My extended hiatus.

Originally I'd conceived of taking a brief hiatus from regularly updating my blog here, unfortunately that brief hiatus--with the obvious demands of post-highschool summer activities, and the mountain of academic obligations I was quickly swamped with come college--ended up turning in to something much more extended. Most likely I'll still be unable to update here on a regular basis for some time, but for now I offer a token of reconciliation: a short essay I wrote for my Introduction to Cinema Studies class at New York University. It's certainly no Tolstoy, but hey, I've got time to improve.

Deep focus cinematography in service of the narrative in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane"

At the time of “Citizen Kane’s” release in 1941, the vast majority of American filmmakers found themselves confined to the usage of a relatively strict set of visual techniques. It was not until a variety of innovative visual and narrative techniques were displayed by Orson Welles’, in what eventually became known as his magnum opus, that American filmmakers of the time took it upon themselves to push more of the boundaries of classical narrative, cinematography, framing, and other filmmaking devices. Though Welles was innovative in the construction of his film’s narrative, framing, cinematography and many other components, one of the most significant advancements he made was with the development, popularization and use of deep focus. Deep focus cinematography is a visual technique that allows a director or cinematographer to keep the foreground, middle-ground and background all in focus, through the use of a large depth of field, allowing the viewer to see each plane sharply and recognize a greater range of details within the frame. Though many well-known directors of the time (including Eric von Stroheim, Jean Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock) had already used deep focus to great effect by the time “Citizen Kane” was released, no other film that had yet to make such liberal and effective use of the technique. Additionally, Welles and Gregg Toland’s (his cinematographer) use of deep focus was much more than a simple parlor trick or vain demonstration of the extent of their technical abilities: rather, the use of deep focus served many valid and necessary narrative purposes throughout the course of the film.

“Citizen Kane” is, in part, a detective story. It recounts the life of Charles Foster Kane in flashbacks after he has died. This series of flashbacks to important episodes throughout Kane’s life are triggered by the interactions between a newspaper reporter (equally curious as to the motivations behind many of Kane’s actions as the audience) and several of Kane’s closest friends and confidants. In the end, it proves impossible for an outside observer to positively ascertain the nature, wills and desires of that Kane’s heart (as it would with any man). As a result, the film ends on a note of ambiguity. Despite this, the use of techniques such as deep focus allows the audience more comprehensive access into Kane’s psyche throughout the course of the film.

In one of the earliest scenes of the film, we see a flashback of Kane as a young boy. Having come into a large sum of money, his mother decides to place her adolescent son under the guardianship of Walter Parks Thatcher, a prominent banker. As Mrs. Kane sits at her dining room table with the man soon to replace her as Charles’ primary caretaker, her son is framed in the window behind the pair and to the left. The technique of deep focus allows each plane in the frame to remain in the focus simultaneously, which means the audience is able watch clearly as Mrs. Kane and Mr. Thatcher sign the documents that are to draw a definitive end to Charles’ pure and carefree existence and the youthful, carefree, and oblivious activities of the boy whose life has been, unbeknownst to him, decided conclusively for him. Unlike the newspaper reporter and others, the audience is able to simultaneously view the decisions’ of Kane’s mother and the party who is to be most significantly affected by those decisions, amplifying the deafening weight of those decisions. With the added knowledge of Kane’s eventual fate (provided by the March of Time newsreel in the first minutes of the film), the audience may connect their expanded knowledge of this event with its long term results, and is therefore better able to understand how Kane eventually turns out as he does; sad, empty and isolated from the world. Without the use of deep focus cinematography in this scene, Welles and Toland would have been unable to capture the dynamic in this scene between Mrs. Kane and her son, and the long reaching effects of both that dynamic in her actions, in a way that was both true and appropriate in relation to the rest of the film’s narrative. Through this use of deep focus, the viewing audience is allowed what would otherwise be an impossible view into the psychology of the enigmatic Charles Foster Kane.

