NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Enters The Classic Coen Bros. Canon - Just Don't Call It A Comeback

Cormac McCarthy: MILLER'S CROSSING is in that category. I don't want to embarrass you, but that's just a very, very fine movie.

Joel Coen: Eh, it's just a damn rip-off.

- Time Magazine Oct. 18th, 2007 (A Conversation Between Author Cormac McCarthy And The Coen Brothers)

It has been a while since Joel and Ethan Coen unleashed a movie that really made an impact. Their last offerings - THE LADYKILLERS (2004), INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (2003), and a personal favorite of mine - THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (2001) all had their fair share of merits and moments but you'd have to reach back to O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU (2000) to cite any serious seismic blip on the pop culture radar. Even during this supposed down-time they never had a critically lambasted failure or did anything resembling "jumping the shark" so the held belief was they would check in with another masterpiece someday in the future. Well the day has now come with the instant classic that is:

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Dirs. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2007)

A more faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel could not be imagined. There are a few transitional dialogue and setting embellishments but the bulk of this film is directly, word for word, from the brilliant book. In the vast plains of Rio Grande, Texas in 1980, Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss - a poor Vietnam vet who one day when out hunting antelopes comes across a slew of dead bodies, a large surplus of heroin, and a satchel containing over 2 million dollars. He takes the satchel and returns to his wife (Kelly Macdonald) at his trailer park home but wakes in the middle of the night with what he himself recognizes as a "dumber than Hell" compulsion to return to the crime scene. Soon to be on his trail is what can only be described as a completely evil man - Chigurh (Javier Bardem). With an odd Prince Valiant-style haircut and a never ceasing confidence, Chigurh uses a cattle gun to kill just about anyone who gets in his way throughout the film (usually through the forehead) and it also comes in handy to blow out door locks. "What is this guy supposed to be, the ultimate bad-ass?" - Moss even asks Carson Wells (a smooth Woody Harrelson) - yet another man on the trail of the money.

As Sherriff Bell and a sort of narrator in his grizzled though still whimsical monologues Tommy Lee Jones tries to make sense of these new violent times. He never appears surprised by each new bloody development - he takes it all in with a jaded shrugging sigh. Though many of the stylistic devices have been used and reused by the Coen Brothers before (the roadside murders, the seedy hotels, etc.) amidst the shoot-outs, chases and scary darkness there are waves of fresh subtleties that they hadn't explored before. The quirky everyday folk that reside in little general stores out in the middle of nowhere might have provoked ridicule before in such Coen classics as RAISING ARIZONA, FARGO, and O BROTHER but this time out I found the audience around me were tittering around - almost afraid to laugh at these people. Like Chigurh - who one character refers to as a man "without a sense of humor" seems to know all too well is that their fates, whether by his hands or by natural destiny, aren't that funny.

More later...

THE LADYKILLERS: The Film Babble Blog Review

Opening today in the Triangle:

THE LADYKILLERS 

(Dirs. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2004) 

The Coen Brothers’ remake of Alexander Mackendrick’s beloved 1955 Ealing Studios comedy sorely lacks the wit of their previous comedic work (even their previous under par movie, 2003’s INTOLERABLE CRUELTY was funnier), but at least it doesn’t omit the ironic conclusion of the original like the 2001 OCEAN’S 11 remake did. So at least there’s that. 

The Coens take many liberties with the plot-points and characters of the British original, which starred Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers (in his first full length feature role), but very few of their alterations work in the film’s favor.

Decked out in Colonel Sanders-ish attire, Tom Hanks plays Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, who shares with past Coen characters H.I. McDonnough (Nicholas Cage in RAISING ARIZONA) and Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney in O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU) a distinctive trait: his diction and command of the English language far exceeds any other skill or ambition.

The pretentious Professor’s plan here is to rent a room in an unassuming elderly Marva Munson's (Irma P. Hall) house in the small sleepy town of Saucier, Mississippi, and with an assembled gang of cronies including Marlon Wayans and J.K. Simmons (from the HBO series Oz) tunnel through the basement to pull off a heist of the Riverside Casino's vault.

They con their landlord by masquerading as musicians who need a place to practice by playing classical music on a portable stereo to simulate their performance and cover the sound of tunneling. This is one of many comic conventions on display that has been done to death.

