Film Review: Joel & Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis

Set inside their moody, 'grey skies are never going to clear up' world, the brothers' Coen have created yet another slice of their unique brand of morose emotionally-macabre moviemaking.  And this critic would have it no other way.  Set in the early 1960's, mostly in Greenwich Village (with a sidetrip to Chicago and back), Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of a down-on-his-luck folk singer and guitarist, one of Ginsberg's angelheaded hipsters, thinking himself one of the best minds of his generation (a thing he may or may not be - we never find out), and several (typical?) days in his down-and-out life.  With the Coens at the helm, don't expect to see any personal growth on the character's part, nor any sunny rays peeking out from behind the gloom and doom of the film's atmosphere, in order to let our not-so-intrepid hero find his way out of the dark days of his life.  No siree, this is not what one should expect from a Coen Brothers film, and once again, this critic would have it no other way.

Now I am not saying there is not life inside the Coens' insular cinematic world, but that life is ofttimes ridiculed by whatever natural or unnatural forces may be crushing down on our protagonist.  Be it the law (Raising Arizona and Fargo), the corporate world (Hudsucker Proxy), the mob (Miller's Crossing), feral criminality (No Country for Old Men), possible insanity (Barton Fink), or perhaps even God himself (A Serious Man), a Coen Brothers' protag is never safe from what could befall and very possibly destroy them.  In their latest film, the duo's sixteenth feature, Oscar Isaac portrays a man who is not necessarily falling apart so much as a man who has never been together.  Like most artists in our society, Llewyn Davis has a dangerous disconnect with the norms of society, and thus has an outsider feel no matter where he goes, even with his fellow artists, with whom he presumably has something in common - and yes, as a lifelong writer and outsider myself, I too can empathize and thus sympathize with Llewyn's feelings of disdain and disgruntlement.  Llewyn is a sad case, but not a terminal case.  He is trapped inside a world he doesn't understand, looking for a way out.  Looking for a way out into the world that he feels he should be part of.  A world where his desires are not looked upon as lesser, but a world where he, as an artist, is respected, perhaps even adored.

And then there's the music.  As melancholy in mood as the film itself, or as Llewyn himself, the array of old folk tunes, sung on film by Isaac, as well as costars Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Adam Driver, all arranged by the ever-capable T Bone Burnett give the film a sense of realness.  We aren't just watching a film set in 1961, we seem to be right there as the beat/folk Village scene is about to explode (you'll see a hint of the coming explosion as a certain someone takes the stage near film's end).  The one song actually written especially for the film (co-written by Burnett, Timberlake, and the Coens), the comedic bon mot, Please Mr. Kennedy (recently egregiously snubbed by the Oscars), is a shiny highlight in a film full of sad, seemingly endlessly sad, characters.  Now I am sure that those who won't even go near a sad movie (for some reason, everything must be positive for these silly people), will not like this film, even one bit, but for those who want tragic, yet sadly realistic, storytelling, done with a bravura central performance (and wait til ya get a load of John Goodman!), then Inside Llewyn Davis is the film for them/you/us.  Oh yeah, and there's a cat (or two or three) as well.

This review can also be read over at my main site, All Things Kevyn.

25 (plus a few more) Most Anticipated Films of 2012

Most of the following films will hit US cinemas sometime in this calendar year.  Some of them will end up being held until 2013 (or even later) and therefore will pass onto my most anticipated list for next year (as in turn some of the films here have done after not arriving last year).  All of these films are (obviously) ones I am excited about for one reason or another.  Some of them will inevitably not live up to my expectations - hopefully not too many - but judging from last year's list, where two-thirds ending up being films I quite liked and twelve actually made my eventual top twenty list, it should be a pretty good year. So, without further ado, I give you my 25 most anticipated films of 2012.

1) Django Unchained - I don't think anyone who is a regular reader here will be surprised to find a Quentin Tarantino film at the top of this list.  With a cast that keeps growing every day (or so it would seem), this QT-styled Spaghetti Western beast of a motion picture should (I now boldly proclaim) take the top spot on my Best of 2012 list.   Granted, this film may end up going way past schedule (QT has been known to do that) and therefore not make its debut until 2013, but here's hoping the Christmas present that the Weinsteins plan on giving us (ie, the planned December release date) does not delay.

