Fun for the whole family!
I think the cat’s pretty much out of the bag when it comes to me and my crush on the Coen brothers. Of course, everybody loves the Coens these days, even people who never loved them before. They’re Best Picture winners, and suddenly The Ladykillers is fine cinema. So it goes.
And I guess I’m a bit of an easy target. Something about the rubber-band dialogue, the simple humor, the consistent brutality of their writing—even Coen comedies usually have at least one moment that comes on like a suckerpunch; think John Goodman as the Bible salesman in O Brother, Where Art Thou?—draws me in. And then there was No Country for Old Men, which had so much to say even with some of the longest stretches of silence this side of a solo road trip. It’s a Thing, the Coen brothers and me. But I have to say that it’s been many moons since I’ve loved a trailer like I love the trailer for the next Coen release, Burn After Reading. Check this out:
So we have a little Coen dialogue here, a little Pitt-Clooney silliness there, a little of each of these people doing what they do best, which basically adds up to classic comedy, revived. Feel the rhythm of that trailer—not to sound geriatric, but who in this day and age has cadence, who swings, like the this particular writing-directing-acting team? And anyway, why haven’t the Coens worked with Pitt before, when the match is so clearly one forged in heaven? If anybody approximates the screwball comedy aesthetic, retro or not, it may be these guys. Supplement the core cast with Tilda Swinton making funny faces (which is Swintonland means that quirked eyebrow), the return of J.K. Simmons to the Coen stable (zoo?) of talent, John Malkovich!, and the Russian mob, and we have a film that is practically unhateable. Come its September release date, I’m sure I won’t be the only one calling out hilarity all around—again with the Best Picture winner thing—but that won’t make me any less right.
Coen brothers, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons, JK Simmons, John Malkovich, John Goodman, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men
June 11th, 2008 at 3:09 am
[...] I think the cat’s pretty much out of the bag when it comes to me and my crush on the Coen brothers. Of course, everybody loves the Coens these days, even people who never loved them before. They’re Best Picture winners, and suddenly The Ladykillers is fine cinema. So it goes. And I guess I’m a bit o … Source: Fun for the whole family! [...]