Kevin's Watch

I think this just might be the Coen brothers' finest film.

I've never felt more tension while watching a movie in a long time, and the film's villain, Anton Chigurh, has to be one of the most menacing and memorable. Everything about it was note-perfect, from the dark Coen humor to the violence, which was less gross-out than Fargo but somehow more unsettling.

Definitely go see it. One of--if not the best--film of the year.

If I ever get a chance I will, I've heard that Tommie Lee Jones is getting Oscar nods from The Valley of Elah--but my sister in law says she's heard he's even better in this...

Jones was great, but he reminds me too much of Tom Hanks or Hugo Weaving: you can't get past the actor's face and really lose yourself in the character. It's kind of a curse to become too iconic, which is why many directors want unknown actors; they don't obscure the raw feel of their character or the overall production with "star power".

But that's not always a bad thing. Actors have their specialties, and the part fit Jones' type: the beleaguered, high ranking official or father figure.

I didn't read the review in the local entertainment rag, but they jokingly refered to this movie as "Raising New Mexico"...

Just got back. I completly agree with LF. The tension was amazing. It's refreshing to not know whats going to happen next, simply from knowing "the genre."

I also thought it was funny that I was the only one in the theater who liked the ending. You can always tell the "guns and guts" brutes in the flims, because they're the ones who think they're making snappy comments when the movie ends

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and it turns out there isnt opera music and large explosions.

Anyway, probably tied for my favorite of the year with The Darjeeling Ltd.

We saw this Saturday night, and for the most part it's good but I don't think it's as good as Fargo. I agree that Chigurh makes one of the best screen villians we've seen in a long time. I thought Josh Brolin really stood out.

Anyone that saw this movie clarify two points for me;
1.

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why did Chigurgh kill his employers two lieutenants?

and 2.

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What happened when tommy lee entered the room at the end? Why did Anton not kill him? Was Anton not actually in the room? What are your thoughts?

yeah can't wait to see this film, I'm a pretty big Coen Bros fan, and all reports are that this is one of their best after a couple of disappointing outings (Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty)
the Big Lebowski, MIllers Crossing, Fargo, Blood Simple, O Brother Where art thou?, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink and the Man who wasn't there are amongst my fave movies ...

Just got back from seeing it. Damn, what a crazy movie. The tension was just awesome. Very powerful. But dammit, endings like that just erk me in ways that my brain doesn't want to be erked.

Oh, and I had no clue what Tommy Lee Jones was saying through the entire movie.-jay

I felt the same way about Sean Penn in All The King's Men.

saw it; loved it, one of the Coens' very best efforts, with a heady mix of high tension, poetic imagery, thought provoking plot and a dash of humour ..
Javier Bardam was amazing, surely an Oscar shoe-in ..

kevinswatch wrote:Just got back from seeing it. Damn, what a crazy movie. The tension was just awesome. Very powerful. But dammit, endings like that just erk me in ways that my brain doesn't want to be erked.

I'm right there with you on the ending. Maybe I don't feel like thinking about movies much anymore, but lately, the Oscar movies have been irritating me. Don't get me wrong, I did honestly enjoy the movie, and think I got a bit of the deeper stuff

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like the "world has passed them by" theme, and the "You know how this is going to end" theme (which is curious because the audience doesn't)

, but I think I'm getting old and cranky and want things a little less vague at the end. Then again, I do still like some vague endings, so let me amend this: Maybe I just feel like a lot of the endings for Oscar nominated flicks lately are ending a little too wide open. "We've given you two hours of entertainment, and you decide what the ending means." Makes me start to feel like bothering writing an ending is becoming passe.
Then again, this is an adaptation, and sometimes what works in a book doesn't work as well on screen.

There's a kind of inevitability to it, really. You want--even expect, to a certain extent--it to end the way things like these normally do in movies, but you have a sense that in real life things just don't go that way. And this film, instead of ending the way you've come to expect in a film, ends the way you fear it would in the real world. Though the way it actually happens, when it comes, can't help feeling a little out of nowhere--despite it being set up throughout the film.


Usually when I see a film I particularly like, it's an immediate feeling that comes when the film ends. This one didn't give me that feeling, but I have a suspicion that on a second viewing I'm going to enjoy it a lot.

I guess my objection is that maybe movies are becoming a little too much like life. I go to movies to HAVE shit wrapped up for me in a nice little box. Hell, I live reality every day.
With that said, truth makes the lie that much more believable, so I like truth in what I'm watching. But I think my feeling was that the movie didn't really go anywhere. Some of the more interesting things happened off-camera or not at all. In film class, this intrigued me, but I must say, I'm not a fan. I felt this same way about Babel last year.
I guess all I can say is that it wasn't to my aesthetic taste. I did think it was a good movie all the same, and those shots of the desert at the beginning of the film were beautiful. And I never felt bored during the movie, and I do like not knowing where a movie is going. But I don't like feeling let down when we get there.

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One more little gripe is that I started spacing off during the description of the dream thinking about how I would have changed the movie had I been making it, and essentially missed the final scene of the movie as suddenly the credits hit. But the girlfriend has a good memory and was amazed again at how good she is at remembering dialogue as she filled me in. Then again, she has a BA in acting/directing, so no wonder she went into that line of work.

Cagliostro wrote:

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One more little gripe is that I started spacing off during the description of the dream thinking about how I would have changed the movie had I been making it, and essentially missed the final scene of the movie as suddenly the credits hit. But the girlfriend has a good memory and was amazed again at how good she is at remembering dialogue as she filled me in. Then again, she has a BA in acting/directing, so no wonder she went into that line of work.

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Ha! I had the same problem, the first time I saw it. I was sitting there, half-way following the monologue, and then bam--credits.

I didn't really appreciate the ending until a second viewing. I also like movies to wrap themselves up--IF they're those kind of movies.

There's some movies that just seem to dissolve away, like Eraserhead: either because they're arty, or like art, they're imitating life. I knew I was watching a movie based on a McCarthy book, and that it had high-literary and nihilistic tones, so the ending didn't ultimately surprise me. Now, if the Lord of the Rings movies had ended like that--movies that have a clear moral and structure--then yeah, I'd be throwing popcorn at the screen.

hey jenn. this is my pick for sunday movie.



i LOVE javier bardem!!!

I think my biggest WTF in the movie (although there were many, many WTF moments...) was when...

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they offed the mustached dude.

Seriously, WTF.

I need to see this movie again soon. Maybe I'll even buy it when it comes out on DVD...-jay

Bump for Oscar win. Definitely well deserved. Of the ones nominated, the only other film that I saw was Juno. But NCfOM was definitely my favorite film of the year.

And the dude who played that psycho killed definitely deserved the Oscar. That guy was insanely good.

I need to see it again when it comes out on DVD.-jay

Lol, great new av! I once had a Paladin in Wow named MechaShiva myself.

I'll see it again, but I think the film is overrated. Agree though that Bardem deserves his Oscar.