Double feature: No Country For Old Men / The Man Who Wasn’t There. Out tomorrow. (*********9/10)
Monday, September 1st, 2008I have already gone on at length about No Country For Old Men. Without a doubt in my mind, it was the best movie of last year. For the full review: http://blog.rogersradiointernet.com/cynicalcinema/2008/05/10/no-country-for-old-men-best-movie-of-the-millenium-1010/ Now, Alliance Films is releasing it again, along with The Man Who Wasn’t There in a two-disc set. A two-disc set everyone should buy. Not only is No Country For Old Men the best film of the past ten years, The Man Who Wasn’t There is a very underrated classic. Since I have already reviewed No Country, I’ll talk about that one here instead.
Billy Bob Thornton plays a barber who hates his life. He tries to do something, anything, to relieve his boredom, and that something is blackmail. He blackmails James Gandolfini, his wife’s boss, who is having an affair with his wife (Frances McDormand). A fairly innocent, one-time plan at first, the whole thing, as with all film noir, spirals out of control, and before long, Thornton is involved with murder. And then things get really weird. The film is shot in black and white, set in the forties, and feels just like 1940s film noir. It captures the tone, the feeling, and the pacing of great noir, and there are some great performances by Thornton, McDormand, Gandolfini, and Tony Shaloub as a high-priced lawyer. Also terrific is Scarlett Johannson, who appears as a young ingenue piano player, and looks even hotter in black and white with a 40s hairdo. And then there is the whole alien abduction thing. Insane, but this movie is terrific.
The Coen Brothers have done some of the best movies of the past twenty years. And two of them are packaged together today by Alliance Films. Well worth picking them both up.