Random ruminations about No Country For Old Men.

OK, finally saw this puppy, and must say I was thoroughly impressed. I shall now list some thoughts.

1. First and foremost, I cannot believe that the villain of this flick was some dude named Anton who sported the freshest Latino version of a press 'n curl and dressed like he was an old lady named Bea who owned a cleaners in Minnesota. It was parted and tucked under and everything! How can this guy be scary?!

2. Now that I think about it, most of the sickest villains appeared harmless. Who knew a dude who was 4'8" and had an upper lip flavor savor who got a band of other dudes wearing knee-high space boots to take part in a mass genocide?

3. Can I be really honest here? Good. So, how about I didn't know who the hell Josh Brolin was until Diane Lane was nominated for an Oscar in 2002 for her role in Unfaithful, and they had pictures of her and he was noted as her fiancé? So until I saw him in American Gangster, I only knew him as Diane Lane's husband. Ain't that some shit? He's fantastic.

4. I didn't know Tommy Lee Jones was 97. ...........*10 minutes later, after looking up his information on IMDB.Oh! They just made him look that old? Oops. My bad, brother. You did a good job.

5. OK, so who else thought of the awkward scene in Trainspotting where Renton found out that the girl he banged was a high school kid whenever Kelly MacDonald, aka Carla Jean Moss, was onscreen?

And most importantly:

6. Did Paramount Vantage have this pact where the only way the Coen Brothers and P.T. Anderson could come out of their hiatus was to film their movies at the same time, at the same location, and have the films focus on two totally different villains who went after the same thing, only to show that they actually are similar because they're both achieving their goals through relentless hatred and corruption?

7. Need elaboration? No worries. Exhibit A= Daniel Plainview. He's charming, good looking, eloquent, can be humorous and cares about his people. At least, on the surface. But beneath the physical attractiveness lies an embittered, ugly asshole who only likes one thing: getting rich, or die trying. A true gangsta. Even though Eli Sunday effortlessly tries to get Plainview to redeem himself from his deep-rooted evil, redemption is bye-bye. Who needs God when you've got dolla dolla bills, y'all? Seriously. Who needs friends when you've got workers to do all your dirty work in order to make you even richer in the end? Exhibit B= Anton Chigurh. He's not-so charming. Not that good-looking (only if you don't imagine sexy ass Javier Bardem portraying the role), not as eloquent for he has a thick Spanish accent, has absolutely no sense of humor and doesn't give a fuck about anybody. Can't say beneath the surface lies a sensitive, caring man. I'd be a lying mother if I said that. But, just like Plainview, he only cares about one thing: getting rich, or die trying. Again, a true gangsta. Know what we have here, folks? A tale of two brothers: The white collar criminal vs. the blue collar criminal. Who's the worst kind? The white collared crook certainly doesn't look like one, mainly because he has a clean-cut reputation to uphold, as opposed to the blue collared crook, who lives as if he has nothing to lose. But it doesn't matter, because in the end, they're the same person going after the same things with the same

8. I've heard some cats say that they still feel that No Country For Old Men is better than There Will Be Blood. Me, I think that you can't have one without the other. I mean, you can, but that is like wanting a fly ass grilled cheese sandwich without the bread. Together those movies makes one helluva mega-epic about American culture.

Steve Zahn, you're back!

I've been wondering where Steve Zahn was since National Security came out in 2003. I didn't watch that travesty of a film mainly because I wanted to continue to respect Zahn as an artist. The guy pretty much was Jack Black before Jack Black was Jack Black (redundancy is sexy), but when they actually co-starred in 2001's underrated comedy Saving Silverman, Black's career took off while Zahn's took a step behind. Actually, I take that back--he did have that Oscar-worthy, or at least Golden Globe-worthy, performance as the irresponsible drug addict boyfriend/deadbeat father in Riding in Cars with Boys (another underrated film). Boy, did he kill that role. I'm surprised he didn't get more good role offers.

But 2008 looks like a nice comeback year for Brother Zahn. He was nominated for IFC's Spirit Awards for his supporting role in Rescue Dawn; and then you got Strange Wilderness coming out next Friday, which looks like a nice laugher, as well as a few more projects coming out later this year.

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In related news, remember Rob Brown, the homeboy who was most notably Sean Connery's BFF in Finding Forrester? Yeah, I'm also surprised his career didn't take off as fast as it could've, but then again, he was pretty young at the time. Anyway, it looks like this year he may have nabbed a good role in a possibly good movie titled Stop Loss, directed by Kimberly Peirce of Boys Don't Cry fame.

It's good to see some familiar faces getting on the acting market.

Film brilliance: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Remember when Holly Hunter was all the rage when she took the challenging role of playing a mute pianist sold into marriage by her own father and her daughter's verbal translations are the only way she could actively participate in dialogue? And she wins the Best Actress Oscar and little Anna Paquin wins Best Supporting Actress and it's all lovely. Rightly so.

But I'll be honest, while the acting was quite superb, the movie itself was a bit of a snorefest. Having that in mind, when I saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I had no idea how director Julian Schnabel would pull it off of telling the remarkable story of a man who could only communicate by blinking his left eye with occasional grunts. I was even more amazed by finding the right cast to pretend to be the actual patient people who helped Jean-Dominique Bauby, the famous French socialite and former editor of Elle, to be able to write his memoir through his one eye. It just utterly amazes me that Schnabel pulled that off so beautifully. I cannot stress that enough.

I tend to deviate from movies that is supposed to "inspire" us because in the end you realize that only a fourth of the film that was "based on a true story" was actually accurate. I guess you can say I'm a stickler of accuracy when it comes to those kinds of movies. And after a while, you will learn what separates fiction from reality in Hollywood, because the results are ridiculously dramatic.

Nevertheless, I didn't have any premeditated biases when I watched the film because if you hadn't noticed already, I was more so intrigued by the fact that someone actually tackled this incredible story and wanted to turn it into a film. It emphasized so greatly the power of holding on to your imagination and your memories and exploiting those key elements through life even in the slightest bit of communication that you are restricted to. It's been a long time since I saw a movie so--dare I say?--inspirational in the sense that makes you appreciate everything beautiful, whether it's big or small.

My Oscars vote: Best Foreign Film (winner); Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mathieu Almaric (nominee); Best Cinematography (winner); Best Achievement in Direction: Julian Schnabel (nominee); Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood (nominee)