2) The Grandmasters - I sure do hope this Wong Kar-wai film about the man who taught Bruce Lee everything he knows, gets here soon.  It was number one on my anticipated films list last year and I do not want to have to put it on next year's as well.  Then again, WKW is rather notorious for production delays (2046 took four years to complete) so it is really anybody's guess.

3) The Master - Not to be confused with the number two film on this list, the next film from Paul Thomas Anderson is not about the man who taught Bruce Lee everything he knows.  Actually it is ever so loosely based on the rise and fall of L. Ron Hubbard, but don't tell the Scientologists that or they will try to sue again.  Seriously though, PTA has a new film coming - how freakin' cool is that?

4) Like Someone in Love - Like with last year's French/Italian hybrid, the brilliantly twisting Certified Copy, Iranian auteur extraordinaire Abbas Kiarostami (one of the five best director's working today!) has again ventured outside his native land (and its censors) and headed off to Japan for his latest film.  The film, listed under the name The End on IMDb, is in post production right now and is tentatively slated for a Cannes premiere, with a hopeful US release sometime in the fall.

5) Untitled Terrence Malick Project - Though still going nameless as of the compilation of this list, this Malick film, boasting a cast that includes Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdmas, Javier Bardem, Rachel Weisz, Michael Sheen and Jessica Chastain, is a strange creature to see on this list so soon after The Tree of Life.  Known for taking years to finish his films, Malick is still probably an iffy bet from whom to see a 2012 release, but here is hoping we do.

6) Cosmopolis - A David Cronenberg that takes place mainly in the back of a limo cruising around NYC, and is given the director's usual treatment of sexual obsession and murder, all based on Don DeLillo's novel.  From everything I have read this also seems to be a film that may delve back into the fringe dwelling the director used to partake in, while simultaneously playing as one of his more recent critical darling works.

7) Post Tenebras Lux - With each successive film, Mexican New Wave provocateur Carlos Reygadas gets better and better.  From Japon to Battle in Heaven to Silent Light.  A modern day Blend of Bresson and Dreyer (Silent Light was a remake of Ordet in many ways), Reygadas is an auteur to watch out for, and if my growing estimation of the director is any indication, then this new film, probably making its debut at Cannes, should be pretty damn good.

8) Inside Llewyn Davis - Based on the life of Dave van Ronk, and featuring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake, this new biopic from the brothers' Coen has aspirations of being something akin to Todd Haynes' Dylan deconstruction I'm Not There.  Now granted, I do not think this film will go as far out as that brilliant work, but I still expect a damn good time.

9) Moonrise Kingdom - I can assure you that my lovely wife, a noted Wes Anderson hater (Rushmore notwithstanding) will not be a fan of this film, if I can even get her to watch it, but as I am much more thrilled with the auteur's past work, I am looking forward to this one with great glee.  Oh yeah, and as is to be expected, we get Bill Motherfuckin' Murray too.

10) A Place Beyond the Plains - From Derek Cianfrance, the man who gave us the deafeningly emotional Blue Valentine, comes a movie starring Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle rider who turns to robbing banks to feed his family.  I know, I know, it does bring up shades of Drive, but I am sure that is mere coincidence, and this film will be able to stand on its own.

11) Only God Forgives - The new film from Danish director Nicolas Winding-Refn will be coming to town sometime in late 2012.  After having Drive take the fifth spot in my favourite films of this past year (though I must admit to not having seen any of this volatile director's other films - an oversight that will surely be corrected very soon), and seeing the Gosman cast again (directors must like working with the guy), this could easily become one of my favourites of this coming year.

12) The Great Gatsby - If any classic of 20th Century American literature deserves a brash 3D treatment from an over-the-top director like Baz Luhrmann, it is The Great Gatsby.  Yeah, that was sarcasm.  The thing that  gives this strange strange film such an anticipatory flavour is the fact that it actually is a brash 3D treatment from an over-the-top director like Baz Luhrmann.  Not sure I like the casting of Leo DiCaprio as Gatsby, but with Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Tobey Maguire seemingly perfectly cast as Nick, hopes are rather high.

