No Country For Old Men

The first theater movie I have taken in this year, and I was not disappointed. Having wanted to see this film for at least 3 months now, I was psyched that I got to see while it was still out. Needless to say, I was blown away. Javier Bardem is terrifying as a murderer with arguably one of the oddest moral codes seen on screen in awhile. Josh Brolin also delivers as the fortuitous blue collar Texan who finds $2 million out in the West Texas scrub brush.

I guess you could say I'm a film buff, and I know my movie trivia fairly well, but I'm certainly not a fanatical fan of one director or actor or genre. I watch a lot of movies, I pick up on directors and whatnot, but I wouldn't last very long in one of those snobby conversations about how brilliant the Coen Bros are and how the plot nuances in Fargo clearly continue into their latter day work, blah, blah, blah...
That said, I have to say No Country for Old Men is my favorite Coen Bros offering since Lebowski. It certainly felt like one of their films as far as quirkiness and moments of dark humor go, but at other times it was something completely different than I have seen from them. Better storytelling, better plot flow, and really just an intensity that was present from the onset.

While I haven't seen too many of the other probable Oscar candidate flicks yet, it would take something extraordinary to knock this one off as my favorite thus far...