| a second look at NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN |
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 uh, I called it the first time. Sorry. Neil Young 13.Jan.08 PS : I think I have two main problems with this film, and they're closely connected. There's the Coens' fundamental and characteristic flippancy, which is utterly at odds with Cormac McCarthy's dead-serious, steely austerity. Then there's the way they play with the conventions of the noir/thriller form, only to discard them in the final act (at several junctures during which, by the way, it's unconscionably difficult, even at a second viewing, to work out exactly what's going on and why): pleasures without payoff, revealing a rather patrician disdain for "genre" cinema in the process. And there are many pleasures here, of course - most obviously Bardem, hilarious ("friendo") and chilling at the same time, and thus striking a balance of opposites that the Coens themselves struggle to maintain. 15.Jan.08 -------------------------------------------------------------------- NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2006) : E.Coen and J.Coen : 6/10 USA 122m (BBFC timing) director : Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (The Ladykillers) editor : "Roderick Jaynes" = Ethan and Joen Coen (The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn't There) seen 12.Jan.08 Boldon (Cineworld : £6.20)
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