss is just sooooo chic, isn't it? And more often than not have to execute the poor gambler? Oooh, what dramatic irony, what a fable for our times. Count me out.

And take me back to OH BROTHER.

Updated On: 1/8/08 at 11:46 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:50am

Warm to it? I can't even drag myself to it. It just looks like too much work.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:54am

I haven't warmed to a Coen Brothers film since RAISING ARIZONA. There's just nothing about NO COUNTRY that interests me at all, except the nearly unanimous raves it has gotten. Of course, these same raves were given to over-rated drivel like MILLION DOLLAR BABY.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:55am

I loved it until the ending where I just got confused.

I have to confess (though I still have a bunch of films to see (Juno, American Gangster, Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War and more) that I haven't been too thrilled with this year. I don't feel like I have seen the "Best Picture" of the year yet.

I saw There Will Be Blood last night and overall, I'm disappointed. And I LOVE Paul Thomas Anderson.

These two films seems to share a kind of energy that may be a result of these times. But it's not an energy I share I guess.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:58am

Namo, when I first worded this thread, in the subject I just said "Old Men," and of course, plenty of people have trouble warming to old men. A rather different topic.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 12:11pm

I can't bring myself to go see it either.

Even the trailer had me checking my watch. It's just not my kind of movie.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 12:15pm

loved it.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:37pm

anyone else have trouble warming to 'no country for old men?'

Not as much trouble as I had warming to "Atonement".

[Liverpool]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:41pm

I loved No Country.

(and atonement)

[Liverpool]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:41pm

well i'll be ****ed, that was a double post. Updated On: 1/8/08 at 06:41 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:42pm

I was talking about the movie, Auggie! Honest! I have no trouble dragging myself to old men in real life, just ask my dating pool.

I meant the movie. And jrb's exactly right, the current slate of sociopathic killer movies is a direct reflection of the times we live in, which I already feel bad enough about without going to the movies.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:43pm

Well, I loved "In the Valley of Elah," but I was only one of the 14 people in America who saw it.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:44pm

I wanted to see it Auggie, it just came out when I was completely broke.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:50pm

I'm with papa. I loved it.

And I actually really liked IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH also, even though I'm not exactly a Paul Haggis fan.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:56pm

Yeah, it was the year of Tommy Lee Jones and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. They're in 2/3 of the movies.

I hope Tommy Lee gets a nomination for one of his pictures, but his performance in Elah was particularly nuanced and heartbreaking. When it's on DVD, perhaps it will finally find a bigger pool of admirers.

Jones is an actor you never catch ... acting. So he's sometimes ignored. It's wonderful to see an actor his age still finding dimensional roles (his was the best written in NO COUNTRY, in my opinion) that employ his greatness.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 6:56pm

"Jones is an actor you never catch ... acting."

Perfectly stated.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 7:57pm

I like subtle things. However, I thought the end of the movie was too subtle to appreciate. I liked the rest of the movie though.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 8:55pm

I liked it.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 8:58pm

Even the trailer had me checking my watch.

Add me to that group, Besty.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 9:59pm

Very slow.

Very dull.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:29pm

I disagree. That movie was hypnotic and awesome. I can't wait to watch it over and over.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:38pm

It's perfection.

A brilliant film.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 1/11/08 at 4:24pm

I just got my SAG screener in the mail! Can't wait to watch it! (Bestie: How do you feel about watching it in the comfort of your own home?)

[robbiej]

Posted: 1/11/08 at 4:46pm

Add me to the "Big Woo" Crew. I thought it was very well made. But I was completely uninvolved. I also felt like I learned nothing new. In comparison with Fargo, which treaded some of the same terrain (though in a wildly different tone), I felt you needed a Frances McDormand to be your way in. I think Tommy Lee Jone's work is wonderful...I just didn't care about the character. Or any character. I thought I'd be moved when ***SPOILER*** the Kelly Macdonald character was done in. But nothing. Nada.

It's impressive filmmaking. But that's all I took away from it.

Bardem was creepy as all get out...but I have to tell you, I thought Charles Fleischer was infinitely more creepy in Zodiak.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 1/11/08 at 7:34pm

I found that you really did have sort of an entry with every character that wasn't Anton Chigurh. Everyone is completely puzzled and aghast at the incredible amount of evil in the world, personified by Anton Chigurh.