The Final Take with Parker Mott

3 Stars out of 4
(110 minutes)

Jeff Bridges in the Duke role.

True Grit will remind you of the classic Western, that old expired, dearly missed genre. It does not, however, perceive to be a “Coen” movie. I put Coen in quotations because Joel and Ethan Coens’ films have a particular, acquired attitude: one of irony, a moral spin, unconventional wisdom, and a diegesis resembling odyssey. When True Grit came to their attention, the Coens took on this story to be more faithful to Charles Portis’ 1968 novel of the same name than the 1969 film starring John Wayne (of which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, more so I think as a retrospect to his previous performances). (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(116 minutes)

The Man Who Wasn't There: Bob Thornton and Gandolfini talk business.

The Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There has this irrefutable pessimism to it. This is the realm the Coen Brothers are so good at conquering (see Blood Simple and Fargo). To benefit that, the film carries a neo-noir style — the black and whites dialling in this perturb macabre. Being based, loosely, upon a poem called Antigonish from 1899, The Man Who Wasn’t There acts like a monochromatic Sophocles au cinema. It tackles a society, centres the characters within it, and then discombobulates the two by giving them a shake. The two elements create a cynical mix. The Man Who Wasn’t There is fascinating for its style, but the Coen’s overrun the film with recyclable themes, contrived payoffs, and impassive characters. Even if the man was never there, you still have to feel for him. For that dreaded invisibility. (continue reading…)