Another scene later in the film is prompted by one of Mr. Bernstein’s flashbacks. Bernstein, one of Kane’s closest friends throughout the film, is shown reading the contract that stipulates the terms of Kane’s sale of his newspaper empire to another company. In the scene, Bernstein is seated on the far right, Thatcher on the far left, with a wide space in the middle containing a large vertical window situated atop a paneled wall. As Bernstein recites the terms of the contract, Kane walks into the frame from the right, and continues towards the center of the screen. As he walks towards the window, Kane’s height initially seems comparable, but as he nears the back wall he is quickly dwarfed, his head barely reaching the top of the paneled wall as he comes to a stop. This proves a valuable visual cue as to Kane’s internal state as he is forced to sign over ownership of his prized newspapers. Kane, a man driven for so long by the desire to succeed, is now reduced to selling off his acquisitions to survive. Through this visual trick in which Kane is physically dwarfed by the immense window, despite him initially appearing just as large and powerful as ever, the audience is afforded an understanding of his intense humiliation and disgrace. During this scene, the audience’s comprehension of Kane’s disappointment is punctuated by his pointed self-deprecation as he finally sits and signs the contract, explaining, “[y]ou know Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.” This understanding would not be possible without the use of deep focus cinematography, as it allows the audience to view clearly what is going on in each sector of the frame throughout the entire scene.

Through these two examples of how deep focus cinematography may assist the audience in understanding ideas within a film more deeply, we can begin to fathom how the function of this technique serves the overall narrative as a whole; enriching and furthering ideas that would otherwise be almost impossible to transmit. Further, this understanding of the function of deep focus within the narrative of “Citizen Kane” allows us to contemplate the function of other elements within this and other films, and the many ways in which those elements also serve to one’s viewing experience.

Snippet Reviews: Lars Von Trier (the good and the bad)

Breaking the Waves (1996)

The first entry in Lars Von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, this heartbreaking depiction of a young, naive woman living in rural Scotland in the 1970's who comes face to face with the true nature of faith and devotion is an overwhelmingly moving examination of the repercussions and rewards of self-sacrifice. Bess (played by Emily Watson in her deservedly Oscar-nominated screen debut) is newly married to Jan, a Scandinavian oil rig worker. After Jan is involved in an accident while on the job he is sent home, paralyzed from the neck down. A devastated Bess is convinced that after having prayed to God to bring Jan home, his injury is her fault. What follows, as Bess attempts to repent for her supposed sins, is a dark and painfully affecting set of events which ends in Bess' inevitable martyrdom. Trier's crowning achievement is one of great passion that has forever marked him as a master filmmaker. Final grade: A

Dancer in the Dark (1999)

Lars Von Trier has managed to perfect the art of audience manipulation with his avant-garde parable starring Bjork as a poor Czech immigrant desperate to raise enough money to get her son an operation that could save his eyesight. Von Trier's film exists in a world where every American is cruel and heartless, while every foreigner is good and pure and ultimately punished for it. The movie actually works on the musical level; as Bjork cranks out a number of melodious tunes to the sounds of clinking machinery. Besides that, Von Trier's anti-American sentiments prove little more than cheap and unfounded attacks. Unfortunately, he utilizes an already engaging and beautiful film as a vehicle for his "Americans suck" dribble, a sentiment supported by little more than the actions of his fictional characters and in the end his diatribe overshadows the art. Final grade: C

The Top 20 Movies of 2008

1. The Wrestler/The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttona
2. The Visitor
3. The Dark Knight
4. Doubt
5. Milk
6. Synecdoche, New York
7. Che
8. Happy-Go-Lucky
9. In Bruges
10. Frost/Nixon
11. Vicky Christina Barcelona
12. Wall-E
13. Man On Wire
14. The Reader
15. Rachel Getting Married
16. Tropic Thunder
17. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
18. Iron Man
19. Revolutionary Road
20. Speed Racer

Honorable mentions: Choke, Religulous, Snow Angels, Appaloosa, Slumdog Millionaire, The Duchess, Young At Heart, Tell No One, Mongol, Frozen River, Roman De Gare, The Fall

The Top 20 Movies of 2007

1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country For Old Men/Zodiac
3. Once
4. Superbad
5. Michael Clayton
6. Blade Runner: The Final Cut
7. The Bourne Ultimatum
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
9. No End In Sight
10. Ratatouille
11. Grindhouse
12. Crazy Love
13. Margot At the Wedding
14. Into the Wild
15. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
16. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
17. Juno
18. Lars and the Real Girl
19. Waitress
20. In the Valley of Elah

Honorable mentions: Dan In Real Life, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, , Romance & Cigarettes, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Snippet Reviews: The Best of 2007 (Part I)

Zodiac (2007)

