A Conversation with No Country for Old Men

You know the drill. I transform myself into a movie, and get interviewed by a guy who is named after my imaginary cat. Tonight I shall be No Country for Old Men, the 2007 Best Picture winner from the Coen Brothers which I finally got around to watching from start to end.

Before we begin - while we're on the subject of conversations, a conversation I had with fellow blogger Max made it on to Anomalous Material. This is the first of a new feature over at that awesome website!

C: I am here in the middle of nowhere with No Country for Old Men, an Academy Award winning feature.
N: Indeed I am an Academy Award winning feature. Hang on, did I say you could sit?

C: No, but you strike me as a man who wouldn't want to waste his chair.
N: It's not often you see a Mexican in a suit.

C: I'm not a Mexican...uh, okay, explain yourself...
N: I'm based on a very famous novel by Cormac McCarthy, which was adapted for the screen by the Coen Brothers, who happen to be very famous themselves. They made Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and that remake True Grit which was nominated for 10 Oscars but it did not win any of them. Ha, I laugh at it's misfortune.

C: Well, you yourself were only nominated for 8.

N: But I won 4! Including Best Picture. That meek little western couldn't even beat a movie about a guy who can't talk properly. Me? I beat that World War II love story, that one with the pregnant teenager that I could not understand as they talked funny, that one with George Clooney in it, and that one about the milkshake drinker. The secret to my success? Anton Chigurh killed them all.

C:  So you're saying that True Grit is simply inferior because it does not have Anton Chigurh?
N: Does Mattie Ross have a cattle gun? No. Does Rooster Cogburn have a bad haircut? No.

C: Basically, you think you are the best movie from the Coens.
N: One would assume so, yes.

C: Anyway, you did not explain yourself fully. I want plot details.
N: Well, some dumb-ass by the name of Llewelyn Moss comes across the remains of a drug deal gone wrong, where he also discovers $2 million. And what does a dumb-ass do when he comes across a stack of money? He takes it. That dumb-ass shouldn't have done that. Coz now Anton Chigurh, the most evil hitman with the most evil haircut ever, is after him. He won't stop until he gets that money back, even if that means killing everyone who comes into contact with him. Anton is a force that cannot be contained, not even by the law, which includes Ed Bell, who bitterly oversees these murders happening.

C: Sounds very intense.
N: Oh believe me, I'm one gritty, graphic and gripping movie.

C: Being a movie from the Coen Brothers, do you have a lot of wit like all of the others?

N: I'm your traditional Coens movie. Lots of witty dialogue, plenty of great characters, scenes that have been directed the hell out of, and, of course, beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins. It must be worth mentioning that there is hardly any music in me, which is pretty darn odd for a thriller, yet I'm still completely engaging. I'm a rough and tough Coens masterpiece.

C: What about your performances, which include an Oscar winning turn from Javier Bardem?
N: The performances across the board are all brilliant. Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Kelly McDonald are all great, yes, but Javier Bardem is the real show stealer. What could be more scary than a man completely devoid of emotion, who drives around with a forceful weapon killing anyone who angers him slightly, and who believes that fate can be decided by a coin toss?

C: Does fate come down to a coin toss?
N: It depends. If you put your lucky quarter into your pocket, it'll get all mixed up with your other coins, and then it will become just a coin, which is what it is.

C: Well, it sure was nice chatting with you. Any last words for the readers out there?
N: People always say the same thing. They always say "You don't have to do this." But you really do. You really gotta watch me.

And my rating for No Country for Old Men:

AAN: Oscar predictions - Writing and Directing

Welcome to Part Three of my Oscar predictions - the big one that Annual Awards Nerdism for 2011 has come down to.

Key:

My Leo - Coolness. I want it to beat the crap out of the competition.

My Zuck - This one will win. For better or for worse.

My Steve - I will weep into my laptop keyboard if this wins.

Todays categories are:

-Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

-Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

-Best Achievement in Directing

Let's hop to it, shall we?

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Toy Story 3 had lots of kiddie charm,
127 Hours made its lead lose an arm,
The Coens reinvented westerns with True Grit,
Winter's Bone didn't make me laugh one bit,
All these screenplays may put up a good fight,
and it's proven that all these people can wonderfully write,
but for this award there's only one walk-in,
and that's The Social Network's Aaron Sorkin.

