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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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I liked my favorite Coens for the assortment of exquisitely drawn characters. In Fargo, the car salesman, the two vastly different hired killers, the pregnant police officer and her devoted husband, her encounter with an old oriental classmate, and not to forget the two prostitutes, are all gems.
In Burn after Reading, besides the three body building shop workers and the CIA boss, there is the divorce lawyer (probably based on the Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton, Bob Bennett), the Russian embassy bureaucrats and the plastic surgeon. Again, each one of them is a gem.
With such a gallery of memorable characters, comparision to Dickens is inevitable.
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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If you like sneering at stupid, pathetic people, they are both good movies to watch.
At least Fargo had Marge, a good detective. And though her husband was dopey, at least he was a decent guy. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| One does not sneer at them. And you meet guys like that everyday. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:36 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Nowhere in reality to you meet characters like that. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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In fact they are funny because they are real. The divorce lawyer, the plastic surgeon and the manager of the body building shop are all totally believable.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:02 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I enjoyed Burn After Reading -- already watched it twice. On first viewing, Frances McD's performance grated a bit and seemed too much of a caricature. It stood out less the second time, but I still think it should have been tamped down or reinterpreted. Pitt and Simmons are really good.
But Burn is somewhat of a slight film and so I have a hard time putting it on the level of their very best.
Aren't there any other O Brother fans here? Clooney is amazing and hysterical, with great support from Blake Nelson and Turturro. Durning, Goodman and Holly Hunter all have superb minor roles. And the music is phenomenal. It almost rises to the level of Raising Arizona, but a few minor scenes are somewhat hokey. Still, I found it to be a great escape. Top drawer Coens.
I might have to pick up Intolerable based on the comments here and for the sake of completeness. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:51 am |
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| I'm an O Brother fan. And I agree that there are a few minor scenes that were hokey. Clooney was terrific. Up till then I never liked him very much, but that movie had me change my mind. The soundtrack was amazing, which is no secret. Intolerable Cruelty was a lot of fun. Not great by any means, but solid entertainment with a hit man scene that had an hilarious climax. A slapstick gem. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:01 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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O Brother embodies some of the Coens' strongest virtues and some of their worst faults. Virtues include strong musical score, colorful characters, and some excellent acting, notable Clooney, who echoed and in many ways equaled Clark Gable at his very best.
Worst qualities include that very affected, self-satisfied tone that makes most of their movies inaccessible to the "masses." It's so obsessed with and convinced of its exquisite style that it becomes suffocating.
This affectation achieves its most destructive excess in Barton Fink and The Man Who Wasn't There. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:00 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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I thought O Brother was great. Intolerance, not so much. It kind of drowns in the atmosphere (for lack of a better word) that the movies it pays homage to skate over effortlessly.
Maybe the times, the references, and the audiences have changed so that "updating" a screwball comedy (rather than reengineering one) doesn't work.
whiskeypriest wrote: Fargo was the best movie of the 90's, and unless something I do not expect comes along, I've got No Country for Old Men as the best movie of the 00's.
But you can't see what's coming, now can you?
No Country for Old Men is hands down my favorite. I do love me some Barton Fink and Man Who Wasn't There (just watching the B&W sets me a-tingle), Hudsucker's fine (although that's The Movie Where the Rental Disc Pixelated Right When He's Falling Off the Building). Fargo seemed like a one-joke movie when I saw it, although after NCfOM I'd be willing to give it another try. The Big Lebowski does zippo for me (kind of the same reaction I have to Cheech and Chong).
And Raising Arizona I fell asleep on when, a few years out of college, a group of us rented a tape player and three films and made a late night of it. I've regretted that since (but I still haven't gotten to see the whole thing). |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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For me (as I've said before) the best movies of the 00s so far are Mulholland Dr., Sideways, and The Hurt Locker. No Country is one of the better ones, but not in the same league as my top three.
I would certainly go with Fargo as one of the two or three best of the 90s, however, topped only by the (IMO) incomparable Leaving Las Vegas and (depending on my mood on any given day) Boogie Nights. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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lady wakasa wrote: But you can't see what's coming, now can you?
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: For me (as I've said before) the best movies of the 00s so far are Mulholland Dr., Sideways, and The Hurt Locker. No Country is one of the better ones, but not in the same league as my top three.
* Because I know the difference between baby deer and mythological beings, that's why. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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A rough Top Ten list for this century:
1. I Heart Huckabees
2. Memento
3. Triplets of Belleville
4. Brand Upon the Brain!
5. Little Children
6. The Believer
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
8. The Paper Will Be Blue
9. The Lives of Others
10. Juno
Subject to revision and in need of much more research and remembrance. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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gromit wrote: A rough Top Ten list for this century:
1. I Heart Huckabees
2. Memento
3. Triplets of Belleville
4. Brand Upon the Brain!
5. Little Children
6. The Believer
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
8. The Paper Will Be Blue
9. The Lives of Others
10. Juno
Subject to revision and in need of much more research and remembrance. |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:52 am |
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| What the hell happened to Jeremy???? |
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