Hall’s Marva Munson is a Bob Jones University praising church going figure of reason who regularly converses with a painting of her late husband. Her deceased spouse’s expression changes in reaction to the twists in the farce, an effect not in the original but in far too many comedies since. With contrived lines like “Two thousand years after Jesus, thirty years after Martin Luther King, the age of Montel; sweet Lord of mercy is that where we at?” Marva is far from one of the Coens’ best concoctions.

Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans) gets a few laughs as the inside connection at the Casino speaking what Munson condemns as “hippity hop” talk. Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons) also amuses as a explosives expert who loses a finger at one point, bickers with everyone, and constantly says “it's the easiest thing in the world” about everything. Unfortunately Simmons’ irritable bowel syndrome suffering makes for some of the un-funniest material in the Coens’ entire canon.

The General played by Tzi Ma seems to exist in the story to fill a smoking gag - when Munson enters the room he hides his cigarette in his mouth perfectly restoring it with his tongue when she leaves. Again a slight variation on a gag in too many comedies, much like a lot of the throwaway attempts to draw humor here.

Hanks does a good job with Prof. Dorr's ticks - his nervous laughter, his pristine babble, and the faces he makes when frantically scheming, but he never made me forget Alec Guiness’ Professor Marcus in the 1955 version. A little of Hanks’ shtick goes a long way too.

The original was a classic comedy that wickedly mixed black humor with silliness, which are two things the Coen brothers usually excel at. But here they fall way short of what they are capable of by being too loose and broad. They’ve been cartoonish before (see RAISING ARIZONA), but this time the strained situations that surround their clunky cast of caricatures fail to generate any big laughs. Unnecessary on nearly every front - as a remake, a farcical retread, as an ensemble piece, THE LADYKILLERS just goes through the motions and never quite hits any stride.

More later...

Listomania: Coen Brothers Edition

To celebrate the release of the new Coen brothers movie THE LADYKILLERS tomorrow, this is a special edition of Film Babble Blog’s Listomania dedicated to the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.



This is a career re-cap of sorts with Coen bros. lists, quotes, fun facts, and other whatnot leading up to my review of their newest that will be posted tomorrow.



Okay then... First up:


BASIC FILMOGRAPHY AND GUIDE TO THIS POST 

BS: BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) RA: RAISING ARIZONA (1987) 
MC: MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) 
BF: BARTON FINK (1991) 
HP: HUDSUCKER'S PROXY (1994) 
F: FARGO (1997) 
TBL: THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) 
OBWAT: O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? (2000) 
TMWWT: THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (2001) 
IC: INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (2003) 
LK: THE LADYKILLERS (2004)


THE COEN BROTHERS REPERTORY ROLE CALL 1984-2004:


Steve Buscemi: MC, BF, HP, F, BL 
Campbell, Bruce: HP, F, IC, LK (2 small parts and 2 as "soap actor on TV" - all 4 un-credited) 
Blake Clark: IC, LK 
George Clooney: OBWAT, IC 
Charles Durning: HP, OBWAT 
John Goodman: RA, BF, BL, OBWAT 
Holly Hunter: BS, RA, OBWAT 
John Mahooney: BF, HP 
John McConnell: MC, OBWAT, LK 
Frances McDormand: BS, RA, F, MWWT 
Jon Polito: MC, BF, HP, BL, MWWT 
Stephen Root: OBWAT, LK 
Tony Shalhoub: MC, BF, BL, MWWT 
Hallie Singleton: MWWT, LK 
Peter Stormare: F, BL 
Billy Bob Thornton: MWWT, IC 
John Turturro: MC, BF, BL, OBWAT 
M. Emmet Walsh: BS, RA 

COEN BROS. FUN FACT FORUM: 

The line "if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass a-hoppin'" appears in 2 Coen Bros. flicks - RA (1987) & HP (1994)

Musicians Aimee Mann (as the nihilist's girlfriend) and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (as Smokey - the league bowler who insists that he "wasn't over the line") make brief but notable cameos in BL (1997)

In RA (1987) Nicholas Cage works at Hudsucker Industries - an obvious connection to their later film HP (1994)

In MC there's a building called the Barton Arms another obvious connection to a later film. 

F (1996) says at the beginning "This is a true story - the events of this film took place in Minnesota in 1987..." This is totally false. They made the whole thing up! Those damn pranksters!