By far the most masterful and impressive work of director David Fincher's long career, this epic documentation of the Zodiac killings throughout the 60's and 70's, which marked the end of the flower power era with a deafening thunder, is equally riveting and goose bump-inducing. Seen through the eyes of San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the majority of the film functions as a police procedural as local authorities tirelessly comb the streets of San Francisco for any hint of the elusive killer, while the last third acts as a portrait of Graysmith's own intense fixation with the Zodiac. The sharp, perfectly paced script is aided by one of the most fantastic soundtracks in recent memory. The film's true brilliance is that rather than narrowly focusing on the details of the Zodiac's crimes, it acts as a character study, painting a dark portrait of obsession and paranoia among those who spent years of their lives attempting to crack the case of the Zodiac, many finding themselves destroyed by it. Final grade: A

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Despite numerous filmmakers having attempted to successfully tell the doomed tale of Jesse James and his infamous gang, never before has it been executed such grace and skill. Andrew Dominik's sophomore effort recalls the work of such innovators as Terrence Malick, with it's breathtaking cinematography and fragile pace, but still manages to carve it's own creative path. Brad Pitt gives one of the best performances of his career as James, the infamously charismatic and yet viciously erratic outlaw. Likewise, Casey Affleck is perfect as Robert Ford, James' admirer and eventual assassin, pulling off a nearly impossible high-wire act as he delicately negotiates the boundary between sympathetic bystander and spiteful killer. The intelligence of the film comes from it's unwillingness to place judgment on either character, leaving it to the viewer to decide just who’s shoulders the title of protagonist ultimately falls upon. Final grade: A-

Michael Clayton (2007)

Tony Gilroy's directorial debut is as perfectly understated as it is powerful, emulating what every director of a John Grisham adaptation wishes they were capable of. In this meticulously crafted legal thriller, George Clooney carefully and quietly constructs the portrait of a man worn down by countless years as the "fixer" at a prestigious New York law firm. The supporting cast is excellent, but in the end it's Tom Wilkinson who truly steals the show, giving a phenomenal performance as the lead defense attorney for a corrupt farming company who may be turning the tables on his own clients. Final grade: A-

Snippet Reviews: Youth Without Youth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Enchanted

Youth Without Youth (2007)

It's especially difficult to critique the work of a man who seems to make movies that require no approval but his own. Obviously startled by his newfound financial independence from the pesky production heads who've hounded him and his creative ambitions for decades, Francis Ford Coppola's unnecessarily oblique meditation on the nature of language, time and human consciousness is nothing more than a migraine-inducing ode to the director's inflated ego. Nevertheless, Tim Roth gives an intruiging performance as Dominic, a 70 year-old professor who's struck by a bolt of lightning. Miraculously he survives, and unexplainably wakes up to find himself thirty five years younger and in the sudden possession of a few questionable intellectual abilities. Coppola's first feature in ten years is the cinematic equivalent of an overly eager cocker spaniel peeing on the carpet. Unsure how to cope with the possibilities allowed to him by financing his own projects, this labor of love is a thematic mess. Despite the film's rampant faults, Coppola's efforts to create a new and challenging piece of work are at the very least admirable. Let's hope that by his next film he will have learned to tame his creative eruptions a bit more effectively. Final grade: C-

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

In 1995, the handsome, successful editor of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby, suffered a massive stroke which left him completely paralyzed, save his left eye. Using only his eye, Bauby painstakingly dictated his memoir; a series of etherial observations and musings on the world around him from inside the cold cell of his body. Director Julian Schnabel recreates Bauby's world with an incredible grace and artistry. We see through Bauby's eyes as he wakes for the first time. We hear his panicked thoughts as he begins to understand the nature of his predicament. We experience the same frustration and sorrow as Bauby as he muses on his inability to perform simple actions, such as run his fingers through his son's hair. He's forced to communicate with his father (Max Von Sydow, in a decidedly small, but Oscar-worthy performance) over the phone by proxy, and can do nothing to respond but blink, even as his aging father breaks out in tears over the speakerphone. Janusz Kaminski's gorgeous cinematography adds a dreamlike quality to the wanderings of Bauby's imagination as he travels through the halls of his memory, reliving the glory of his former life to the piercing sound of Tom Waits and U2. As ironic as it may sound, Schnabel's achievement is a feast for the senses in every way. Final grade: A-

Enchanted (2007)

Comedic self-reflection has never exactly been Disney's strong suit. Hence my relatively low expectations for their live-action Princess tale musical/comedy starring a rather brightly-clad Amy Adams. To my pleasant surprise, my expectations were far from correct. Adams lends a winning smile, melodious voice, and unstoppable charm to the role of Giselle, a fairy tale princess who mistakingly finds herself in New York City. After being met with less than a warm welcome in the Big Apple, Giselle finds herself under the roof of Patrick Dempsey's stuffy divorce lawyer, Robert. Sparkls fly between Giselle and Robert as she awaits rescue by James Marsden's well-intentioned, airheaded prince, and blah, blah, blah, you know how it goes. Despite a somewhat lackluster final act, this fairy tale send-up manages to be just what it should; well made cotton candy fun. Final grade: B+

