"No Country For Old Men" (Coen brothers 2007)

In 2007 brothers Ethan and Joel Coen were responsible for yet another film masterpiece with “No Country For Old Men”. The thriller takes you straight to rural west Texas in the 1980’s, where you follow three characters as they weave in and out of each others trails. The visibly disturbing psychopathic bounty hunter Anton brilliantly played by Javier Bardem opens with an up-close and personal choke scene at the local police station. The old-timer-ready-to-retire cop Ed Tom Bell played by Tommy Lee Jones investigates a drug deal gone wrong with the timely departure of Llewelyn Moss played by Josh Brolin.  With two million dollars in cash neatly wrapped in a black leather Llewelyn decides to grab the dough and his wife and leave town. While Anton searches for Lewelyn and the cash he continuously quenches his thirst killing anyone in his way. With Lewelyn on the run and Anton leisurely chasing, Bell follows closely behind with an enlightening commentary and young curiosity for the new case.

The film carries a small amount of dialogue creating and constant tension. From the very second it starts you are stuck. Stuck sitting and trying to figure out this killer and the times. Tommy Lee Jones opens the film with a voice over where he introduces his role with a glimpse of some really deep shit that is about to unfold over the next 122 minutes. Jones says, “You can’t help but compare yourself against the old timers. Can’t help but wonder how they would’ve operated these times. There was this boy I sent to Huntsville here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn’t any passion to it. Told me that he’d been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he’d do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. Be there in about fifteen minutes. I don’t know what to make of that. I surely don’t. The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job – not to be glorious. But I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. You can say it’s my job to fight it but I don’t know what it is anymore. More than that, I don’t want to know. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He would have to say, okay, I’ll be part of this world.” To “be a part of this world” would require a man to “put his soul at hazard”. That end thought is enough to make your head hurt. Spend two hours wandering your mind with that one. 

Anton is a character that really makes you sick to your stomach. He is cold and calculated. With the emotionless killing he makes you hope he’s only a character. Hope that no one could ever possibly operate like that. He enjoys what he does. You can see it in his eyes and in his sick smirk. He follows Llewelyn and makes one thing very clear. He has something that doesn’t belong to him. So consider yourself dead. Anton stops at nothing to get to Llewelyn who seems oddly unshaken by this hit-man. Ed spends his days inching closer and closer to protecting Llewelyn but falls short. In this film no one wins. Everyone loses. Even Llewelyn’s poor-helpless-noninvolved wife. "No Country for Old Men" is a comment on death. It’s one thing we all have in common. Every path is different. Some right and some definitely wrong. No matter what the path or who the hell is on it, one thing is certain. It ends. For everyone. The film is deep enough that one viewing just breaks the surface. The opening and closing dialogue in it is worth hearing alone. The Coen brothers managed to take you back to an unfamiliar place. The setting is beautiful and beyond convincing. It’s quiet and slow. Uncomfortable. The cast was phenomenal especially given the light dialogue. This award winning Coen brothers film was another hit that deserves to sit next to Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

“Shameless” (Season 1, episode 7: “Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father,” Showtime)

“Shameless” is an American television show based on the original British t.v. drama. The American version is set on the south side of Chicago. It is based on Frank Gallagher, played by William H. Macy. While following the far from normal life of this single-parent-drunk, you watch his six children raise themselves with a little help from the neighbors. The south side of chicago plays home to this struggling poverty stricken family.

The oldest daughter Fiona, played by Emmy Rossum, has taken on the mother role since official mom left Frank. She is in charge of her five younger siblings and attempting to keep her stumbling father in line (when he’s around). Fiona attempts to take care of Liam (Blake Johnson) the black baby of the family, the dangerously violent minded Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), youngest and at times most sane daughter Debbie (Emma Kenney), Ian the homosexual brother (Cameron Monaghan), and genius eldest son Lip (Jeremy Allen White). In order to really get a sense of this family’s dysfunction you have to see them operate in their environment (chicago slums) with their own set of problems based around the lack of cash flow and the main contributor to that (Frank). 

The most recent episode aired this past Sunday, February 20th, is titled: “Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father.” The title has all the irony in the world seeing as he is neither of the two. It begins with Frank being repeatedly dunked in a bar bathroom toilet by two thugs he owes six grand. This leads off Franks search for a way to cheat death by either coming up with the money or “dying” and leaving all his problems behind. Lip, Ian, and Ian’s fake girlfriend Mandy (Jane Levy) stumble upon a lost driver looking for help. They send him in the direction of a phone and manage to empty the entire truck full of meat with the eager help of some neighbors. Franks gets some sense knocked into him by a homeless woman and decides to go ahead and fake his own death and escape his unpaid debt. 

This episode was packed full of twists between Ian’s boss’ wife catching Kash (Pej Vahdat) and Ian in a nice anal act with the newly installed cameras at the convenient store or the horse tranquilizers, stolen coffin, and the swap of Frank’s “dead” body for an equal weight in left over beef trimmings. Sheila, Frank’s woman at the moment, is played by Joan Cusack. She is a treat to watch play the agoraphobic divorced mother of one. She is so incredibly hindered by her mental state that even a look out the front door seems deadly. She had pure fear on her face as baby Liam wandered around outside while she is babysitting for the day. With a leash made of linens, she ties one end around her waste and the other to the stair post, and ventures out to the unknown, all to save sweet Liam. It’s the biggest and only real breakthrough we’ve seen from her this season. Usually young Ian finds himself trying to find a way out of conflicts with Mickey the neighborhood thief, but this week they end up making up. Or hooking up. The past episodes have all been dramatically different but this weeks stood out. Secrets came out, debts were payed, problems solved, and more problems introduced. 

