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Author Topic: Ferris' GooseEgg Marathon: 40 great films from this decade  (Read 101411 times)

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #350 on: February 19, 2010, 11:06:58 AM »
Goose Egg Marathon Film #28



The Man Who Wasn't There
(2001, Joel and Ethan Coen)

"...and through all of it, we cut the hair"

You come to expect a certain level of quality going into a Coen Brother's film.  You know the cinematography will be impeccable, the characters will be memorable, the dialog witty and at it's core will be a member of the fringe of society getting in over his head in an effort to better his life in a way that might be seen by the audience to be foolhardy at best.  So in this case, did the Coen brothers deliver yet again?  And did the sum of its parts add up to a collective masterpiece like Fargo or No Country?  

I'll answer Yes to the first question and a qualified No to the second question.



The film is set in late 1940's Santa Rosa, California and follows a 'second chair barber', Ed Crane, who's going through the motions of a uninspiring career and a listless marriage.  By chance he learns about an "investment opportunity".  He has no aspirations of wealth, but infatuated with the simple thought of something new he makes some pretty poor decisions to take advantage of the opportunity.  As you might expect, these decisions have unintended consequences...



The film is set in the noir genre.  Noir is not a favorite genre of mine, since by it's very design it keeps us an arm's distance from the characters.  But here it is as effective use of the style as I've ever seen.  I not only tolerated the internal monologue voice overs stagy performances, I quite enjoyed them.  

I can't go much longer without talking about the Black and White.  It was filmed in color and converted to black and white in post.  Roger Deakins is the cinematographer, and although his shooting style is fairly minimalistic throughout, the effect really worked for me.  I loved the black and white.  It made me wish the old great black and white films could be as clean as this was.  Instead of going on and on I'll let some of the screenshots speak for themselves:

Cinematography:






The themes were pretty interesting in this film, especially in light of A Serious Man released late last year.   Here, the Coen's introduce the uncertainty principle with respect to the concept that our perception of an event has the potential to effect the event we're perceiving.  But again, like in A Serious Man, there seems to be a slightly-less-than arbitrary force at work (Karma?) that leads people to their ultimate redemption or punishment.  

This would be a great double feature for an in depth film discussion with those interested in film and curious about the basic concepts of quantum mechanics.  Such a discussion could lead to quite a treatise on Coen brother's themes in films as a whole.  



I was a bit uninspired by the performances.  Hmmm... maybe that's too strong a way to say it. It's the noir style that doesn't really let me in their heads where I want to be...but I'll admit that's not the point.  My favorite characters were Big Dave, played by James Gandolfini) and Birdy Abundas, played by a surprisingly good Scarlett Johansson.  I'm neither a hater or apologist for Billy Bob Thornton.  I have to say it's hard to think of anyone more perfect for that role.  I'd hate to imagine a Coen regular like John Turturro or George Clooney trying to pull off his scowlly oppressed persona.  BTW: I challenge anyone to watch this film, then Slingblade and A Simple Plan in succession and tell me BBT isn't a great actor.





"It's just a bowl of Goddam cherries. Congratulations on the goddamn cherries!"

I've often heard the debate about whether the Coen brothers make fun of their characters. Whether or not this is the case is not the point with me.  For me I'm just highly appreciative that they have such curiousity about small town America.  They either work entirely outside the framework of its broad comfortable archtypes or they take them to their logical extremes.  And it's more interesting than just another film set in LA.  At one point a "big city lawyer" says to Ed, "I'm an atourney, you're a barber.  You don't know anything."  when in fact, it that instance, he's the only one who does.   This sums up the theme of the entire movie - and for me the Coen's take on their subjects.