Editor Roderick Jaynes - listed as a member of BAFTA (The British Academy Of Film and Television Arts) was nominated for F (1996) and praised for his work on BS and BF (I know its confusing - see above code will ya?), but was found out upon his Oscar nomination to being a fabrication by the Coens. That's right, Jaynes never existed. They created the name because when editing BS (1984) they thought there were too many Coens in the credits already.

In IC (2003) Judge Marva Munson played by Isabell O'Connor finds in favor of Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann) in the Divorce trial proceedings leaving his wife (Catherine Zeta Jones) literally out in the cold. In LK (2004) Marva Munson (Irma T. Hall) is unkowingly duped into being a front for a heist. Why the same name? Are the characters related or the same person at different points in their lives? Maybe they just like the name. Who knows?

3 LOST OR FORGOTTEN OR OBSCURE OR JUST IGNORED COEN OR COEN RELATED FILMS: 

CRIMEWAVE (1985): Hard to find movie at most videostores and unavailable on DVD. Written by the Coen brothers but directed by Sam Raimi. "We prefer it lost" - Joel Coen to Uncut Magazine (May 1998). 

THE NAKED MAN (1993): Ethan Coen co-wrote this oddity with director J Todd Anderson.

BAD SANTA (2003): Ethan Coen executive produced and came up with the story with Joel Coen.

COEN BROTHERS ON DVD - WHAT SHOULD YOU BUY AND WHAT SHOULD YOU WAIT FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION OF? 

BS (1984): BUY IT - This currently available Universal DVD contains the director's cut that was theatrically released in 2000 plus a commentary by Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Films and a great old school trailer. I seriously doubt we'll get any more material on the Coen's debut movie so go ahead and get it. 

RA (1997): WAIT FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION - This paltry disc from 2oth Century Fox has no extras and being that it is a comic masterpiece and the flick that busted the Coens into the mainstream somewhat it deserves better. Much better. Hold out until the powers that be grant this a special edition. It's got to happen.

MC (1990) - BUY IT

BF (1991) - BUY IT

HP (1994) - WAIT FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION

F (1996) - BUY IT Good new 2003 special edition was worth waiting for. It has a new documentary "Minnesota Nice", a commentary by Roger Deakins, and a cool Charlie Rose appearance by the Coens along with Frances McDormand. Shame on you if you don't already own this.

BL (1998) -WAIT FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION

TMWWT (2001) - BUY IT This contains one of the funniest DVD commentaries ever with Joel, Ethan, and Billy Bob Thornton tracking the "Ed nod" and adding lots of witty insight into an otherwise stoic, dry, and slow film. Also contains a few brief inessential deleted scenes - just a couple of hair-cut examples that were rightfully cut. Definitely a strong Coen Bros film that gets better every viewing. Get it and watch it with the commentary and try not to agree.

IC (2003) - BUY IT The most commercial outting yet by our indie duo comes with a decent DVD transfer and a number of outtakes - really bloopers and unused footage. The Coen Brothers apparently don't think of "deleted scenes" in the same way that most of us do judging by their DVDs.

THE COEN BROTHERS IN THE ROUND

Evelle (picking up a bag of balloons): Do these blow into funny shapes and all? 
Grocer: Well, no, unless round is funny.

- From RA.

According to the IMDB: "The Coens frequently focus on round spinning objects. The hat in Miller's Crossing, bowling balls and tumble-weed in BL, hair pomade tins in OBWAT...or UFO and a car wheel in TMWWT." To that we can add the hula hoops in HP (1994). I loved the touch that when Charles Durning re-appears as the ghost of Hudsucker, his halo spins like a hula hoop lit up around his head.

The Barber shop pole and the contrasting haircut head-shots in MWWNT are other notable circular examples. The bowling balls that the IMDB mentions in BL provide many opportunities for shots involving rolling roundness. The best and most unique shot comes from a montage in which we got a barrell view of a spinning bowling alley as a ball rolls down the lane. That's right - it's a point-of-view shot from the finger hole on a bowling ball! I'm still not exactly sure how they pulled that off.

Part of the Coens style in scene set-up is to display extreme close-ups of inanimate objects. In BF (1991) our protagonist rings the desk bell at the hotel and we get a shot of the bell as it boings thoughout the lobby and slowly stops vibratingly buzzing - beyond beautiful. In the world of Coen cinema round isn't just funny - it's hilarious!

Check back tomorrow for the Film Babble Blog Review of THE LADYKILLERS.

More later...