Features
Friday, January 14 2011
Rescripting the Western in 'No Country for Old Men'
How the Coen Brothers' ostensibly faithful award winning adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men diverges from its creator's rather questionable politics.
Friday, January 11 2008
A Gallery of Good Works: The Best Films of 2007
From Julian Schnabel's artsy The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to the legendary Coen Brothers splendid adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, PopMatters counts down the 30 best films of 2007.
Wednesday, January 9 2008
Performance Art: The Best Acting of 2007 - Male
From the tender and eerie precision of Sam Riley's depiction of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in Control to yet another superlative performance by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, PopMatters highlights the best male actors of 2007.
Reviews
Tuesday, September 6 2011
'Blood Simple': A Conspiracy Driven by Greed and Eros with a Denouement in Blood and Death
A highly successful experiment that points the way to the Coen brothers' work in Fargo and No Country for Old Men, films that managed the high wire act of combining irony, violence and aesthetic delight.
Friday, September 19 2008
The Big Lebowski: 10th Anniversary Edition
A generation-defining comedy about peace and brotherhood, set in a world of backstabbers, liars, and semi-professional bowling leagues.
Friday, November 9 2007
No Country for Old Men
The desolate landscape and moral layout evoke old Westerns, but the film, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, also reconsiders the genre's conventions, comparing now and "the old times."
Wednesday, September 8 2004
The Ladykillers (2004)
Pious, earnest, and broadly drawn, Marva is the first black character in a Coen brothers movie to occupy center stage.
Friday, March 26 2004
The Ladykillers (2004)
Pious, earnest, and broadly drawn, Marva is the first black character in a Coen brothers movie to occupy center stage. For a minute, anyway.
Blogs
Friday, September 23 2011
Men of Constant Marvel: 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (Blu-ray)
Like a needlepoint sampler made out of machismo and mountain oysters, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a brilliant slice of period piecemeal magnificence.
News
Thursday, August 14 2008
How to play at being a villain: Bardem, Ledger reignite media interest in craft of acting
The verdict is nearly unanimous: As the Joker in "The Dark Knight," Heath Ledger gives a great performance. But what exactly does that mean? As…
Sunday, February 24 2008
There will be confusion: Deliberately vague films leave critic cold
Walking out of a press screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" in early November, I turned to a fellow critic in the…
Friday, February 22 2008
Joel and Ethan Coen's ‘No Country for Old Men' is favored for the Oscar
LOS ANGELES - On a Sunday night this past January, as the filmmaking brothers Ethan and Joel Coen were picking up one of several New…
Monday, November 12 2007
Sex and violence are not always gratuitous, directors say
What has more sex and violence than an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show"? The multiplex. You can pass through any neighborhood in America and…
Friday, November 9 2007
Q&A with 'No Country for Old Men' makers Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel and Ethan Coen are in almost constant motion. Three days after completing photography in New York City on their upcoming spy comedy "Burn After…
