Miller’s Crossing, by the Coen Brothers

Miller’s Crossing (1990)(DVD)   Written by Joel and Ethan Coen, produced Ethan Coen and directed by Joel Coen, starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro, and others.  In Miller’s Crossing, a gangster film set in the 1920s, the Coen brothers (Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010), (!!!!)) have created what Time critic Richard Corliss called a “noir with a touch so light, the film seems to float on the breeze like … a fedora sailing through the forest.”   And it’s true.  A tough, violent, and intelligently light and complex film, with very good, wonderfully non-sensational, performances by most all of the cast, Miller’s Crossing offers hard reality and ambiguity in just the right balance.  Watching it more than once is all that more rewarding. (PR)

We recommend that you buy your DVDs and Blu-ray disks.  Have a truly wonderful personal film library..

top image: Wikipedia

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

The Orchard Keeper – Cormac McCarthy

The Orchard Keeper, by Cormac McCarthy, first edition cover

The Orchard Keeper (1965)(Novel) by Cormac McCarthy (Child of God (1973), All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Road (2006))  The Orchard Keeper is Cormac McCarthy’s first novel and, even if it is only for that reason, should be read.  However, and marvelously, The Orchard Keeper also offers us a profound first experience with the mastery of McCarthy’s prose, his passionate and sharp view of nature, and the intersecting parabolic trajectories of his characters, who we come to know, often, through oblique actions rather than through explanation, through consequence rather than motivation.  A novel you must read. (PR)

See our posts on other novels by Cormac McCarthy: Outer Dark, Blood Meridian (or the Evening Redness in the West), and All the Pretty Horses

Also see our post on the Coen Brothers film ‘No Country for Old Men‘ based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name.

We recommend that you buy your books.  Have a wonderful personal library..

top image: Wikipedia

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men, by Joel & Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy

No Country for Old Men (2007) (DVD) Joel & Ethan Coen (Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), True Grit (2010)), starring Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), In the Valley of Elah (2007)), Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) (2004), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Biutiful (2010)), Josh Brolin (W. (2008), Milk (2008), True Grit (2010)) and others.  No Country for Old Men, described by some as a “crime thriller”, is quite simply a superb movie (receiving numerous awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh) among others) very closely based on the superb novel of the same name, written by Cormac McCarthy in 2005.  One may call it an examination of destiny and circumstance, a “new western”, even “a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate” (Roger Ebert) and many other things.  The fact remains that Bardem as Chigurh is an extraordinarily compelling villain, the writing and direction are masterful, and one simply must see it, more than once. (PR)

See our posts on other novels by Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian, and Outer Dark.

Also see our post on the film by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, filmed in the same region as No Country for Old Men.

top image: Wikipedia

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood (2007)(DVD) Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano and others, with cinematography by Robert Elswit and music by Jonny Greenwood.  Often called a masterpiece by critics, and at the very least a very good film, There Will Be Blood, really is a must-see.  An outstanding, and Oscar-winning, performance by Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot (1989), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Gangs of New York (2002)), superb, and again award-winning, cinematography by Robert Elswit (Magnolia (1999), Syriana (2005), Michael Clayton (2007), Salt (2010)), excellent and unexpected music, once again, award-winning, by Jonny Greenwood (Bodysong (2003))(of Radiohead), not to mention, putting it all together, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s directing, yes, also award-winning; the ambiance, environment, and even the story, reminiscent of the work of Cormac McCarthy; perhaps no coincidence, as it was filmed in the same region as the Coen Brothers film, based on McCarthy’s novel, No Country for Old Men; buy it or rent it, but just make sure that you see it. (PR)

See our posts on Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian,  and Outer Dark.

top image: Wikipedia

nothingisinvisible@live.fr