A film that is difficult to place into just one particular
genre, 2007s No Country for Old Men
saw the Coen brothers win their first and perhaps long overdue Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. In a year for which its main rival was the equally nihilistic
and violent There Will Be Blood the
Coen’s film won a total of four Oscars and three BAFTAS. Set in the West Texas desert in the early 1980s the film is based on
the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy and tells the story of a man (Josh
Brolin) who chances upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and finds $2
million just waiting to be taken. He is chased by the vicious and merciless hit
man Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who is hired to get the money back. Both are
in turn hunted down by local Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who despite in
being way over his head maintains a calm exterior in the face of the task in
front of him. No Country for Old Men is
the sort of film that I’d be happy to watch every five years or so but wouldn’t
want to see it any more often than that. It is a supremely made movie which
features some stunning performances and an interesting story but I found myself
drifting more and more as it went on.
Showing posts with label Kelly Macdonald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelly Macdonald. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Brave
A young Scottish Princess called Merida (Kelly Macdonald) spends her days
fighting against the rules set by her mother Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) and
wishes to be more of a free spirit, able to ride her horse, eat and wear what
she wants and most importantly practise her archery skills. A trip to a Witch
adds a further twist to the mother daughter relationship and puts both their lives
at risk.
Despite being a huge Pixar fan I went into Brave with a
small sense of dread. I expected, and as it turned out I was right, that this
would be Pixar’s most Disney-like feature to date and that’s something that disappoints
me. We already have Disney to bring us fairytales of Princesses and suitors but
there are very few studios who are brave enough or mad enough to come up with
the likes of Toy Story, Wall-E or Up. For me there was little to
distinguish Brave from a modern
Disney film along the same lines as Tangled.
Despite this, Brave is still a
fun film with a lot to like.
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