No Country for Old Men is an allegorical modern western that captures a country in transition, thus commenting on present day society and providing an almost nostalgic analysis of the nature of good and evil and the inescapable stranglehold of fate.

Sticking to most genre rules, only to pull out the rug from underneath you at the very end, No Country for Old Men together with There Will be Blood seem to best represent what the modern Western can be. They are almost polar opposites in how they approach what they try to say, but they're still sides of the same coin.

On a literal level the plot is very straightforward, carried by a host of intriguing characters and can…

Sometimes, the rawest of tension can be created by pure silence. The lack of a main score (or any use of music), the quite dialogue between characters, and the vast, empty landscapes of the desert, all of it makes the short bursts of violence all the more gut wrenching and disturbing.

This is one of the most intense films I've seen in a good while, even though most of the time, not a whole lot happened. Usually you'd get the odd moment of Anton shooting a man or one shoot out, but throughout, the tension comes from the fear and knowledge that something WILL happen and someone MIGHT be getting their head blown off....

And yet, even during these moments,…

This is the first time I’ve re-watched the Coen classic since when it was first out in theatres. After re-watching The Man Who Wasn’t There with our neighbours a few weeks ago, I’ve been hankering to revisit what I consider their darkest film. Where the Coens other dark outings are lined with bone dry ironic humor, No Country for Old Men is all serious business.

The Coen trademark noir-esque elements of misbehaviour and consequences are here, but where nature and circumstance dictate the outcome in their other films, here, nature and circumstance is embodied in a character, Anton Chigurh. Javier Bardem is a force of nature wrapped up in a bad hairdo. The sheer weightiness he brings to Chigurh is…

*May have a couple of spoilers if you haven’t watched the film.

What can be said for this film by now? At this point I'm essentially shouting into the wind. However, I did want to comment on this incredible film and its equally incredible novel. Briefly diverting, I hope to god that the Coen's pick another Cormac McCarthy novel to adapt at some point in the future. Maybe (and say it quietly) "Blood Meridian" that'd be something else entirely, but at this point any novel would do.

Back to the review, every aspect of this film is phenomenal from Roger Deakins stunning cinematography, to the editing, the acting, every element of this film from a technical standpoint is crafted to…

“Are you going to shoot me?” 
“That depends. Do you see me?” 

Rapid Review No. 62

Bullet-riddled bodies bake and corrode in the sweltering Texas sun, in a world where moralities are muddied and good intentions are punished. Due to the combined genius of the Coens and Roger Deakins, unparalleled direction and striking cinematography coalesce to form a pulse-pounding collection of crimson-tinged thrills, orchestrated and shot to near perfection. Of the Coen films I’ve seen so far - all of which have been great - No Country For Old Men is the first to unequivocally captivate from start to finish. From Tommy Lee Jones’ ominous opening monologue, to his iconic closing words, and every suspenseful sequence of pure lunacy inbetween,…

The first 90 minutes of this movie are so great that for the life of me I couldn't remember why I disliked it the first time I saw it. Then came the final half-hour, and then it was like, "Oh ... right." I'm still upgrading my rating into the positive range, because that first hour-and-a-half is so strong, but this deliberate anti-climax, though I'm fine with it in principle, comes off a tad strained. I often complain about dream sequences in movies, but I think verbal descriptions of dreams might be even worse. I just find it lazy and cheap, and in this case I don't feel that the Tommy Lee Jones character has been developed well enough to make…