13) Stoker - Starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode, this is Park Chan-wook's English language debut.  The film may not actually make it to theaters until 2013, but if it is ready for Cannes, it could sneak in as a late 2012 release.  The film seems a departure for the Korean filmmaker so famed for his revenge trilogy of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, but that means nothing really, for this still looks quite intriguing.

14) On the Road - This Walter Sallas directed adaptation of Kerouac's classic was on this very same list last year, but I think it may actually finally arrive this time around.  Being a Beat aficionado from way back, I have been looking forward to this inevitable but always thwarted literary adaptation, through all of its tempting incarnations for years and years and years.  It is about time dammit!

15) Magic Mike - With Steven Soderbergh's claims of early retirement, one supposes that with each of the director's new films, it could very well be his last.  Now of course this talk of retirement has been scoffed at by many, including Soderbergh himself, decrying an upcoming sabbatical as the more likely outcome of cinematic frustrations, so we probably have nothing to worry about with this one being his last.  As for the film itself, it is the story of a young male stripper who is taken under the wing of a mentor.  Oddly enough, the film is based on the early days of Channing Tatum, with Tatum himself playing the mentor.  Sounds fun.

16) Gravity - Now it may be somewhat surprising that I would place a film starring Sandra Bullock on this list, but here it is anyway.  Actually, Bullock aside (though I did like her in the oft-overlooked Murder by Numbers), my main reason for anticipating this 3D sci-fi thriller (yeah, I know, everything is in 3D these days) is that it was written and directed by Alfonso Cauron.  Starring Bullock and George Clooney as the only two surviving astronauts on a semi-demolished space station, the film should have a very high creep factor indeed with Cauron at the helm.

17) Amour - Austrian auteur Michael Haneke can be a bit hit or miss (though never having made an outright bad picture) but the hits certainly outweigh the few misses.  Here is hoping this film about octogenarians in love and the daughter (played of course by the great Isabelle Huppert) who must care for them after one has a stroke, is one of those hits.

18) Nero Fiddled - After turning out the biggest box office hit of his career, Woody Allen is back with a film featuring Jesse Eisenberg as the movie's Woody surrogate (and a perfectly cast one at that), and boasting a cast that includes Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page.  Sure, the prolific auteur is hit or miss in recent decades, but here is hopin'.

19) Cogan's Trade - Directed by Andrew Dominik of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford fame (and we have had to wait five years for a follow-up), and featuring the cinematic outlaw himself, Brad Pitt, as a mob enforcer, this crime thriller promises to be a hell of a lot of fun.  Well, at least we all hope so.

20) Prometheus - Ridley Scott is back, and he is at his probable sci-fi wheelhouse best.  First rumoured to be an Alien prequel but now apparently taking on a life of its own (though still shrouded in mystery), this outer space horror movie starring Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender (fuck yeah!) could bring Scott back from his more recent spate of mediocrity.

21) Anna Karenina - This a hefty movie that Joe Wright has taken upon himself and it is a hefty role that his usual star Keira Knightley has taken upon herself.  There are some questions about Knightley's ability to tackle such a role, but I have faith in the actress - she is a much weightier actor than many give credit for her being.  The film also stars Aaron Johnson (John Lennon in Nowhere Boy) as Count Vronsky, and that may be a damn good casting choice indeed.

22) Argo - A new film starring Ben Affleck?  Not really a reason to get all hot and bothered.  A film directed by Ben Affleck?  Now we are talking baby.  After the spectacular Gone Baby Gone (one of the best films of the last decade) and the smart and intense The Town (albeit with a rather lackluster ending) this new film, set amidst the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, could and should prove quite intriguing.

23) The Cabin in the Woods - A self-proclaimed "twist" on the usual formula, this Joss Whedon written horror movie is co-written and directed by Drew Goddard, one of the writers of Lost, so we should possibly expect something that perhaps makes no sense at all.  The Joss Whedon connection makes it an interesting-looking movie though.  The film was originally set for an early 2010 release before being shelved indefinitely due to MGM financial woes.  It appeared on this list last year but now there is an actual set release date, so here we go.