My poetry skills serve as an insult to these very talented writers, I know, but I'm in the rhyming kind of mood at the moment, so let this be a warning: more poetry follows. Something fun, yes?
Anyway. Having seen all of these films (Winter's Bone review coming up tomorrow), I think I can count myself as a bit of an expert. But that's no use when it is as plain as the protruding nose on my face that Aaron Sorkin will win this one. If he doesn't...well, that would be like giving Best Picture to Sex and the City 2. He should win it for the opening scene alone. If only I could write like that man, I would be happy.
But let's not forget the other worthy contestants.
127 Hours has a nice script by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy. I'm incidentally (and slowly) reading the original book by Aron Ralston, which is harrowing stuff, and somehow Boyle and Beaufoy managed to translate the descriptive will-to-live material onto the screen without much effort, and I respect that.
The Coens have always been well able screenwriters, and that is shown by winning two other awards for their writing abilities. Their scriptwork and characterization in True Grit is amazing, but I think they should take the year off, don't you?
Will someone please tell me how Toy Story 3 is an adapted screenplay and true stories like The Fighter and The King's Speech aren't? My second choice is this one, because it made me laugh, happy inside, and cry my eyes out more than I ever had until I watched Requiem for a Dream. And, if you ask me, it's damn good entertainment for every age group.
Winter's Bone is depressingly bleak, but I surprisingly liked it. The scriptwork was good too. I liked the way they captured the world in Ozarks and a chick kicking ass. The scenes towards the end still continue to haunt my dreams.

My Leo: The Social Network
My Zuck: The Social Network
My Steve: Winter's Bone

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

 
There was a surprising deserved nom for Another Year,
the Academy also went for The Fighter's boxing fare,
The King's Speech came back for another bite,
there's some funnies here with The Kids Are All Right,
the Academy may hate Chris Nolan it would seem,
but they nominated his script which dared to dream,
I hope that Inception can take it all,
for it was the movie which asked 'Did the spinning top fall?'
 
Fun Oscar fact I figured out myself: Black Swan is the only Best Pic nominee not nominated for a screenplay award. Taking its place is Mike Leigh's screenplay for Another Year, a movie which I haven't seen but have heard plenty of good things about. The Kids Are All Right gets a well deserved nod here, along with true story-based The Fighter.
Hey, the party is over here. Will Inception or The King's Speech win? If you asked me for the answer to this question just before the awards season started, I would have gone with Inception hands down. As awards season progressed, my heart was still with Inception but The King's Speech won everything. Then a miracle happened. Inception won big at the WGAs, but The King's Speech wasn't in contention. So, the stats would say that The King's Speech will be the big winner, yes? No. I refuse to stoop to that level. I haven't given up hope on Inception. After all, Chris Nolan is already overdue, they snubbed him so all the backlash from that should get my boy some votes, and, look at it this way: his script is virtually the meaning of 'original'. As original as you can get.
I don't care for all the hoopla surrounding The King's Speech. Inception and Chris Nolan are still my main men.
 
My Leo: INCEPTION!
My Zuck: Inception
My Steve: Another Year
 

Best Achievement in Directing

I'm still getting over the Chris Nolan snub,

but these directing men folk seem nice enough,

Darren Aronofsky showed us how ballet is done,

The Coens showed us how the west was won,

Tom Hooper's film got approval by the Queen,

David O. Russell tried to get Christian Bale clean,

David Fincher may do lots of films on disturbing tales,

but we all know he is a director who never fails,

here he hits the jackpot with a movie about the net,

and he makes The Social Network a film we can't forget.

Let's get this out of the way first: I like David O. Russell and The Coens direction. But Danny Boyle and especially Chris Nolan should have been nominated. They were just better, y'know?

For me, this race is a three way between Tom Hooper, Darren Aronofsky and David Fincher. Why?

David Fincher has won lots of directorial awards, including the Golden Globe and BAFTA. And hey, look at his filmography. Surely, all the greatness from that list makes him worth the votes? While I can see him gaining similar attention for his upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this year he's going to shine.

Tom Hooper won the DGA. While his work isn't amazing, there are a lot of things that could point him to a win. The main reason being: all the awards hype surrounding The King's Speech. The Best Pic winner generally wins Best Director too. But who said The King's Speech will win Best Pic? Also, the Academy love new blood. Especially if it's British.

Darren Aronofsky could possibly sneak the upset. His filmography, though select, could work in his favour. You gotta admit, his work in Black Swan is beautiful. Hopefully the voters will see the light and vote for this deserving man. But that's probably a long way off...

