Thoughts on movies

Saw No Country For Old Men (SPOILERS BELOW) last night, and along with Grindhouse, I can't remember liking two films this much in the same year. I'm an admitted Coen bros. junkie, and it's nice to see them return to drama after several years making relatively simple comedy.




It's also nice, though unsettling at first, to experience the departure from the Coen bros. norm that this film was. They abandoned their usually dialogue-heavy style in favor of extremely sparse dialogue, totally in keeping with the sparse landscape. Bravo, boys. Even with quiter films like Barton Fink, the dialogue wasn't THIS tangential to the tension. Here, what few snappy bits of dialogue were generally tossed in to lighten the mood a bit after a particularly harrowing scene, or to demonstrate weakness (Hi Woody).

A couple other thoughts-
I LOVED how they built up Woody Harrelson to be this bad motherfucker, and make you expect him to act all nice and then take the film to a whole new level of crazy, and then POW! 10 minutes later he's dead, and a total wuss about being dead. Awesome.

Loved the ending, that left the viewer as unsatisfied as Tommy Lee Jones. The world ain't formulaic- if it was, Jones would be able to understand the crime he's facing. Basically, the anti-Lord of the Rings approach.

Trailers:
City of Men looks awesome and all, but I gotta give credit the geniuses (perverts) who came up with TEETH.



UPDATE - I like to think that the casting director for Teeth had the easiest job in the world. Just use the Snakes on a Plane approach- by stating the three word premise (man-eating pussy), you could lure anyone you wanted for this film. Also, bravo IMDB for applying these tags. I think that list could be used as a barometer of humanity- and it speaks worlds about mine that I LOVE that list.

I forsee a fun-filled evening double feature of Machete/Teeth in my future.