24) The Wettest County - Written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, the team that last gave us the new wave revisionist western The Proposition back in 2005, this looks to be a quite rousing film about rural gangsters.  Granted, the casting of Shia LaBeouf gives one pause, but perhaps we can get past that and just have a good old time.

25) The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man & The Avengers - Being a old comic book head, these three films needed to be on this list.  Christopher Nolan's final piece in his Dark Knight trilogy, Mark Webb's retooling of everyone's favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man (and what a perfectly named director for the job) and Joss Whedon's supergroup extravaganza (based on my personal favourite comicbook) all have great possibilities.  Hopefully they all come through.

Some other films to look forward to (in no particular order): Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas); Gangster Squad (Ruben Fleischer); Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer and the Walchowskis); Take This Waltz (Sarah Polly); Looper (Rian Johnson); Rust and Bone (Daniel Audiard);  Savages (Oliver Stone); The Hunger Games (Gary Ross); Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders); Piranha 3DD (John Gulager); The Hobbit (Peter Jackson); Lincoln (Steven Spielberg); A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson); Skyfall (Sam Mendes); Dark Shadows (Tim Burton); Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Timur Bekmambetov); A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (Roman Coppola).

And one final film before we go:

Ted - A live action Seth MacFarlane movie?  This is either going to be the greatest idea ever or it is going to end up being the very worst thing to ever happen.  It really could go either way, but my love of Family Guy and MacFarlane make me willing to give it a chance.

USA! USA! USA! : The Twelve Best American Directors Working Today

To jump on the flag-waving band wagon that seems to be going around right now (for future generations reading this post, it is the Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead! revelry after the recent killing of Public Enemy No. 1 Osama Bin Laden of which I speak) I give you my choices for the best American filmmakers working today.  And please, I whole-heartedly welcome you all to submit your own lists in the comments section.  I would really like to find out who you think is the best.  Here are mine.

1) Quentin Tarantino - This love-him-or-hate-him nouvelle Grindhouse auteur may well be the most derisive director working today.  I hear almost as many people say they despise Tarantino as they say they love him.  I must admit I do not understand all these haters at all.  I suppose if one has delicate sensibilities or if one were to like their cinema light and fluffy with boondoggles and butterfly wings, then perhaps they are taken aback by the in-your-face arrogance of that thing called Tarantino Cinema.  Personally I would (and am doing it right now) boldly state that QT has never made a bad film.  From Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction to Jackie Brown (fuck the naysayers!) to Kill Bill (Volumes 1 and 2) to Death Proof (both Grindhouse and extended versions) to Inglourious Basterds, the man is like a coke-fueled King Midas.  Even the films he wrote without directing (True Romance, From Dusk Til Dawn) or his segments in longer films (Four Rooms, his token scene from Sin City) he is the proverbial Man.  Madman is perhaps a better term, but that makes it even better.  I have been accused on several occasions of being obsessed with QT and in no instance have I ever denied such a thing.  Now Faster, Pussycat! Film! Film! your next movie!!

2) Paul Thomas Anderson - I must admit to having had mixed emotions about Boogie Nights at first (my mind has been greatly expanded since my first viewing and therefore I now quite enjoy a movie I had originally walked out of) but I loved all of PTA's other films at first glance.  The one that put the director over the proverbial top though, was his mind-altering Wellesian, Fordian, Kubrickian (and about a half a dozen other director-labeled descriptives) There Will Be Blood.  A batshitcrazy pseudo-western (based on Sinclair's Oil!) starring an equally batshitcrazy Daniel Day-Lewis (in this critic's not-so-humble opinion, the best living actor in the world), There Will Be Blood is one of those select few films made today that I would have no qualms about calling a masterpiece (a word too often bally-hooed about by folks without much care for what it truly means, but a word that fits perfectly with Anderson's film).  Anderson, like Tarantino, is a true cineaste and it is this love - this rabid desire if you will - for all things cinema is what makes this cineaste love him so much.  His next film will be called The Master, and though it is not an autobiographical biopic, I cannot think of a more appropriate title.

