No Country For Old Men

Not bad, but nothing even close to what its hype and awards made it out to be. In fact, there's a lot here not to like: little reason to care about the "good" characters, the villain is absurdly indestructible, some directorial shenanigans that are designed to draw the viewer to errant conclusions. And that narrative structure: if a second year film student, instead of the Coens, tried to pull that off, he'd hear a lot about losing his point of narration. Instead, if you are the Coens, you're called geniuses and lauded for convention breaking. These emperors may not be naked, but they're down to their underwear, at least. Posted 4/16/09.