Snippet Reviews: Clint Eastwood (the early years)

Dirty Harry (1971)

Throughout Clint Eastwood's legendary, although occasionally rocky career, he has continued to exemplify what many of us consider to be the quintessential badass. Here, Eastwood really drives the point home as Detective Harry Callahan - a hard and seasoned professional who's seen it all, but who is simultaneously wounded by loneliness and the plague of experience (a now criminally played out plot device when it comes to cop movies). Second only to Eastwood, the most important ingredient in the film is the location. Set in San Francisco, director Don Siegel brings the streets to life with vibrant gusto, aided by Lalo Shifrin's fantastic jazz score. "Dirty Harry" manages to not only thrill, but to accomplish the harrowing task of encapsulating all that was cool and nostalgia-inducing about the 1970's. Final grade: A-

Play Misty For Me (1971)

Clint Eastwood's 1971 directorial debut is a shaky first effort, but it makes for an interesting watch; not only for the over-wrought acting and occasional gripping moment, but for the experience of watching as one of America's best directors shaped his directing style and technique. If that's not enough then watch for Jessica Walter and the great jazz score. Final grade: B

Snippet Reviews: Classic and neo-Westerns

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Finally, Pierce Brosnan gets the much-deserved opportunity to demonstrate his acting chops, playing Gideon, a scraggly ex-Union soldier under tireless pursuit from Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) through the mountains and into the flatlands of Northern Nevada. Neither Brosnan nor Neeson dissapoint, each managing to deftly maintain the taut, captivating atmosphere. It's a film of small scope, but it's elevated to the status of legitimately capable neo-Western just on the basis of the two leads' performances. Although the story drags from time to time and we're left with a somewhat lackluster yet unavoidable ending; the landscapes are breathtaking and both actors are at the top of their game, creating a palpable chemistry despite sharing only a few scenes together. Plus, you get to see James Bond jump out of a dead horse. Final grade: B

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

If there's one thing that director Robert Altman has truly mastered over the years, it's atmosphere. The dead, snow-filled backwoods of the Northwest are the perfect backdrop for Altman's anti-western, beautifully framed by the listlessly mournful songs of Leonard Cohen. Warren Beatty, in arguably his best performance, is McCabe, a lonely drifter who sets up shop in the small town of Presbyterian Church. Soon enough he's joined by Julie Christie's Mrs. Miller, an opium-addicted prostitute too numb to reality to understand, as McCabe says, that "he's got poetry in him". Altman's fable is a heart-wrenching portrait of loneliness, isolation and greed that won't soon be forgotten, unlike the lives of "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"'s ultimately doomed protagonists. Final grade: A-

The Searchers (1956)

Much has been made over the years of the blatant racism of John Wayne's hard-bitten Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, who small-mindedly refers to his kidnapped niece as "the leavin's of a Comanche buck". This, to me, is not the fundamentally offensive aspect of the picture, but rather it's insensitivity towards historical accuracy (for example, it's depiction of Texas-native Indians as living in teepees is totally incorrect; Native Americans from that area were not nomadic and therefore didn't use teepees). Despite this major flaw, legendary director John Ford tackles the most ubiquitous Western morals with world-weariness and insight that elevates the film to the status of classic. It's a tale of epic proportions, spanning the length of over five years as Edwards and companion Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) search tirelessly for Edwards' niece (Natalie Wood), kidnapped in a Comanche raid. Despite an unnecessary subplot involving Pawley's issues with his estranged fiance and it's historical inaccuracies, the film's injustices are eventually overcome by the breathtaking landscapes, enthralling battle scenes and the genuine rapport we build with Edwards despite his polarizing prejudices. Final grade: B

Snippet Reviews: A Mighty Heart, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and The Invasion

A Mighty Heart (2007)

