So I finally got around to watching the presumed frontrunner for Best Picture at a matinee today. Yes it's very good. Yes much of the audience groaned at its conclusion (which I don't get at all - it seemed a perfectly reasonable place to end the movie to me). Yes the Coens should be in contention for the directing awards, and Tommy Lee Jones did a nice job. All that said, I'm a little taken aback by the extent of the honors it's won. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it eventually makes my own Top 10 of 2007 list - but is it obviously so superior to everything else? I wouldn't say that it is. But that's hardly a knock on it. It's a good movie - a very good movie.
Posted by armand at January 13, 2008 12:54 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Moviesi didn't see anything in 2007 so perfectly executed. and it's that i love about the film, and about the coens generally: execution. NCfOM is a canvas without a misplaced or unnecessary brushstroke, perfect economy, and at that a loving and perfectly faithful adaptation of the novel. and that last observation is perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of all: i have loved other literary adaptations, to be sure, but most often it has been where the adaptor(s) did not tend toward literalism (e.g., The Shining) but rather ran with a filmic interpretive work. NCfOM is the best letter for letter adaptation i have ever seen, bar none.
Posted by: moon at January 13, 2008 02:45 PM | PERMALINKWell then perhaps I'd be more impressed if I read the book. And again I don't mean to knock this by any means. It's really good. But personally I found Zodiac more impressive (and The Lives of Others, if that counts as 2007), and given what I'm reading about There Will Be Blood and how good it is, should No Country be sweeping up all the awards? Well maybe it's not worth splitting hairs between movies that are 9.5s and 9.7s or what have you.
Posted by: Armand at January 13, 2008 03:17 PM | PERMALINKYes, No County for Old Men is good, but I would agree with you, Armand, that there are certainly better films out there in 2007. You cited a perfect example: the debut film by the German director, Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck, "The Lives of Others" has been hailed by critics as the best debut by a director since Orson Well's "Citizen Kaine." I must say, I rather agree.
No Country for Old Men is certainly, again, a very good film, but I would not say that there is not a brush stroke that goes awry. Woody Harrelson's performance was a bit belabored, as was Josh Brolin's. However, the perfect restraint of Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem were as close to perfect as an actor may come.
However, other films of note in 2007, films which also deserve to be in the running, are "In the Valley of Elah," and while we are considering foreign films, an Israeli film called "Jellyfish." Also, "When the Devil Knows You're Dead" is a superb film, as is "Atonement."
Posted by: eretz tzion at January 16, 2008 12:14 PM | PERMALINK