It’ll premiere sometime in 2007. It’s called No Country For Old Men, and its plot seems classic Coen material: unbalanced criminals, lost loot, drugs, plots gone wrong, etc. It’s set on the Texas/Mexico border, IIRC, and is about a hapless hunter who stumbles upon some dead bodies, some heroin and a big pile o’ money. I posted about this movie several months ago, and some Dopers who had read the book were also hopeful it’d turn out well. The Coens are certainly due for a winner, as their last two didn’t exactly hit the mark.
What brought this particular thread on is that I’ve been going over the cast. It stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, and James Brolin, but today I’ve spotted a couple of not too well-known actors who I loved in previous films: Stephen Root, who was the terrific blind radio station guy in O Brother Where Art Thou?, and Kelly Macdonald, who was the Scottish lady’s maid protagonist in Gosford Park.
Yay! What a casting lineup! I see a lot of other semi-familiar faces who look like popular character actors, but I can’t place most of them.
I’m looking forward to this one. I hope it’s not too over-the-top gruesome, as I’m not a gore fan.
She was also Diane in Trainspotting and the earnest young woman in Girl In The Cafe. We don’t see nearly enough of her, so I’m happy about this casting.
Well, the most notable is probably Oscar-nominated Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), probably best known as the drug kingpin Jamie Foxx faces down in Collateral.
Probably the next most notable is Barry Corbin, best known as Maurice on Northern Exposure.
I’m there opening day for anything the Coens see fit to gift me.
Holy shit! I just now realized that that guy, from my favorite Coen Brothers film, is Milton (he of the red stapler) in Office Space! How could I not have realized that before now?! He also played the dippy judge in Idiocracy. He sure has a good agent. Root’s been working steadily since 1988, mostly in television.
I have been as well, but after serving up two in a row that I particularly disliked (immediately after having served up one that I just wasn’t all that into), I’m really really hoping I’ll like this new one. If I don’t dig this one, it’ll just get harder and harder for them to win me back.
C’mon, Joel and Ethan, remind me that you’re the guys who did Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing!
I hope this thread isn’t too zombified to resume; I didn’t think it necessary to start a new one.
Reviews are starting to trickle in and most I’ve read so far are very favorable. Cannes Review thought very highly of it and, bienville, says it most closely resembles Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing!
Everyone is rushing to praise Javier Bardem’s villain as well as Josh Brolin’s character. The movie seems very grim and possibly over-the-top violent for me. I’m trying to not let violent drama get the better of me, however. I’m hoping to see it in the theater rather than wait for the DVD, as usual.
If this thread is too old to revive, please advise- I think its OK due to length.
Anyhoo- has anyone seen this yet? I was totally unaware of it until two minutes ago when I saw a commercial for it- Newsweek, Rolling Stone and The Onion apparently are raving about it. I thought the commercial said its out in limited release next week, but it has over 1000 IMDB votes already (with a 9.0 rating- wow)- has it been released overseas, or previosuly in the US?
Anyone? If not, please post when you do- it looks pretty good.
I saw a preview in the theater recently and it looked really, really good. Pretty grim, though. Bardem’s character looked like he was scarily nuts. Tommy Lee Jones was, well, Tommy Lee Jones.
I’ve read the Cormac McCarthy novel this movie is based on and Im looking forward to seeing it but I think I should warn people that (if the movie is faithful to the novel) it does not end the way you would probably expect it to and there is a development about 2/3 of the way through it that might make some people feel very non-plussed. McCarthy was playing with some conventions of genre and he takes an unusual direction in the last act – not in a “twisty” way, just in a seldom seen way.
I think it’s still pretty good, though. I really had to think about what he was trying to say, and I think McCarthy doesn’t really see the characters the same way the audience does.
I watched Ebert and Roeper last Sunday and it got two thumbs up. More importantly, however, is that one of the thumbs came from A.O. Scott. Him and I seem to have almost identical taste in movies. A few friends of mine who saw it at the Toronto International Film Fest who know my taste swear I will love it (they did as well).
I’ve been pumped for about 18 months for this movie, give or take so I will be there front and Center on Friday afternoon (gonna skip a bit of work).
Two more movies I’m pumped for:
There Will Be Blood - a friend of mine saw it and told me Daniel Day Lewis gives an unbelievable performance.
I don’t know what this third act digression/“twist”/element is that McCarthy uses, but everything I’ve read about the film (all generally spoiler-free) states that the Coens have included it, too.