It seems that over the last few years, somewhere between the tabloid covers and the Tomb Raider sequels, most of us have forgotten just how talented Angelina Jolie really is. It's difficult not to recognize that talent once again with her portrayal of real-life Marianne Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (played by Dan Futterman here), who was kidnapped by a Pakistan-based terrorist group in 2002. Once news of the kidapping reaches Marianne and company, her home becomes a chaotic collection of officials and friends from around the world, all working towards the same goal, of bringing Daniel home before time runs out. Though basically told as a police procedural it's that procedure that helps to maintain the tense environment throughout the film as Marianne and her camp scour the city, attempting to track down Daniel and his assailants. Rather than succumb to self-satisfactory melodrama, seasoned director Michael Winterbottom manages to craft a painfully realistic (mostly on account of Winterbottom's use of digital video) testament to the benefits of intercultural cooperation and communication, despite the inevitable outcome of Marianne's tragic situation. Final Grade: B+

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

If whimsicality were currency, writer/director Zach Helm would be bankrupt. Dustin Hoffman channels a twisted combination of Willy Wonka and Gene Shalit as Mr. Edward Magorium, the 243 year-old owner of the Wonder Emporium. Nevermind that his store, filled with every sort of colorful bauble imaginable, is smack dab in the middle of a busy New York City street, and there is no one yet to have noticed that this magical toy store has a life of it's own. After Magorium announces to his assistant Molly (Natalie Portman) that he has chosen to bequeath the store to her, things around the Emporium begin to go a bit haywire. Jason Bateman makes a welcome turn as Henry, the deadpan accountant sent in to sort out Magorium's finances, but even he fails to reach his potential and ends up as a cardboard cut-out of a fully developed character. Director Helm, who's writing credits include 2004's Stranger Than Fiction, is not only far too aware of his own quirkiness but also rather unsure of what message he wants to convey. Helm bravely plays with the type of sensitive subject matter not typically approached in family pictures, but even those themes fail to really strike an emotional chord. Final Grade: D

The Invasion (2007)

Another year, another re-make. After two big screen treatments of Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers" the question is, do we really need another? Nicole Kidman is riveting, per usual, as a Washington D.C. psychiatrist who begins to notice strange behavior in her patients and neighbors after a space shuttle crash lands containing an alien virus. It's an eerie tale, but never seems to amount to much else. A lame attempt to intertwine social commentary on the nature of humanity and violence is made, and Jeffrey Wright is criminally underused. Final Grade: C-

Margot At the Wedding (2007)

It's important for viewers to know ahead of time that Noah Baumbach's wry, somewhat sadistic follow up to his 2005 sleeper The Squid and the Whale is not exactly a "comedy". Whoever dares enter a screening of "Margot At the Wedding" should probably be warned that they will be met with much more screaming, crying and cussing than raucous laughter. Despite ingredients that under normal circumstances would just equal a blinding headache, Baumbach has crafted another insightful tale of the parents and their children who seem to be entering emotional adulthood simultaneously.

Margot (Nicole Kidman), a New York-based short story writer, is teetering on the edge of sanity (and alcoholism, it seems). She and her son Claude (Zain Pais) are invited to attend the marriage of her estranged sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Malcolm (Jack Black), a hapless doofus who spends his time sending in written responses to music reviews. To say the least, Margot does not approve. Her arrival inevitably leads to the revealing of long-buried neurosises and painful secrets.

Not since her Oscar-winning turn in 2002's The Hours has Kidman been this good. Her Margot is mind-bogglingly vicious, but just vulnerable and inept enough for us to find loathing her a difficult task. We manage to muster some semblance of sympathy for her. She knows that she is not a nice person. In one scene, her husband (John Turturro) has made the trip up to her sister's home, against her wishes. They're driving late at night when they spot a woman on the side of the road, cradling her injured dog who's been hit by a car. Margot's husband, Jim, pulls over to help, taking the woman and her dog to the vet. "You make me feel guilty," she says, attempting to prove her insensitivity towards the woman and her crisis. "I wouldn't have stopped." She's aware of her own venom, even as it comes catapulting from her mouth.

Pauline makes for a somewhat watered-down version of her sister. She's considerate and insightful, but it doesn't take long before her "abnormalities" begin to surface. Leigh, wife of writer/director Baumbach, is outstanding as always, having built up a sturdy repertoire of winning performances over the last two decades. Black holds up surprisingly well playing opposite two of the most seasoned and talented actresses working today. He's smart enough to understand his own range and forfeits his typical senselessness for sincerity, and a more genuine hilarity, despite Malcolm having more than his fair share of buried secrets.

