No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen/Joel Coen, 2007, USA)

No Country for Old Men is arguably the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece, and represents something of an apotheosis of a late Golden Age of Hollywood, along with Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. These were highly unconventional, auteur-driven projects that somehow managed to be widely seen and Oscar-nominated. They arrived at a time when the monoculture was fading, but streaming had not yet arrived, and it was possible for a movie to still dominate the cultural conversation. In an era when most Best Picture nominees go unseen by the vast majority of the American public, this era (late first decade of the 2000s) is nostalgic.

The formal boldness of No Country can’t be understated. Something of a return to form for the Coens after a period of different genre experimentation (to mixed results), the film largely eschews even a musical score from longtime collaborator Carter Burwell. Most of the movie has no music at all. The Texas vistas in the film, beautifully shot by Roger Deakins, evoke the history of the American western, but it is clear in this instance that we are playing with genre tropes and the nature of the western itself.

The casting is pitch-perfect, though if we had to choose one standout, it would be Javier Bardem as the enigmatic hitman Anton Chiguhr. This character has been viewed in retrospect as one of the all time great cinematic villains, and for good reason. There is an undercurrent of menace even in the film’s non-violent scenes that brings this film to another level. Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss and Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell are also pitch-perfect in their casting. No Country is suitably ambiguous in its intentions as most Coen movies are, but those interested will find numerous allusions - including Biblical ones - abound.

10/10