Which movie will reign supreme?

‘No Country for Old Men’

    A man goes out hunting for antelopes, notices a mysterious trail of blood that leads to a string of bodies in the middle of nowhere, and amidst the grisly aftermath of a bad deal, takes a bag of money and tries to move on. Some might say that this is a man who is already intertwined with the original deal, but the Coen Brothers go far beyond the obvious and show the true meaning of desperation in the common man, as well as the determination of the good and the bad in “No Country for Old Men.”
    When common low profiler Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) accidentally stumbles on a circle of dead bodies after an illegal exchange gone wrong, he follows a trail of blood which leads him to a case filled with money, and slips away undetected … or does he?
    With an escaped psychopath (Javier Bardem) on his trail, and a local sheriff on the verge of retirement (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to protect him, Moss’ fabled journey to a life of enrichment is about to become a trail of blood, sweat and tears that will change the lives of three men forever.
    The Western atmosphere of cinema has been known in recent years to be a more independent circuit for filmmakers, but the genre that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne defined has really catapulted itself back into the mainstream this year; starting with “3:10 to Yuma,” and now this new masterpiece from the acclaimed Coen Brothers. The fame of these two brother/partner directors really took off in 2000 with “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” and has since then only grown to newer levels, placing the Coen name into definite Oscar contention every time they co-formulate a project.
    The film’s opening sequence really puts the viewer in the mindset for dark drama and complexity as the Coens provide multiple shots of West Texas before sunrise and a brief dialogue of local law enforcement history from Jones.
    Headed by three of Hollywood’s most acclaimed faces, “No Country for Old Men” really brings out the best and worst attributes of its cast leaders. Jones still has what it takes to garner much respect from the audience. He may not be hooking the bad guys as some may hope, but with his vast intellect and comedic understanding of how the West works, his performance is certainly one of which to take notice.
    However, the real significance of “No Country for Old Men” is the performance of Javier Bardem. One of the pickiest actors in the business, Bardem has undoubtedly found a perfect match for his gloomy facial expression and witty attitude as a ruthless crook with no sense of humor. The man he chases, Josh Brolin, isn’t quite as spectacular as his counterparts, but his awareness, and crave of money is certainly enough to convince the audience that he is truly a man’s man, and not afraid to run with a deranged crook’s money.
    As much as I love to watch any great film conclude its plot points in the final act, I must say, it is only the films with unpredictable climaxes that stick in my mind the longest. My take on it is, if you’ve got a book to follow, then just stick with the way the writer, Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy, penned it. But even without a story to adapt, any dark ending will raise plenty of mixed discussion. People will always remember a controversial ending that can be taken in several ways.
    The Coens may have used the darkest angles possible, but they have certainly crafted a true masterpiece in which every single scene counts.
   

‘There Will Be Blood’

    If you can’t succeed as a silver miner, then I guess you just have to go out and dig up some oil; especially if you’re raising a son on your own. That’s really the main gist of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” only with Daniel Day-Lewis heading the cast in the performance of his career, Anderson and his crew dig up a whole lot more than oil in this dark drama that will provide audiences with a widely mixed array of thoughts, and then give two and a half hours to sort them out, if that’s enough time.
    The basic plot of “There Will Be Blood’”follows a silver miner named Daniel Plainview (Lewis) who raises a son alone, and is pretty much down and out in the mining business. He then turns to oil, and before he knows it, he becomes a phenomenal success, and has no one to thank for it but himself. Upon learning of an “ocean” of oil hiding underground out West, Plainview and his son set out to better his fortune on a journey that will change his life, and that of those around him, forever.
    Although the original idea of this story came from Upton Sinclair’s novel “Oil!,” director Paul Thomas Anderson still made this a project of itself. Reading the book and seeing the film was almost like getting two completely different stories.
    Since “Gangs of New York,” Daniel Day-Lewis has become a bit of a ghost in Hollywood over recent years, but his leading performance in this dark drama really brings out some quality in him that many viewers may have never believed.         It’s easy to admire his character for the self-made fortune and his willful push to success, which really shows in a scene where he breaks his leg by falling into a mine, and then just gets back up and keeps going. But at the same time, it’s difficult to overlook the selfish attitude he carries; he doesn’t care about anyone, doesn’t talk to anyone, and before he meets some of his relatives throughout the film, it’s obvious he has no family connections, but he could care less. Oil is at the top of his priorities.
    One of the more mysterious elements I noticed in this movie was the performance of Paul Dano.
    It takes a while to believe that this was the same kid under a vow of silence in “Little Miss Sunshine.” To portray the guy who tips Plainview off about the oil “ocean,” Dano had quite a bit to say in this one, not to mention the he also plays two parts, which I can only assume was meant to be a set of identical twins, but the fact that they never appeared in the same shot made me a little curious.
    Maybe it’s because “No Country for Old Men” came first, but the cinematography of “There Will Be Blood,” while intriguing, was still too familiar to be that special to me. The layout of Anderson’s film is well fitting to the late 1800s time frame, as well as the physical setting, but to see that same gloomy layout of Texas again, all I could think was, “good job Anderson, but the Coens beat you to it.”
    It’s no secret as to why “There Will Be Blood” is nominated for so many Academy Awards, but like several other films this year, it can be highly debated as to just why exactly this movie is so great. While it does turn in excellent performances, and pace itself well through 158 minutes, there are still some things here that could be left for the audience to either take and run with, or just throw away all together. The ending of “No Country for Old Men” garnered plenty of “whats?” and “wows” from viewers, but “There Will Be Blood” ended with me, and several others just wondering “why?” It’ll be easy for people to hate the way this film ends, but if I had to guess, I don’t think there really was an appropriate way to conclude this one. It&rsq
uo;s not a perfect film, but certainly a worthy contender.

Chris Moskaly is a cinema afficionado who has had some pretty amazing movie reviews online. Check them out at www.gcsunade.com

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 1 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry