1. I finally saw No Country For Old Men. I consider myself relatively smart and cultured, and I would like to say I do not get this movie and I do not understand why it won a bunch of Oscars. The main character (a man named Llewelyn played by Josh Brolin) is out a-huntin’ and comes across a bunch of trucks with dead people and their dead pit bulls in the middle of the desert. It’s a drug deal gone awry. Llewelyn finds two million dollars and takes it. We are supposed to feel a connection with this Llewelyn character. I had a great deal of difficulty doing this because, and stick with me here, if I find a festive pile of human and animal corpses all shot to hell with piles of drugs on a truck and a suitcase of money, I don’t care if the damn holy grail is in one of those trucks, I’m vacating the premises and I’m not taking any tokens of the experience. Nothing. Just leaving slowly, backing out of there and sprinting to sign up for witness protection. OF COURSE an angry and insane man (Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, being his awesomely sexy self) comes looking for his money. It’s two million dollars. You think he would write it off as a contribution to the greater good of society? Come now, Coen Brothers, I expect better of you. And then the movie continues with Llewelyn hiding the money and Anton coming looking for it and killing people en route as angry and insane drug kingpins tend to do. And then, two hours of this later, the movie ends. It just ends. I like some kind of resolution in my films. I want someone to die or kill someone or have an epiphany or get the girl or something, anything. And I get naught. So I do not like No Country For Old Men. I think it should be called “No Country For Dumbasses Who Come Across Dead Guys And Loads Of Money And Think They Can Just Take Said Money And Everything Will Be Fine.” That would be more applicable.
2. Last night I went to a premiere showing of The Duchess with Ralph Fiennes and Kiera Knightley. If you like movies like Mrs. Brown and Dangerous Liaisons, then you’re gonna LOVE this film. Kiera changes outfits in every scene. Really. No two outfits or hairstyles are on screen for more than five minutes. Since the film hasn’t even come out, I don’t really want to delve too deep into the plot, but perhaps I will talk about it more in the future. And it’s based on a true story, which is always interesting. It’s like learning history without even trying.