The crazy, mixed-up family gathering is certainly not an uncommon plot device, but it's not often that it's carried out with such precision and wisdom. The film is plagued by an occasional loose end, one in particular being an awkwardly undeveloped relationship with Pauline and Malcolm's neighbors, who have a tendency to slaughter and roast whole pigs in their backyard. That said, Baumbach's writing is razor sharp and he's managed to illicit a number of great performances from his cast to create a marvelous character study. It can't be assured that by the end everyone has learned their lesson, but it's probably safe to say that every character finishes the day just one step closer to sanity.

Final grade: A-

No Country For Old Men (2007)

It's been eleven long years since the release of Fargo, the Coen Brothers' undeniable masterpiece. The tale of a kidnapping gone horribly wrong, it was told with unparalleled wit and gusto, and the film permanently placed the Coen's on the critical and artistic map. Now with the first literary adaptation of their careers they've created a masterful, dark, and truly exhilirating neo-Western parable that will no doubt be considered one of the defining films of 2007.

Just minutes into "No Country For Old Men", it becomes painfully clear that Javier Bardem's Antone Chigurgh is more than simply a force to be reckoned with. The most effective screen villain since Hannibal Lecter, Chigurgh sinisterly shuffles from kill to kill sporting a bowl-cut that would have brought even The Monkees to tears. His eyes sallow yet piercing, he speaks in a confident drawl, noisily dragging a compressed airgun behind him as he goes. The airgun, an instrument typically used on cows in the slaughterhouse, operates by projecting and then retracting a small steel bolt through the forehead. The sound of Chigurgh's weapon - no doubt heavy with the weight of its countless casualties - as it scrapes across the shoddy wooden floors of motel after motel, is more than enough to shoot a shiver done the spine (no pun intended).

In this case, the object of that tool's fancy is Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a good old boy Texan and Vietnam vet who, rather unluckily, stumbles upon $2 million at the scene of a drug deal gone wrong. Vaguely aware of the implications of such an immense find, Moss hastily sends his unknowing wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) off to her mother's and hits the road. Chigurgh is hired by an investor (Stephen Root), whose finances are closely tied to the success of the botched deal, to track down the stolen loot. As Moss makes his way from town to town Chigurgh is never far behind, leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Tommy Lee Jones lends his familiar world-weary wisdom as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, the man assigned the harrowing task of tracking down Moss before it's too late. "You think this boy Moss got any notion of the sorts that're huntin' him," asks a fellow officer. Bell shrewdly replies, "I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."

Moss and Chigurgh quickly settle into a tense game of cat and mouse, Chigurgh always just a few steps behind his target. Moss proves himself a worthy adversary as he, for awhile at least, manages to outsmart his pursuer. Inevitably, Moss and Chigurgh are forced into a showdown. One of the most tense moments in the film comes just moments before their meeting, in which we hear the incessant beeping of the transducer Chigurgh has used to locate the tracking device buried amongst the $2 million. He paces just outside Moss' motel room door, his thick boots thumping across the wood floor. We hear him halt just outside the door and immediately identify the odd screeching noise; he's begun to unscrew the lightbulb. It's a terrifying moment, filled with dread for both Moss and the viewers. In another scene, we see Chigurgh exit a house after conversing with someone he may or may not have killed. He stops on the porch, and quietly checks the bottom of his boots. Nothing beyond that must be said for us to realize that the person inside that house, unlucky enough to have crossed paths with such a man, is done for. To create a sense of interminable terror from such a rudimentary action is a near impossible feat, but one that the Coen Brothers seemingly accomplish with great ease.

Here the Coen's have chosen to step out of their comfort zone, abandoning their usual buoyant techniques for a much more sinister, mischievous tone, and they pull it off beautifully. The sparse, arid landscapes of Southern Texas prove to be a perfect canvas for their palette. The twistedly sharp dialogue is nearly as breathtaking as Roger Deakins' bone-dry cinematography. The first 90% of the film is absolutely flawless. The last 20 minutes or so may leave even the most attentive viewer with a question or two, but by then the ride's been so fantastic that the majority of viewers won't even mind.

The film opens with the dryly comforting voice of Sheriff Bell as he reflects over an experience as a young deputy in which he oversaw the execution of a man for murder. It is that reflection which embodies the axiom of the film. Just minutes before the man was schedule to be executed, "[he] said he'd been fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was going to hell". The evil he sees in this boy is the very same he sees in Chigurh, and after decades as a lawman, Bell's learned that when it comes to monsters such as these, there's not much one can do beyond making sure they stay the hell out of the way when men like Chigurgh come barrelling through town. Bell knows better than anyone that this new country is a ruthless one, awash with drugs, and violence, certainly no place for the heroes of yesteryear.

Final grade: A