3) Martin Scorsese - Perhaps if this were a list about the seventies or eighties or even nineties (at least the early nineties) Mr. Scorsese would be my number one choice.  But alas, the great master is no longer at his directorial peak.  He is though, certainly still well above many of his generational compatriots.  Lucas and Spielberg have sold out.  Bob Rafelson does TV when he does anything anymore and Bogdanovich is mainly a film historian these days (and a damn good one btw!).  The two Movie Brats (as they were often called) that are still putting out respectable work, Coppola and Allen, may still make good films on occasion (Tetro and Vicky Cristina Barcelona are respective examples) but nothing comparable to their earlier outputs. Scorsese's latest, Shutter Island, though hated by many of my fellow critics (what!!?) is a return of sorts to his daring cinema of thirty+ years ago, and with it helps put the auteur back near the top - after a decade or so of still good but not Scorsese good filmmaking.  Marty (can I call you Marty?) is one of my all-time favourite filmmakers (a quote of his sets proudly atop my blog) and it is this that keeps him so high on this list - even though he is the highest listed director here without a true masterpiece within the last decade (though he has at least five of these earlier in his career).  Hopefully his foray into 3D (he does love experimenting with new technology) with Hugo Cabret will keep this going.

4) David Lynch - The other "old guy" on this list (see Scorsese above for the other, even older guy), Lynch is responsible for the film I name as the best film of the last decade - Mulholland Dr..  Between that and Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet and Lost Highway and Wild at Heart (again, damn the naysayers!) and even Dune - as well as the best fake iphone commercial ever - Lynch is surely a master filmmaker and with his most recent, INLAND EMPIRE (and who doesn't LOVE movies that come in all CAPITALS?) proves that not only is he as batshitcrazy as ever, but is also still in top form.  Never a director to bring the masses together, Lynch is surely an acquired taste (and probably only a taste me and my fellow freaks can thoroughly enjoy) and will probably never get that AFI tribute (though a Friar's Club Roast could be fun) but this just puts him in the same class as directors like Antonioni, Tarkovsky and Bergman.  Not bad company indeed.  Of course one would have to take Antonioni, Tarkovsky and Bergman and ratchet up the insanity about a trillion notches or so (and possibly put a backwards-talking dwarf somewhere in there).

5) Joel & Ethan Coen - Blending a film noir aesthetic with acerbic comic teeth, these Minnesota born brothers have amassed quite an interesting oeuvre since their debut more than twenty-five years ago.  With hectic tales of almost surreal happenings, using many of the same actors over and over and over again (the venn diagram for their casts must be a colourful mess - and here is as close as I could find on the matter), the Coens have created an almost perfect streak of thoroughly enjoyable films (Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers had to come and break the streak).  From Blood Simple. to Raising Arizona to Miller's Crossing to Barton Fink to Fargo to Lebowski and O Brother to (skipping a few aforementioned) No Country for Old Men and their more recent less than noirish works (but no less complex) A Simple Man and True Grit - like I said, an almost perfect streak.  Their masterpiece (there's that word again) is No Country - a modern-day western done in pure Coen style, but seemingly ratcheted up to John Ford standards.

6) Wes Anderson - Cool and quirky (and annoyingly beloved by all those hipster doofuses out there - but don't hold that against the man) the other Anderson on this list may not have the deeply inbred creepiness of Lynch, nor the balls-out bravura of Scorsese and PTA, nor the flagrant arrogance of Tarantino, but what he does have is a precise (some might say anal) exactness for absolutely everything in his movies - down to the conch shell in the corner of one of the cabins of the Belefonte to the tweed pattern of Fox's jacket to the choice of wallpaper in Margot Tenenbaums bedroom.  Intricate to the nth degree, Wes has manufactured (and manicured) a series of painstakingly detailed cinematic dioramas all representing (in one way or another) the American semi-estranged family unit. My personal favourite is his obvious ode to J.D. Salinger, The Royal Tenenbaums.  My lovely wife isn't quite as taken with it as I am (saying it rips off Salinger more than it pays homage to him) but I still (and I suppose defiantly so to my wonderful - and usually better-tasted - spouse) herald the film as Anderson's near-masterpiece.

