Sunday, April 27, 2008

No Country for Old Men

Last night, Jordy and I watched the Coen brothers' movie adaptation of No Country for Old Men. Judging the movie by its cover, it looks grim and unhappy, but hey, my very excellent friend Matt G recommended it. (There is a lesson here, which I will get to later.)

No Country has excellent acting, and it's beautiful. Events don't happen as most viewers will expect, and some of the characters are very likable. I'm not going to say the movie sucked, because some things were well done, but the big lesson I got from this is Matt G does not suggest "feel-good" movies (he also liked Brokeback Mountain). I want to at least write movies one day, and I want to write movies that my viewers will leave the theater or turn off the DVD feeling good about. No Country is very contemplative, but I mostly suggest it as a good view before eating a 12 gauge barrel. 3 stars.

While I'm on the subject, let's talk about my good friend and wonderful human Larry Corriea. Good guy. Great feel for enjoyable writing. Movies? He thought 30 Days of Night was a good flick. I can contrast these two stirling human beings and good friends with my sister Tamara.

Some of Tam's suggestions: The Way of the Gun. Wonderful acting. Thoughtful fight scenes. Not predictable, and doesn't end depressingly. Another suggestion is True Romance, by director Tony Scott. Enjoyable movie. Great ending. Thank you, Tamara.

What have we learned? (1) Matt G loves beautiful movies made to drink to, that are SOOOO DEEEEEP (and try too hard to "say" something, making them ultimately shallower than "pure" escapism). (2) Larry Correia writes great stories, but watches silly movies. (3) Tamara makes much better movie suggestions. Thus endeth today's lesson.

2 comments:

Tam said...

What's weird is that Gunsmith Bob and I gave No Country... an aggregate five-and-a-half or six thumbs up.

Granted, it's not a movie I'd want to watch every weekend, but it was refreshing in its difference. It was very slice-of-life, with its lack of a soundtrack and ambiguous "trails-off-into-the-distance" ending.

J.R.Shirley said...

Yeah, I noticed you approved, but Matt approved first.


HallowE09