No Country for Old Men may very well be the Coen Brothers’ best film. It’s too soon to tell how well it will hold up, but for the first time (with a fat assist from novelist Cormac McCarthy), they have transcended their undeniable bravura technical skill with a meaningful, haunting, multi-layered achievement. As great as Fargo (A+) is, it amounts to little more than Marge saying that money isn’t everything. Miller’s Crossing (A+) is close as well, showing the choices we make, why we make them, and how they affect us. But with No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers are working on several different levels. It’s a first-rate chase movie with the bad guy trying to get his money back. But under the bloody surface, it’s about nothing less than life and death, chance and choice, dreams and reality, and so much more. With the repeat motif of “You can’t stop what’s coming”, it seems to encompass every day life occurrences, from car wrecks to sick kids. Extrapolating that perhaps a little too far, you could apply war and terrorist attacks.
Zodiac, like all of David Fincher’s films, gets better with every viewing. Fincher’s obsession is stronger than his protagonist in this film. As Robert Graysmith tries to track down the killer, he ends up nearly losing everything. Maybe I’m stretching, but could also be applied to America’s current foreign policy. The bad guy America is searching for is always elusive – there seems to be more right-turns and dead-ends and indeed, no end in sight. 
1. Mulholland Drive
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. The Departed
5. Adaptation
6. Minority Report
7. Memento
8. City of God
9. Children of Men
10. The Incredibles
1 comment:
I thought about the terrorism angle for NCFOM, especially given Chigurh's exotic name and everyone else's failure to comprehend him and his motives.
I gave Zodiac a B+, knocking it for a complete lack of emotion. I am anxious to see the Director's Cut (being released January 8th) and see how it holds up.
As to the best of the 'aughts', I have to think about that for a while. I will object to Minority Report, though.
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