7) Michael Mann - I must preface this entry with the fact that I absolutely loathe Michael Mann's version of The Last of the Mohicans.  Granted, I have only ever seen it once, and as expressed above, I did a 180 on Boogie Nights, so perhaps loathe is a rather strong word, but it is how I feel and I thought you should know that before I begin to praise that very same filmmaker as my seventh favourite.  One of the founding fathers of the seminal 1980's TV show Miami Vice, Mann has made quite a career for himself with such visceral, hard-hitting films as Manhunter (having recognition as the first Hannibal Lecktor movie), Heat (De Niro and Pacino together for the first time - and before you bellyache, the two never had any scenes together in The Godfather Part II), The Insider (Russell Freakin' Crowe before he Gladiator'd out), Collateral (one of the few times I actually liked a Tom Cruise movie), the oft-maligned but quite intense Miami Vice (you can go home again!) and the DV-made Public EnemiesThe Last of the Mohicans a second chance. (Archetypal American mythology through 21st century cinematic technology).  Now I feel like giving

8) Sofia Coppola - No, this is not the affirmative action part of the list (nor is it the nepotism part - her dad isn't even on the list), the young Coppola deserves to be on the list - even if she has made just four films thus far.  Many have maligned Coppola's latest film, Somewhere, and I suppose it is the weakest of her four films, but then critics (myself most certainly not included) have been maligning the lovely and talented Ms. Coppola since pretty much day freakin' one.  Being called a pampered brat and/or spoiled debutante, Coppola has been criticized for basically being the child of celebrity.  This is of course ridiculous and merely critics without any sense maligning someone not for what they do but for who they are.  What she does is make films - good films - maybe even a great film or two.  She has a lyrical beauty to her films - if one can say such a thing without sounding too trite or cliche'd.  Many claim Lost in Translation to be her best work but I would say her follow-up to that Oscar winning picture (she won for Best Screenplay), Marie Antoinette.  A piece of candy-coloured pop art moviemaking (okay, perhaps she does have a debutantish outlook) her extraordinary po-mo biopic is a thing of sheer cinematic beauty.

9) Todd Haynes - The man who once made a (extremely unofficial) biopic of Karen Carpenter using Barbie dolls (sued by both Mattel and the Carpenter estate!) has grown into one of the finest and most mature filmmakers working today - while still managing to keep his youthful exuberance and radical sensibilities.  His Far From Heaven homage to Sirkian filmmaking was a brilliantly subversive piece of cinematic art (and it looked simply good enough to eat).  Safe was both seductive and appalling and Velvet Goldmine was just balls-out brashness.  His finest work so far though is that po-mo work of pure genius and (and I am going to use that wonderfully overplayed word again, but I sincerely mean it) masterpiece of technique, I'm Not There.  To make a biopic about Bob Dylan, with six different actors (one a woman!) playing the modern-day troubadour, and still never once even mentioning the name Bob Dylan - well, it is just fucking brilliant.  Tack onto this, his HBO mini-series of Mildred Pierce with Kate Winslet, and you have a sturdy number nine on our list.

10) Darren Aronofsky - One could call his films difficult (and many have) but that is merely a lazy way of saying intriguing.  From his tiny waking moment of pi to his surrealist WTF!? mindgame Requiem for a Dream to his audacious epoch-spanning flop The Fountain (flop or not, it is the director's most daring film to date and should not be shoved aside so carelessly and callously) to his yin yang double fist bump of The Wrestler and Black Swan (Aronofsky claims, perhaps just kiddingly, that these were originally one movie before being split apart at the gender lines)this mustachioed auteur may not be able to claim a masterpiece for himself yet (though The Fountain and Black Swan come closest) I am guessing it is merely a matter of time.

11) David Fincher - The only reason to see the new Hollywood remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (inevitably watered down from the, not great but still sufficiently visceral original) is because David Fincher is directing and we may see a visual orgasm of violence - even if the powers-that-be try to suppress such actions.  Who knows.  What I do know is that between Se7en and Fight Club and Panic Room and Zodiac and The Social Network, Fincher is a master craftsman that well deserves to be part of this list.  Fincher's way of using and manipulating a camera (even in evidence back in his days of making Alien movies) is as good as anyone out there - perhaps better than most (even some on this list).