My Leo: Darren Aronofsky

My Zuck: David Fincher

My Steve: David O. Russell

So that's it for tonight. Sorry if I have damaged you with my bad poetry skills. Tomorrow I will take a look at all the acting awards. Until then, Au Revoir!

Cinema - True Grit

or: How the West was wonderful.



One word to sum it up: Funny.

Westerns. Not one of my most treasured territories. Well, yeah, I've seen High Noon and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but I highly doubt that that could qualify me as an expert on westerns. The Coens are another section of the film world which I don't feel too expertised on (yes, I just made up a word). I've only seen Burn After Reading and A Serious Man, films which I genuinely liked, but haven't quite gotten around to the classic Coens yet. So, based on my lack of knowledge of the two heaviest components of True Grit, I will have to base the following statement on my expectations of the two: True Grit is a bloody good western and a bloody good Coen film.

So how is it that the Coens could bring the western genre back to our screens, making it fit for a modern audience, so to speak? They give us a movie with Jeff Bridges + eyepatch, Matt Damon + lots of tassles and a young chick to blow our minds to pieces because she is so great at acting and she is so young. Their cast gets a damn good script, based more on the book by Charles Portis than the 1969 classic of the same name which scored John Wayne his only Oscar. We see the story through the eyes of old Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who is recollecting her younger days when she was hunting down the killer of her father, as heard through her narration. 14 year old Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) enlists the help of U.S Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to help her find a man named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), who killed her father and whom she wants revenge on. Before she embarks on her journey, she meets a Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), who wants Chaney for his own reasons. Now Mattie, Rooster and LaBoeuf form an unlikely trio to avenge Mattie's fathers death, obviously coming across some problems along the way.

Going in to True Grit, I thought I would be in for one of those gun slinging action flicks that have thrilling horse-and-cowboy fights happening all over the place. My prediction was quite wrong. While there are a lot of gun shots fired and a lot of people dying in this movie, but it's more a sharp witted drama than anything. The character development, on behalf of the actors and the script, is fantastic. The way they are able to make the characters stop and interact is something too rarely seen in modern movies. Given that there a lengthy patches of dialogue, True Grit moves along at a comfortable pace: not too caught up in being an action packed gun filled western and not too caught up in being the perfect film for just focussing on characters. The way the themes of revenge and retribution are intertwined within the characters is nice, but perhaps there isn't enough Tom Chaney to make us feel vengeful towards what he did, even though Mattie's point of view makes sure we hate him. Ultimately, this is a highly intelligent and very attentive to detail script that True Grit has going on.

The cinematography by Roger Deakins is another high point in True Grit. There are some absolute killer shots which perfectly fit my expectation of the western genre. Everything he shot was crafted by angels. The snow scenes were magical, the sunset scene was breath takingly beautiful, and individual close ups of the characters were precisely done. If I didn't know any better, I would say he is a strong contender for the cinematography award at the Oscars. To add to True Grit's beauty is some brilliant set design. Everything, down to the last board of wood, is perfect. The costume design by Mary Zophres, too, is great. While each character only has one costume to speak of, her designs are unparalleled in the way they seem to fit each character perfectly, e.g. Mattie has a very edgy but dull dress, because she is headstrong though not an extremely exciting young lass.

Now I've run you all into the ground by my non stop love for the character development, it must be time to conclude this slightly overcooked review with some notes on the performances, the best part of the film. If only Colin Firth could have won an Oscar for his performance in A Single Man last year and Jeff Bridges won for his performance in True Grit this year. Bridges adopts a very slow and slurred gravelly tone which is a little difficult to understand at times, but he is perfect as Rooster. He has the right blend of wit and utter cluelessness that makes him impossible not to enjoy. Matt Damon delivers a very understated performance as LaBoeuf, whose arrogance becomes an arrow of slight flamboyance. Josh Brolin is terrific as the villain Tom Chaney. Though you can't help but wonder when Brolin will stop playing the villain. But he's terrific at it, so I'll leave him to that. However, and many people have said it, Hailee Steinfeld is the standout here. Coming from a similar aged girl who dabbles in school drama classes, Steinfeld is bloody terrific for a fourteen year old. No, she is beyond amazing. I love how hard headed she is and how dedicated she is to the character, which is admittedly hard for a girl with little acting experience. If you were wanting to see True Grit, see it for her, because she steals the show.

THE VERDICT: True Grit is a masterpiece in terms of character development and bringing the western genre to a modern audience.

What I hoped for:

What I got: