Policies and Promises
Just a few words before we head into the weekend:
I’m making an adjustment to my star-rating policy. I’d originally decided never to give a new movie a perfect 5-star rating because it seemed the height of foolishness to put a movie I’ve only seen once into the pantheon of greats that have stood the test of time. I thought there needed to be something to distinguish perfect movies like Dr. Strangelove from whatever passing fancy may have caught my eye.
However, ever since I was forced to give No Country for Old Men 4 1/2 stars, it hasn’t felt right. If anything I suppose it points out the fluidity and stupidity of a star system in the first place, but I’m married to it. The rating system stays, but I’m getting rid of that rule. Any movie can have any rating and I’ll leave it to you to decide whether a 5-star movie from 2007 should be thought of in the same way as a 5-star movie from 1964.
With that, No Country for Old Men is officially my first 5-star film. If you haven’t seen it yet, get thee to a cinema. Pronto. I’ve been nice about it so far, but I’m about to get cranky. You don’t need to see the new Will Smith movie. I’m serious.
Do it, friendo.
In other news, No Country may not be alone for long as I hope to have my review of There Will Be Blood up soon. It’s still early, but I want to get my opinion set in stone before the flood of reviews start coming out. Don’t worry. We’ll be talking about this one for a long time to come. Will it be 5-star film #2? We’ll see.
Also on a theme of Coen, I’ve got a Coen-flavored movie contest brewing and I hope to be tapping out a pile of retrospective Coen reviews. There should be a long delayed Get Carter review in there somewhere as well.
Top 10 lists are on the horizon. Have yours ready so we can compare notes.
Finally, Joel and I are working out a new feature that we hope will encourage you to seek out some critically praised but audience ignored indie films. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Blog Admin
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Can’t wait to see the ‘critically praised but audience ignored indie films’ feature.
I want to see The Lookout and Black Snake Moan on there.
Looking forward to the new stuff Craig. Good luck.
Thanks for the shoutout to Black Snake Moan, Alison. Its one of the best pictures of the year and most either ignored or panned it.
Oooh, a Coen-related contest…consider me curious :-D
Those movies might have higher budgets than what I’m currently envisioning Alison, but we’ll see how all this shakes out. Suffice it to say, I join your enthusiasm for both movies.
I fear Hedwig that the contest will be too easy for fans and nearly impossible for non-fans. Maybe there’s a bit of poetic justice in that.
I’ll give you 3 and a quarter stars for the post.
Could you dance to it?
Modesty forbids me.
I can’t wait for the Coen Brothers retrospective reviews. Might require me to fire up the DVDs again. As for Top Ten lists, I can even consider it until the middle of January…that’s how long I will have to wait for There Will Be Blood. Dammit.
Don’t worry Joel, I want to do a Top 10 by the end of the year just to get it on record, but I want to follow it up sometime in January when more people have had a chance to catch up on the late arrivals.
As for the Coens, I’m leaning toward going in reverse order of my current favorites, though that might be a fool’s game and will require watching them all first and deciding in what order I like them to begin with.
Anyway, I encourage you and everyone to dust off your DVDs and at least watch your favorites.
That’s okay by me, Craig — but I can live without “instant classic!”
[repeatedly thrusts his hand up] Can I give my answers to your Coens quiz now?
Ooh, you’re doing a retrospective too! I’m planning one for January and February, watching two films every Sunday in more or less chronological order (I shifted Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers because I didn’t want them to be what was freshest in my mind) leading up to the Valentine’s day release of No Country. And just to be prepared, I bought Fargo (I know, should have done that ages ago) and Miller’s Crossing this morning :-)
It’ll be fun comparing and contrasting reviews, I’m looking forward to it!
Miller’s Crossing is my personal favorite. I have a thing for noir. But so many of their films are brilliant.
That was my exact original plan Hedwig, leading up to No Country…but AFI got in the way. This time maybe I’ll lead up to a re-appreciation of No Country.
I can’t wait to read your thoughts on the Brothers. As a fan, you’ll always be ok in my book.
I love Miller’s too Sartre, and I’d also posit that there are noir elements running through almost all of the Coen films, even the comedies. A discussion for a future time however…
I definitely agree, I think the noir elements are one reason why I love the Coen’s (the only one I can think of that don’t clearly have it are O’ Brother and the Ladykillers), and reversely, I think they’ve made me want to watch more noirs and made me love the genre more. I especially The Dude as their version of a PI (and love Jon Polito calling him “a fellow Shamus”), the inevitable downfall of Ed in The Man Who wasn’t There, and Miller’s Crossing and Blood Simple are wonderful takes on a more straight-up kind of noir.
This has nothing to do with this post, but the AFI selections are up:
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/afiawards07/default.aspx
Overall, the choices look good. But no Assassination of Jesse James, no 3:10 to Yuma, no Zodiac, no I’m Not There, and no Sweeney Todd.
Atonement is British so it wasn’t eligible. But Diving Bell and the Butterfly is on there! I guess it’s considered a U.S./France picture? Well, I’m ecstatic about it anyway.
Check it out.
Once again, another good list despite the many things it left out. Thanks for the heads up.