12) Christopher Nolan - Okay, technically Nolan is a Brit, but he has been working in American Cinema for long enough (only the first of his seven - soon to be eight - films was made in his home country) to receive at least some sort of mention on this list - even if it is at the so-called bottom (the bottom of the top so to speak). Perhaps his Inception was a bit superficial at times (and probably a bit too highly regarded by many) but his grand superhero westerns and sleight-of-hand mysteries make for a rather formidable (and quite manly) show of cinematic power.  Perhaps it is only in comparison to such powerful work as Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight that makes Inception appear as a semi-disappointment.  But Brit or not, he stays on this American list.

Runners-Up:

Steven Soderbergh - The auteur's rather uneven hand (great work like The Limey and Che and the oft-misunderstood Girlfriend Experience is chopped up with lesser things like Erin Brockovich and the Ocean's films) is what stops him from breaking the runner-up barrier.  Still though, a brave, eclectic (and sometimes brilliant) oeuvre is what makes Soderbergh such a dangerous (and I mean that in the most complimentary manner) auteur.

Kelly Reichardt - I loved Old Joy.  I loved Wendy and Lucy.  I have yet to see Meek's Cutoff, but it promises to join the other two in receiving my love.  The reason I do not place Reichardt higher is the simple fact that I have only seen two of her films.  They are both brilliant (Wendy and Lucy is easily one of the best films of the last decade!) but I think I might need more before moving her onto the list proper - a thing I have already allotted a space reserved sign for.

Honourable Mentions (in no particular order):

Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola (they may not be at their peaks anymore but they are still capable of very good cinema); Jim Jarmusch (this Son of Lee Marvin is a visual stylist with a madman's sensibilities - a cool and collected madman, but a madman nonetheless); Richard Linklater (even my great love of Dazed and Confused cannot make me forget some of the director's more recent, and quite uneven fare - nonetheless he should still be counted); Kathryn Bigelow (sort of flying under the radar for many until her somewhat surprising, but completely deserved Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker - beating her ex to boot - has made a series of critically questionable but quite interesting films); Charlie Kauffman (at this point still a one-hit wonder, but what a wonder - and his screenplays aren't bad either); Tim Burton (this freak has made some pretty good-looking movies over the years but his art seems to be trailing off in favour of spectacle these days - still though, he has done enough to muster a mention); Spike Lee (an important director because of race - and lack of other African-American directors doing quality work - but the solid quality direction of Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X give him an importance above race).

Special Jury Award:

Ang Lee - Just as important in his native Taiwan cinema as he is in America, I add Mr. Lee because of his making of three very American (though perhaps with European sensibilities - just to throw in a third continent) movies - The Ice Storm, Ride With the Devil and Brokeback Mountain (the first two great films, the third a true American masterpiece).  This Americanization of sorts allows me to at the very least give Mr. Lee a special mention - plus this is my game and I will play it any damn way I wish.

My Quest To See the 1000 Greatest: Blood Simple. (1984)

Blood Simple. is #574 in  

My Quest to watch the 1000 Greatest Films 

Screened 09/08/10 on DVD at Midtown Cinema

Ranked #626 on TSPDT

*this is one in a series of catch-up reviews in my aforementioned quest (which should explain the rather old screening date above).
 

Blood Simple (according to Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel Red Harvest): a term used to describe the addled, fearful mindset of people after a prolonged immersion in violent situations.  "This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going blood-simple like the natives." 

In a sort of reverse mentality, it is not until I have seen numbers two through fourteen of the Coen Brothers oeuvre, that I finally go back and watch number one.  Number one of course, being the neo-noir thriller Blood Simple.  Starring John Getz, Frances McDormand (who would become Joel Coen's wife during filming, and is still such today, some twenty-seven years later) and Dan Hedaya as the requisite love triangle with the equally requisite tragic ending (at least for two of them), the Coens had fashioned a fun, if not quite all that unique, film noir in their first turn out of the gate.  

With obvious nods to such past noir (or noirish films) as Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Strangers on a Train and The Ladykillers (which the Coens' would eventually remake, albeit poorly so) brothers Joel and Ethan do a (for lack of a better term) bang-up job with this film.  Perhaps it is not in the upper echelon of the brother's aforementioned oeuvre (when compared to the work they would turn in later on in their career - and are still handing in to this day) but is certainly an aspiring directorial debut, full of an obvious love and knowledge of film history, as well the beginning stages of that strange, almost bewildering style (combined with the style of the noir they are imitating) that will become the brothers' hallmark throughout their career.

