THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (2009) - Grant Heslov

Based on the book by Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare At Goats tells the true story of the US Army’s attempt to create a battalion of paranormal spies who use remote viewing to complete missions for the army. When Journalist Bob Wilton meets Lyn Cassady, he seems to have stumbled upon the story of a lifetime. Cassady was the golden child of The First Earth Battalion, an experimental battalion set up by Bill Django, a Vietnam Vet. But when a fork-bender named Larry Hooper is drafted into the battalion, he destroys it from within. Is Cassady telling the truth, or will Wilton find out he’s following a madman?



Military affairs make for savage satire. You only have to look at Dr. Strangelove to see that. The Men Who Stare At Goats seemed like the kind of film that would fully exploit this fact. And in some respects, it is a pretty good satire. But it’s a little too tame to be all that memorable. It has a great premise, and some really funny moments. The cast, which includes two actors who delivered brilliant comic performances under the Coen Brothers are all pretty solid. George Clooney (who also produces), Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey all deliver performances we’ve come to expect from these actors. And even Ewan McGreggor (apart from another dodgy American accent) is better than usual. But I expected something more. It’s entertaining, but ultimately forgettable.


7/10

LEATHERHEADS (2008) - George Clooney

Sports movies can sometimes be hit and miss. For every The Natural, there’s a Gridiron Gang. So it was something of a gamble for George Clooney to choose a sports movie for his follow up to critically acclaimed Good Night And Good Luck. But his latest directorial outing, Leatherheads, isn’t your traditional sporting movie. Sure, it features the inevitable high-tension sporting moment at the climax of the film, but this is more a screwball comedy than a sports movie.

Leatherheads takes place in 1925, at the birth of what is now the National Football League. The popularity of the sport is confined to the college leagues, with the professional league being played out in farmers’ fields with little attendance, and even less money. It’s a far cry from the multi-billion dollar industry the NFL is today. Dodge Connolly is struggling to keep the league together, with teams folding all over the country and competitive games for his team, the Duluth Bulldogs disappearing. In a last-ditch effort to keep his dream alive, Connolly enlists the help of a college player, Carter Rutherford, a war-hero and celebrity. With Ritherford on his team, the league looks like it could become something big. But plucky reporter, Lexie Littleton is digging deep into Rutherford’s past. His war-hero status is under scrutiny, and with the success of this new league hinging on Rutherford’s celebrity, things could all go very wrong for Dodge Connolly’s new professional league.



George Clooney hit a whole new level of filmmaking prowess when he released Good Night And Good Luck in 2005. The film was steeped in gravitas, and earned quite a few Oscar nods as a result. It was hard-hitting stuff. Leatherheads is quite the opposite of the previous film. It’s light, fluffy fare, purely for entertainment. That’s not to say there aren’t any ‘issues’ to be dealt with in the film. There is the question of Carter Rutherford’s celebrity. While it’s played for comedy at times, the question of what makes a hero, and why heroes are important for society is brought up. Rutherford’s legend has brought him a lot of success, but at the same time, is truth sometimes glossed over in order to create heroes which make the country look good. But while this is one of the themes of the film, it doesn’t get in the way of the fact that this film is a comedy.

Clooney is as much at home in front of the camera as he is behind it. As we saw in O Brother, Where Art Thou, Clooney does have a talent for comedy, and that’s clear again here. The roles of Dodge Connolly and Ulysses Everett McGill aren’t a million miles apart. They’re both scoundrels. They’re both slick and tend to break the rules. So by that rationale, Clooney’s almost played this role before. But he does it well, and is very entertaining in his pratfalls. Playing against Clooney is Renee Zellweger as Lexie Littleton. It’s pretty clear she’s invoking the spirit of Katherine Hepburn for the role. And while she’s got (to coin a phrase from the time) plenty of moxie, there’s something a little irritating about her character. I don’t know if it lies in the role or the performance, but some of the time I wished the film would get back to the comedy between Clooney and John Krasinski as Carter Rutherford. Krasiniski’s no stranger to comedy, due to his role in the American version of The Office. But while he plays the most likable guy in that show, his character here is less likable and a little more smarmy. But Krasinski pulls this off without too much bother, and during once scene in a hotel lobby, he shows he’s got the comic skills to play against Clooney.