Verdict:
Great Coen's take on the noir genre.   Gorgeous cinematography and the sharp dialog we've come to expect.  But in the end still felt a bit lacking

Grade: A-

« Last Edit: February 19, 2010, 11:11:26 AM by ferris »
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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'Noke

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009
« Reply #351 on: February 19, 2010, 11:19:21 AM »
Glad you liked it Ferris, it's a very good movie. Thoughts on Tony Shalhoub as Freddy Riedenschneider?
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

Clovis8

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #352 on: February 19, 2010, 11:21:23 AM »
I forgot how awesome that film looks. I need to see it again. Great review.

oldkid

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #353 on: February 19, 2010, 11:26:54 AM »
Great review.  I need to watch it again, especially after seeing A Serious Man.  But I thought it was a mediocre film-- but the cinematography, wow...
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Bondo

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009
« Reply #354 on: February 19, 2010, 11:29:56 AM »
I haven't seen The Man Who Wasn't There since the first time I watched it in 2001. It made my top 20 that year (a fantastic year for film) so obviously I enjoyed it. That said, I don't remember much about it so I should probably revisit it at some point. I'd put it in the upper half of the Coen filmography.

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009
« Reply #355 on: February 19, 2010, 12:04:22 PM »
Glad you liked it Ferris, it's a very good movie. Thoughts on Tony Shalhoub as Freddy Riedenschneider?

I haven't seen more than 2 minutes of Monk, but I know enough about the character to know he was completely different as Freedy Riedenschneider.  I did really like the character and wish I got to know him better.  It's kinda a hllarious role, and you have to hit the marks just right so as to not be too campy or to undersell the schtick.  To that end he did a marvelous job.  I didn't really have any other take-away impressions beyond that.

I do remember him from back on that (dreadful early 90's) Wings sitcom, where he was written pretty cardboard.  He wasn't given much to do. 
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #356 on: February 19, 2010, 12:06:04 PM »
Great review.  I need to watch it again, especially after seeing A Serious Man.  

I forgot how awesome that film looks. I need to see it again. Great review.

Thanks Steve and Clovis.

I think after watching A Serious Man, this film would reward another viewing.  Their themes seem to intertwine and give light as to how they manfiest themselves among the rest of the Coen canon.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2010, 12:07:35 PM by ferris »
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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smirnoff

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #357 on: February 19, 2010, 12:16:24 PM »
BTW: I challenge anyone to watch this film, then Slingblade, A Simple Plan, and Bad Santa in succession and tell me BBT isn't a great actor.
:)

Great review. Like you, noir has never really been my thing, but your positive review has me curious. What do you think ferris, would I like it?

ferris

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009)
« Reply #358 on: February 19, 2010, 12:21:42 PM »
Inspired by Melvil's Top 100 marathon, I thought I'd start posting a ranking list of movies so far in my marathon.

Just a reminder, the point to the exercise of doing this marathon is to craft my Top 50 movies of the decade list.  I felt I was ill-prepared, even though I had about 36 films alread selected before I started this marathon.  

So here are the rankings so far, with a Mendoza line for what will likely make the cut and what won't.  Of course, these are completely inconsistent with the grades I gave things.  I give out a lot of A minuses it seems.

Ranked best to worst:
1-Spirited Away
2-The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3-Children of Men
4-United 93
5-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6-The Science of Sleep
7-In the Bedroom
8-Yi Yi
9-25th Hour
10-Fantastic Mr Fox
11-The Lives of Others
12-The Fountain
---------Likely Top 50 of Decade cut off---------------------
13-Y Tu Mama Tambien
14-Mulholland Drive
15-The Man Who Wasnt There
16-High Fidelity
17-City of God
18-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
19-Pan's Labyrinth
20-Joyeux Noel
21-A Prairie Home Companion
22-The Hurt Locker
23-I'm Not There
24-Los Angeles Plays Itself
25-Apolcalypto
26-Rivers and Tides
27-Brick
« Last Edit: February 19, 2010, 12:35:13 PM by ferris »
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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'Noke

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Re: Ferris' Goose Egg Marathon: FORTY(!) Great Films from this Decade (2000-2009
« Reply #359 on: February 19, 2010, 12:24:45 PM »
1-Spirited Away
2-The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3-Children of Men
5-Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Hooray!!

27-Brick

Oh..Well...Um...
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.