The movie surely has some great scenes hinged throughout the production, including both an hilarious scene in which a dead man just refuses to stay dead, instead choosing to crawl down an almost empty highway in a stylistic moment that will come to define the Coens' as filmmakers (become, as I stated earlier, their hallmark, if you will), and a phenomenal freak-out finale that should be considered among the very best of its kind, and the movie is definitely one of the better of the neo-noir movement of the eighties, and M. Emmet Walsh gives what is probably the best, and most sinister, performance of his career as the snake-oiled, hired hit-man (another requisite noir factor).

In the annals of film history, Blood Simple. (and yes, the period is supposed to be there) should go down as one of the best examples of neo-noir out there as well as an audacious start to a long (and sometimes uneven) career.  To further illustrate the importance of this directorial debut, one need only look at Zhang Yimou's Chinese remake of the film, the giddily named (but not very good) A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.  Not only does Zhang do his own game of reversal, by remaking an American film in Asia, but he whole-heartedly announces it as the proudest (and strangest) of remakes right there on the poster.  The film's legacy is assured.

The Cinematheque Reviews: True Grit

I don't want to call the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit a disappointment, for that would make one think I did not like it - and I most certainly did.  Yet, when one thinks of the high level of anticipation that comes with such a film as this, and then having said film not live up to that (perhaps) unfair expectation, one surely must come to grips with using the term disappointed, no matter how misleading such a term may end up being.  Let us just say that the new True Grit did not live up to what this critic was hoping it would be, but it still ended up being a rather good film in this very same critic's eyes.

Read my review of True Grit at The Cinematheque.

Weekly Film Poll #3: The Results

This was our biggest (in terms of choices and in overall votes) poll yet.  You, the adoring public, were asked to name your favourite movie from the brothers Coen.  The following, based on a record 44 votes, are the results of that poll.

The Big Lebowski - 10 (22%)

Barton Fink - 8 (18%)

No Country For Old Men - 6 (13%)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 6 (13%)

Miller's Crossing - 4 (9%)

Raising Arizona - 3 (6%)

Fargo - 2 (4%)

The Hudsucker Proxy - 2 (4%)
The Man Who Wasn't There - 2 (4%)

A Serious Man - 1 (2%)

Blood Simple - 0 (0%)

Burn After Reading - 0 (0%)

Intolerable Cruelty - 0 (0%)

The Ladykillers - 0 (0%)

I thought it would probably be a tight race between Lebowski and Fargo.  Well, I was half right.  It is really no surprise considering the cult following Lebowski has.  It ranks a mere seventh in my mind (No Country just beating out Barton Fink and Miller's Crossing for my top spot), but hey, what are ya gonna do?   I should probably take another look at Lebowski anyway (only having seen it once, when it first opened lo those many years ago).  Also not much of a surprise with the last two on the list, though I did think Burn and Blood would get at least a little love.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who participated in this week's poll.  The stated goal was 50 votes though, so tell all your friends to vote next time (or if you have no friends than tell all your enemies instead).  Whatever the case, vote early and vote often (okay, you can only vote once per browser but hey...).

The poll is going on a break this week-end (since it ended up getting a late start last week due to NYFF obligations) and will return this coming Monday with a brand new topic.  See you then.  Excelsior!

A Serious Man Reviewed at The Cinematheque

After building the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man (in my capacity as manager and projectionist of our local arthouse Midtown Cinema) I sat down and watched the brothers' fourteenth film all by my lonesome.  At first glance I wasn't sure what to make of this strangely curious little film.  Yes, the Coens' are usually purveyors of strangely curious little films, but this one was strangely curious in a completely different way.  Don't ask how, just go with me here.  Anyway, after contemplating it for a while, by the time I went to bed that night (about 2 hours after finishing the film) I was won over by this strangely curious little film.  Perhaps not their best (Fargo and No Country For Old Men hold those spots) but pretty darn close.  In that Coenesque second tier realm of Miller's Crossing, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski.  A strangely curious little film indeed.

Read my review of A Serious Man at The Cinematheque.