No Country For Old Men

It's a movie by the Coen Brothers based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. In it, Llewellyn Moss stumbles upon some money from a drug deal gone bad, keeps it, and finds himself doggedly pursued by the psychotic assassin Anton Chigurgh. Following both is Texas Sheriff Ed Bell. Much bloodhsed ensues.

Well, in my opinion...

...it's about how everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story, and in reality, none of us are. Llewellyn thinks he's the hero, but he's not. Anton sees his own version of the story and in it, he knows exactly how it will end...but he's wrong. Carson Wells too. Maybe Sheriff Bell isn't so deluded, and in that way, he is sort of our protagonist...but he's no hero. Hell, he never even has screen time with any of the aforementioned characters.

So yeah, it's pretty nihlistic. Fits me like a glove. Life isn't a story. We're not protagonists. The only real ending is death, and it's almost always anti-climatic.

Everything. The acting. The cinematography. The pacing. This is the best movie I saw in a theater this year.

The movie, and apparently the book too, runs roughshod over audience expectation. In some ways, it's almost totally devoid of a third act. It sets you up for a certain thing, and then that thing never happens. People were apparently dissatisfied with this.

I'm not going to say they're wrong...by no means is this a critic-proof film. Great films rarely are. This one has a chance to be great.