This series seems to get better and better every week. This week was no different. A nice pick me up episode after last weeks dramatic downer. Next week ends the first season and if the trend continues you can count on a second season and not soon enough.

Banksy: Wall and Piece

Banksy: Wall and Piece is a collection of work done by the notorious street artist who goes only by Banksy. The book is composed of photographs of his work ranging from graffiti to fine art and including the process of both. Through out the book there are short anecdotes and quotes by Banksy and others. His work is found all over the world. Many of his public street art carries a political message. He is known by many aspiring artist as Banksy. He has kept his real identity hidden to the public. With no face to his alias name his message is even more dramatic. “People either love me or they hate me, or they don’t really care.”

Banksy works in so many different mediums it’s hard to place him into a genre of artist other than the blanketed term “street artist”. He uses fake surveillance cameras, stencils, spray paint, parking cones, piss stains, and phone booths. He uses the streets, buildings, walls, sand, paintings, signs, people, and pigs as his canvas’. This book takes you around the world following his work from New York, London, Vienna, Bristol, Barcelona, Paris, and Palestine.

The opening page written by Banksy gives you a great starting point for who the hell this guy is and why he sneaks around doing what he believes so hole heartedly in. Truth. He illustrates his truth a thousand different ways over the next two hundred some pages. He says, “Despite what they say graffiti is not the lowest form or art. Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.” 

Wall and Pieces is beautifully laid out flowing from an intense introduction of a phantom artist into powerful photos of his inspiring work. Through his work you see a process unfold with powerful stories from history and personal experience. A photo of small school girl hugging a giant bomb with a small heart looming over her innocent head is paired with this caption, “It takes a lot of guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in - like peace and justice and freedom.” Not all of the work is heavy in political undertones. Pulp Fiction’s Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta pose in black and white with freshly painted bananas replacing their guns. Turn the page and their guns are back but now they both are wearing obnoxious banana costumes. A black and white stenciled piece of the queen of England sitting on some skank’s face is followed by a quote that reads, “Conversations don’t get any better as you get older.” Wall and Piece takes a fresh and free approach trying to explain a man who no one really knows. Banksy is a phenomenal artist with a passion rivaled by few who remains a mystery to most and a sliver of truth for us all.

chuck sudo

Chuck Sudo is a food writer and current editor-in-chief at Chicagoist, one of the most influencial blogs about everything Chicago. He and other top critics sat down with discussion leader Kris Vire of Time Out Chicago to talk about their approaches to critiquing. Vire began with the simple question, “What qualifies someone to be a critic?” Everyone agreed that passion plays a huge role. In order to write powerful opinions you must have a passion for that in which you are writing about. With all of this emphasis on passion, Vire brings up education, and whether one is more important than the other. Some thought education was initially more important while others found them equally crucial. Sudo said, “Expertise is gained from sating your curiosity, then realizing there’s still more to learn.” Curiosity is an ongoing process. You don’t find deep interest in something, satisfy that hunger, and call it a night. There is a reason for the initial interest and an even bigger reason you pursued it. Be curious, follow that path of interest as far as it will take you. Expertise is found not at the end of the path but along the way. 

Sudo later brings up preconceived notions and how they can disrupt the quality of a critic and their work. Personality and bias and opinion are all important flags to wave throughout a critique but it’s the notions you assume or choose not to explore that will hold your work back. Sudo’s awareness of this shows an openness to those things maybe not favorable to him but more so to the reader.

Vire later asks, “How do we decide which critics we trust?” The first two responses were quick and to the point. Don Hall remarked, “Read them―see if your opinion coincides.” Sudo follows with, “One thing I’ve learned in this continuous on-the-job training is that, even thought I sometimes wear the mantle of a “critic” it’s still an opinion. A more informed opinion. but an opinion still.” Sudo seems to understand his words may be more informed than others but his opinion is no greater than the readers. There are those uppity pricks high on their horses writing reviews but Chuck Sudo is no such dick. He finds the work of others that he trusts by sifting through reviews, finding the patterns or consistency he wants as a reader. Maybe their opinions don’t coincide but the continuous defense the writer brings into the work is the consistency to look for. 

The discussion of “amateurs” and “professionals” was interesting because all of these talented writers have made names for themselves while some of them still wait for a paycheck in doing so. Sudo fears this lack of money involved in criticism may cause quality writers to steer clear of the subjects they are so passionate about. A valid point but this is the weeder system Chuck. It happens in all fields of art, work, and life. If you plan on going through life being compensated and praised for your oh so passionate work then good luck.

The web has changed the way we communicate both in form and function. Those who write for print/web have different approaches. Print is strict. Web is broad. Print is formal. Web is informal. These are all generalizations but there is truth in each one. Sudo says, “The Web medium lends itself to informality very well.” And follows with this, “I remember Roger Ebert once wrote that he writes his movie reviews ‘as though you’re walking in on the middle of a conversation,’ and that’s something I try to achieve online.” This is extremely refreshing because writing can be so stiff and overdone by anyone. He is passionate at what he does making his work carry with it a valid opinion. He is self aware of the position he approaches his work in. Chuck Sudo is a man who writes, reads, eats, and drinks in a very respectable manner.