At a Cannes press conference for his WWII drama The Miracle at St. Anna, controversy hog Spike Lee took some swipes at Hollywood darlings Clint Eastwood and the Coen Brothers. Talking about the way he treated death in his first war film, Lee said: "I always treat life and death with respect, but most people don't... Look, I love the Coen brothers; we all studied at NYU. But they treat life like a joke. Ha ha ha. A joke. It's like, 'Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!' I see things different than that." And he targeted Eastwood for failing to put any black soldiers on screen in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima: "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

A few months ago, it snowed. In the spirit of manifesting your own reality and the perks of positivity, I stomached any ill feelings. In fact, I welcomed the white landscape with open arms, determined to look on the bright side of life. It was a nice change. I made and threw some snowballs, and I smiled through the first few dumpings of snow. Then the snow kept coming -- in record-breaking amounts. Months went by. Now, tonight and tomorrow, my neighborhood is set to get another foot. Good God, this is enough!

I've learned my lesson: never welcome the snow, because the first year you do, the snow will slam into you over and over again for months -- laughing at your positive idiocy while it torments you with sadistic, stinging snowflakes. Now tonight, as I curl up in the safety of my apartment, I could watch some sort of tropical films, but that would just make me angry. Once you get to a certain point, the weather you dream of is more of a low-blow taunt than a nice escape. So, I'm going to give you two films laden with snow, but with enough bad vibes to make a simple, snow-covered night not so bad. I am, of course, talking about Fargo and The Sweet Hereafter.

With No Country For Old Men coming to DVD next Tuesday (3/11) in the final paces of the film's victory lap, it seems like a good time to note that when one of the film's Oscars went to Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem, it came as the logical conclusion of a long-established fact for many Coen watchers: the brothers have a Midas touch when it comes to supporting parts -- writing them, casting them, directing them. Throughout their career, the writing-directing duo of Joel and Ethan Coen have always peppered their films with brief, brisk parts that both famous and lesser-known actors have turned into standout moments. Here, then, is a list of seven truly great Coen Brothers supporting parts, as well as runners-up from each film. As ever, these lists are highly subjective, and our comments section below awaits your thoughts. ...

1. The Dane (J.E. Freeman), Miller's Crossing

In Miller's Crossing (for my money, the the most overlooked and under-appreciated film in the Coen canon) the brothers pull a balancing act; they not only refuse, refute and re-invent gangster film styles, plots and archetypes, but they also freshen, fire up and fulfill those gangster film styles, plots and archetypes. So it is with J.E. Freeman's Eddie Dane, a fearsome tough guy whose simple, shark-like capacity for murder and mayhem drives the plot and whose complicated private life adds a few twists to the finale. Much is made of John Turturro's work in this film (as it should be) but it's The Dane who keeps sticking out in my mind whenever I re-visit Miller's Crossing, a small, self-contained example of why the film as a whole is so good.

(Runners-up: Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), Vera Bernbaum (Marcia Gay Harden) and Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).

No Country for Old Men, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, is an unquestionable return to form. It is scary, funny, moving, violent, and meaningful, in pretty much equal measure. The Coens' take on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name is a pairing as successful, as seamless, as delicious as that of chocolate and peanut butter.

Josh Brolin gives the finest of his four excellent performances this year as Llewelyn Moss. Moss is a struggling everyman who stumbles upon a circle of trucks and dead Mexicans in the desert -- a heroin deal gone bad. Real bad. The lone survivor asks Moss for some agua, and Moss ignores the request. He surveys the scene and eventually comes upon a suitcase filled with $2 million dollars. Moss' response upon finding the money? A simple "Yeah." It's a perfect moment in a movie packed with them. Moss takes the money and returns home to his trailer and his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald). Soon, his conscience begins to nag at him, and he decides to head back to the scene of the crime to give the dying man a drink. A compassionate decision, but not, as you can probably imagine, an intelligent one.

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh (start to say Chicago and then growl and you're close to the pronunciation). I'll leave his specific involvement in the proceedings up to you to figure out, but just know that he really wants that $2 million. Moss will come to refer to Chigurh as "the ultimate badass," and that's about right. Chigurh is a classic screen villain, the kind we haven't seen in far too long. Every time he appears on screen, cattle stunner in tow, it just makes your heart sink -- somebody is going down. Much like Hannibal Lecter, the guy is a vicious, remorseless killer, but he has a strangely sensible logic and one can't help but be seduced by him. Bardem, sporting a Prince Valiant haircut, gives a flawless performance here, one that will likely be noticed come Oscar time. He completely disappears into Chigurh.

Norway has become (at least) the fourth country to announce its submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film category of the Academy Awards, after The Netherlands, Thailand and Austria. Variety reports that Gone With the Woman has been selected. It's a very timely announcement, since the film will have its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Directed by Petter Næss, Gone With the Woman is described by the Norwegian Film Institute as "the story of He, a male who hasn't even got a name. And, without him fully grasping how it comes about, his life is invaded by a woman. From this point on, he struggles to tackle the situation; He could try to throw out the invader, or try to adjust to the circumstances. He opts for the second alternative, and decides to fall deeply in love."

Næss has made several comedies, including Elling, which was nominated as one of the five Best Foreign Language Films (the Oscar went to No Man's Land that year). Gone With the Woman is based on the debut novel by Erlend Loe. Trond Fausa Aurvaag stars as He; Marin Saastad Ottesen plays the woman who invades his home and takes over his life. The cast includes the great Peter Stormare (Fargo). The official site has a gallery of stills and a very slow-loading trailer. Once it loads, the trailer has a great twangy guitar on the soundtrack, though it's a bit hard to get a sense of the comedy without English subtitles. Judging by the poster, though, it looks like it may be a bit silly, but grounded in relationship hell. In other words: an ideal date movie! Public screenings for the film in Toronto start on Saturday, September 8.