No Countryin Oscar Country

THE GA T EWAY volume XCVIII number 22 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 11 No Country in Oscar country his boots for blood or flips a coin, absolute best. filmreview the film becomes less about temper- If No Country For Old Men needs to ing the despair with a laugh and more be seen for any other reason than being No Country For Old Men about everything in us that is sick an adaptation of the work of a Pulitzer- Now Playing and wrong. The Coen brothers have winning author by a screenwriter/ Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen walked us down this road before, director duo in their absolute prime Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier but in this adaptation of the Cormac and with a stellar cast, it’s for Roger Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody McCarthy novel, the view has never Deakins’ incredible cinematography: Harrelson, and Kelly MacDonald been so mesmerizing or austere. at times both wistfully spare and eerily No Country For Old Men is a re-hash- confined, every frame is essential to MAtt HUBERT ing of the wrong-place-at-the-wrong- developing the explosive interplay of Arts & Entertainment Staff time motif, somewhat displaced from Moss, Chigurh, and Bell. gunslinger times. It’s rural, dustbowl Moss and Chigurh’s country is one There’s something so wry and mer- Texas in 1980, and Llewelyn Moss where moral right and wrong is met rily morose about Anton Chigurh (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a cache of with a measured indifference; one (Javier Bardem) that hordes of Coen drugs and $2 million after a drug deal does what one does simply because brothers faithful will be getting that gone wrong; like any good and sane he either wishes to or has no other warm, fuzzy feeling of familiarity opportunist, he takes the money and option. It’s no country for Bell, who again in No Country For Old Men. high-tails it home. hangs on to his fractured nostalgia for Just like Fargo, Miller’s Crossing, Moss’ acquisition of the cash and the “sir and ma’am” days, where the and Blood Simple before it, No drugs quickly becomes known to moral thrust of right and wrong was Country has those singularly “Coen Chigurh, who’s already arbitrarily still relevant—where one does what brothers” moments, when the most stalking the Texas plains with an air one must. brutal and demoralized character is gun designed for killing cattle. He This is the Coens’ best film and the Algonquin Times BW Ad 5.625x10.5Page 1 11/16/07 5:23:46 PM rounded out by an endearing comic makes Moss his next target, and the best of 2007, with the brothers strik- punch. cat and mouse games these two get ing a delicate balance of revelry and Chigurh (Javier Bardem) receives into is of the classic kind—like Lee misery better than they ever have the same sardonic touch here, bum- Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood, but before. Audiences should be so lucky bling along on his merciless killing with uncompromising brutality and that a film can look this good and spree with both an abysmal haircut contempt. The lawman trying to tie be so entertaining, but they have to and pissy witticisms in tow. Every it all together is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, decide whether or not they can stom- time Chigurh checks the bottom of played by Tommy Lee Jones at his ach its uncomfortable truths. Control tells a troubled tale with grace Despite bleak subject matter, Corbijn’s film paints a vivid picture of Ian Curtis wife, the film introduces us to a 17-year- they form a band and catch the atten- filmreview old Ian Curtis in 1973, trapped and tion of Factory Records co-founder bored in the small town of Macclesfield, and television host Tony Wilson and Control England. Curtis escapes his prim family DJ Rob Gratton, quickly securing a Now Playing and the dull, grey industrialism of the record deal—with Wilson signing the Directed by Anton Corbijn town through poetry, cigarettes, petty contract in his own blood. Starring Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, drug use, and the superstar glitter of While the band’s popularity continC - and Alexandria Maria Lara Lou Reed, David Bowie, and New York ues to rise, Curtis deals with his trial-M Princess Theatre City. Meeting Deborah (Samantha by-error medicated epileptic seizures,Y Morton) through a mutual friend, he the creative limitations of his band,CM ELENI LOUTAS woos her by quoting poetry, and their the demands of his wife and daughter,MY Arts & Entertainment Writer young love seems to be of the wordless, and his extramarital affair with BelgianCY consuming variety. journalist Annik Honoré. Then, oneCMY How many youth have found themselves day before Joy Division is supposed toK alone in their bedroom, listening to a embark on their first American tour, record they know by heart, engaging in The point of Control Deborah returns home to find that Ian an internal monologue about the ques- seems to be to present has committed suicide. tionable state of existence? Anton Corbijn, Riley is eerily accurate as Curtis, from director of the Control and former Joy the contrasting frag- his sharp, seizure-like dancing to expres- Division photographer, knows many ments hat made up the sions ranging from crestfallen (upon hear- of us have, and fittingly, his film begins ing about the death of epileptic girl’s who with the camera circling a still, black and complicated whole of inspired his song “She’s Lost Control”) to white, solemn Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) sit- Curtis. strangely blank (at the sight of his baby ting alone in his bedroom. daughter) to heartbreakingly tender and This image of Curtis recurs through- loving (upon first meeting Honoré). out the film, but that’s not the only side But their marriage signals the begin- Corbijn’s cinematography is spare, of the troubled Joy Division singer we’re ning of Curtis’ struggle between his com- gritty, and elegant, allowing the brilliant shown: the point of Control seems to mitment to an idealized married life and ensemble of actors to build the honest be to present the contrasting fragments his true personal desires; shortly after the story and one another. Corbijn is almost that made up the complicated whole of wedding, he begins to shut himself away loving in his direction and careful to not Curtis, as opposed to the typical trou- in their home, writing lyrics and ignor- portray Curtis as a two-dimensional rock bled youth whose suicide easily fills in ing Deborah while she prepares for the & roll casualty, but instead as a troubled, its own blanks for us. birth of their first daughter. sensitive young man caught physically Based on Touching From a Distance, Curtis meets the future members of and creatively, and spiralling beyond his a book penned by Deborah Curtis, Ian’s Joy Division at a Sex Pistols concert; admittedly youthful control..

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