I think I could have just picked three Coen brothers films for this week, but I want to spread those picks across genres. So I have two debuts and a final piece for this week. Or two old favourites (directors) and a great actor who left us too soon.
Don't forget to check out what Wandering Through the Shelves picked, the blog that started Thursday Movie Picks.
Blood Simple
The Coen brothers’ first feature length film has be praised
by many and rightly so. It is dark and brooding take of lies, murder and
revenge. Frances McDormand is Abbey who is unhappily married to dodgy Marty.
She is having an affair with Ray, the bartender of the bar Marty owns. Suspecting
their affair, Marty hires a private detective to tail them. Confirming the
affair, he hires the P.I to kill the couple. Things, obviously go wrong. Film Noir with twists of thriller all blended together in story that paces itself but keeps the tension high. The beginnings of brilliance.
Bottle Rocket
Wes Anderson’s first feature film isn’t a favourite of mine
but you can see the beginnings of brilliance emerging. Eccentric Dignan, (Owen
Wilson) ‘rescues’ his friend Anthony (Luke Wilson is in his first film role)
from a voluntary psychiatric unit. He convinces him to join him in several
heists he has planned. Dignan drags his other friend Bob who owns a car into
the business too. But after robbing a bookstore of a very small amount they
hide out in a motel. But the crime that goes wrong is much later when the trio
is set up by local crime boss, Mr Henry. The middle part of the film drags on a
bit but Dignan is entertaining enough.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Sidney Lumet’s last film before he passed away is a harsh
depressing story about two unsuccessful brothers, Hank and Andy (Ethan Hawke
and the dearly departed Philip Seymour Hoffman), who decide to rob their
parents’ jewellery store. Andy has been embezzling from his company to pay for
his drug addiction and intends to flee the country. Hank is debt and owes back
payments for child support, he also having an affair with Andy’s wife. But come
the day of the robbery, it all goes wrong when the brothers’ mother is at the
store. There aren’t any likeable characters in this film which isn’t always a
problem but for me this was just too depressing. I actually saw this at the
cinema. I remember sitting there uncomfortably on my own in an almost empty
cinema rather wishing I had waited for the DVD.
