I had the opportunity to pull a doubleheader on Saturday, and had the pleasant surprise of seeing 2 very good films... (To be honest, my lover chose the movies - and she did a very good job. Her track record isn't perfect, but whose is? Remember, I had the privilege of watching "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon" and Alec Baldwin's "The Shadow" in the theater. So I know a little about bad choices)No Country For Old Men: I have been waiting on two of our reporters to get off their Hillary Duffs and give me some feedback on the film that is likely to garner the Coen brothers a nom or two - but to no avail. Ol' Blood and Guts' mother died (he would have reviewed the book) and who wants to leave the best Coen in years to a mungchung who names himself FritoP.? No Country has already received the highest praise from critics - and while the film is reminiscent of some of their earlier work, watching this movie is a truly unique experience. If you have seen Fargo and Blood Simple, you know the Brothers have a thing for hard-boiled crime stories replete with unsterilized violence and uh.... lots of blood. The plot is a simple one, drug deal gone bad - innocent bystander takes off with the money, and a psychopath is tasked with getting the money back. Obviously inspired by their professional idolatry of Milius, the Coens trot out an impressive array of weapons and the bloodletting commences. For me, the brilliance of this flick was its ability to maintain an incredible amount of tension over the span of two hours - without resorting to outrageous bullet spraying shoot-em-up scenes. The border town setting brought a great deal - from the beautiful desert scenery, to the lawlessness of the frontier, to the constant danger and fragility of life. The acting is beyond excellent. I can't believe how much I like Josh Brolin - give me another actor who in the space of one year has cranked out three unforgettable roles like Brolin has in Planet Terror, American Gangster and No Country. Not only has he done well, who else has worked with RobRod, Ridley and the Coens? You will hear the most talk about Javier Bardem - and rightfully so... He is everything you expect.... unless you want a foaming at the mouth psycopath. Calm, methodical, sinister, insane, indifferent, single-minded, obsessed and effective.
Control: I was taken to this movie without any idea what it was about (sometimes the best way to go). I guess I had been lazy, and to be honest it blended in with the countless other black and white indie movies that come and go so fast every year... It is a biopic of Ian Curtis, the lead singer for English misery rock band Joy Division. Okay so misery rock isn't fair, but if you don't know them - trust me they are anything but bubbly. Being a New Order fan, I know the story has a happy ending but the majority of the film is spent chronicling the misery of a 23 year old famous rock star (heard this one before?). Yeah, we have all seen the rocker suicide bit before, but Ian isn't bedeviled by hard drugs - it was just way too much for this 23 year old to deal with. The actor that plays Ian Curtis does an excellent job... One of those performances that will taint my memory forever - I will always think he is Ian Curtis (It helps that he hasn't done anything else). A little bit o' research tells me Sam Riley was in a band before he began acting (shocking, him being British and all). Sarcasm aside, you can tell he knows his way around the stage - I found myself wanting him to perform again and again. Mesmerizing.
3 comments:
BTW No, the pic is not of Ian Curtis Manchester, England circa 1980
The reason i waited to do a review was because of the ending of the film, to me there is no point in discussing the more meaningful parts of the story and not discuss the ending. You can't give that kind of ending away. You wouldn't sit through the movie if you knew it ended that way. Which is why dad won't go see it.
Did somebody give the ending away? I present the above review as an example of writing about a film while still giving people a reason to go see it. Do you think different?
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