Fargo wasn’t the first film I ever watched from the Coen Brothers – that would have been Raising Arizona – but it was the one that made me take notice. I loved that movie. I caught it three times in the theater and I’ve owned it at least three different times on various physical media. It made me a huge fan of their particular brand of cinema. They remain one of my all-time favorite directors.
Buy No Country for Old Men (The Criterion Collection) Blu-rayNo Country for Old Men is one of their very best films. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, it follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert. Pretty much everyone involved is dead and he finds a stash of drugs (which he leaves alone) and a sack full of a couple of million dollars (he scoops that right up). The cartel hires Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) to find Llewelyn and get their money back. Chigurh is one of the all-time great villains. He looks like an alien, kills with one of those bolt guns they use to kill cows, and has absolutely no sense of right or wrong. However, while the film spends most of its time with these two characters chasing each other, the film truly belongs to Tommy Lee Jones. He plays an old sheriff who no longer understands this world. The violence of Chigurh is too much for him to handle. It is incomprehensible. Jones gives a great performance.
The Criterion Collection is releasing No Country For Old Men with a new 4K UHD transfer. Extras include new interviews with the Brothers and cinematographer Roger Deakins, plus archival interviews with the cast and several behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials: To celebrate the anniversary, the series brought back David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as his companion Donna Noble (plus a few other surprises) for three special episodes. They were fine, but not great. I love Tennant’s original run, but it feels like cheating to bring him back. And while it is delightful to see Donna Noble again, it essentially ruins the heartbreaking way they left their character in her original run. Overall, the specials were enjoyable to watch, but not particularly memorable.
Rock N Roll High School 4K UHD: The Ramones (yes those Ramones) star in this silly comedy about a gang of punks fighting against authority in a local high school.
Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Cracking Collection 4K UHD: Nick Park’s delightful stop-motion animation films are simply the best. This set combines these four films: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and A Matter of Loaf or Death for the first time in UHD.
8 1/2 4K UHD: Federico Fellini’s mesmerizing movie about making movies gets the UHD treatment from Criterion.
The Beast: Léa Seydoux stars in this science-fiction film in which a woman tries to destroy all her emotions by connecting herself to a machine that immerses her inside all of her past lives.
Interstellar (10th Anniversary) 4K UHD: Christopher Nolan’s epic space odyssey about a team of explorers traveling beyond the galaxy on a quest to save humanity gets a limited edition boxed set for its anniversary.
The Escapees 4K UHD: Jean Rollin is one of those directors I keep telling myself I need to immerse myself in. The couple of films of his I have seen were weird and wonderful. This one finds two women on the run with a group of erotic dancers.
Requiem for a Vampire 4K UHD: Another one from Jean Rollin who had a thing for erotic vampire movies. This one had a vampire luring beautiful young things to his castle.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 4K UHD: Terrific little 1970s thriller starring Robert Shaw as a guy who hijacks a New York City subway car and Walter Matthau as a transit cop trying to stop him. You can read my full review.
