roger deakins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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.

Time once again for our weekly Indie Film Blog Group Hug, wherein we check in with other film blogs around the internet to see what other folks are writing about. One of these days, I want to throw a big party at my house and have all the other film bloggers from around the world converge in my living room to wax eloquent about all things film-related over chips and salsa, taquitos and icy-cold margaritas. Wouldn't that be a blast? In the meantime, the Group Hug will have to suffice ...

Oh, and by the way, fellow cinephiles, if you have a film blog I don't know about (or even if you've previously submitted your blog and I haven't covered it in a while), drop me a line at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com to point me your way.

• Over on The Hot Blog, David Poland writes about whether it means anything that Fox pulled out of Comic-Con, and ponders the whole sticky-wicket issues of which critics get into sceenings when, which leads to a discussion of embargoes, which then gets into the whole kerfuffle surrounding the Baltimore Sun and NYT breaking embargo on the lastest (and last) Harry Potter tome. And somehow, he manages to tie it all together in a way that actually makes sense ...
• ... Meanwhile over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Poland's sometime-rival Jeff Wells commentates nicely (I think) on Poland's piece and offers up his own take on the whole Fox-pulls-out-of-Comic-Con-Does-That-Mean-The-Simpsons-Movie-sucks thing.
• Apparently everyone the Baltimore Sun and NYT have everyone thinking about all things Potter this week, as both Anne Thompson, Matt Dentler, and Karina Longworth ** (great minds thinking alike) have posts up about the Harry Potter embargo-breaking, too.
• Strange Culture is already thinking Oscars ... in July! That's right, RC is already positing that Roger Deakins will be nominated for an Oscar for cinematography -- and that's probably a pretty good guess. Any early bets on other Oscar noms?
• Indie Film Nation, which runs some nifty podcasts about all things indie, has a fascinating interview up with Richard Moore, the director of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Good stuff. While you're already over there, check out last week's interview with Goetz Weber, CEO and co-founder of inDPlay.
• Checking out what's going down over at Twitch, Kurt has a little post up {via just about everyone on the planet, so this is obviously old news to everyone but me -- figures) about the possibility that one of my favorite films ever, John Carpenter's They Live, might -- that's might -- be made into a series for the Sci-Fi channel. They live is great political satire wrapped up as a fun horror flick, and I agree with Kurt -- it's never been more relevant than it is now. Keep your fingers crossed -- if it does ever get made, that's one series that's getting set to record on my DVR, baby. Don't forget your special sunglasses ...

**Karina does indeed have a great mind, but that particular post was about Fox and Comic-Con, not Harry Potter. It's still a good post and worth reading, though. The moral of this story? Don't read 40 different film blogs while simultaneously writing a post and getting four kids ready to get out the door for swim lessons without double-checking that you've got it all right. Thanks for setting it straight, Karina. It's good to still have you around to keep us on our toes.