While Leatherheads will not have the same impact as Good Night, And Good Luck had for Clooney’s career, it’s still a decent enough watch. The style and soundtrack of the film really hark back to the 1920’s era, and the subject matter, and the birth of the NFL provide some interesting moments. It’s not the greatest comedy of all time, but it’s an entertaining two hours none the less.


7/10

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) - Ethan and Joel Coen

It’s been a long time coming, but the Coen Brothers have finally found a return to the brilliant form the cinema audience had come to expect from them. After such brilliant films as Raising Arizona, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, the Coens seemed to hit a creative wall in the early 2000s after The Man Who Wasn’t There. Intolerable Cruelty and the remake of The Ladykillers saw the Coens produce films that, while not terrible, weren’t as good as the rest of their body of work. But with the release of No Country For Old Men, they have given us another outstanding film, and what some are calling the finest film they have made.

No Country For Old Men follows three men, who are on a path that will see their destinies cross. Firstly, we are introduced to Anton Chigurh, a ruthless and merciless bounty hunter. Within a few minutes of being introduced to this character, it is clear that he is not somebody to be trifled with. Even when in handcuffs, he is incredibly dangerous. He’s single-minded, and will kill pretty much anybody he encounters, with a few having a lucky escape thanks to the toss of a coin. Llewelyn Moss is a welder who, while hunting the plains of Texas, stumbles across a drug deal gone bad. Everyone involved with the deal is either dead or dying. Moss finds thousands of pounds of heroin and a case containing two million dollars, which he takes for himself. It’s a decision that leads him down a dangerous and potentially deadly path. And finally, we meet Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, the Texas sheriff who is hunting for the killer of a policeman, and who’s jurisdiction the failed drug deal has come under.



The film is adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel of the same name. The story deals with chance and predestination, with the paths of the three men being able to be traced back to one decision. Chigurh, mentions to one character how the coin and he have travelled a road that has led to that moment in time. He is the character who seems the most in tune with the idea of predestination. In one particularly chilling scene, he plays a game of chance with a gas station attendant, and it becomes clear from this not only that he is obsessed with chance, but also how cold blooded he can be.

It’s Javier Bardem’s performance as Anton Chigurh that really is the highlight of the film. Aside from his bizarre hairstyle, which only adds to the character, Chigurh’s almost expressionless face only ever cracks into a smirk when he’s about to do something particularly nasty. It’s a totally compelling performance, and in time will probably be viewed as one of cinema’s great villains. Tommy Lee Jones brings his dry wit to the role of Sherriff Ed Tom Bell. He’s the character who is most uncomfortable with how things just ‘ain’t how they used to be.’ He’s been around a long time, and is decidedly uncomfortable with how society and the landscape aren’t the same as when he first became a Sherriff. It’s a pretty comfortable role for Jones to play, but that’s not to take away from his excellent performance.



Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss. Brolin’s career is going through somewhat of a resurgence in the last year with two excellent performances in this, and American Gangster. Contrasting his villainous role in American Gangster, in No Country For Old Men, he’s the hero of the piece. He’s a Vietnam veteran (the film is set in 1980) and life has had it’s affect on him. But the discovery of the money and the problems it brings, brings some life back to him, and he becomes quite an interesting character. Kelly Macdonald puts in a career-making performance as Llewelyn’s wife, Carla Jean. While it isn’t a huge role, Macdonald seems completely at home with the southern drawl and her performance should see a great many more roles being offered to her. Woody Harrelson also turns up in a great cameo as Carson Wells, a rival bounty hunter to Chigurh.

The cinematography in the film is stunning. Roger Deakins, who shoots his second western since the beautiful The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, once again captures the vast emptiness of the west. While there was an almost golden sheen to The Assassination... his cinematography in No Country For Old Men captures the starkness of the modern western and the emptiness of the desert perfectly.

I haven’t read McCarthy’s novel, but from what I’ve been reliably informed, the Coens have presented an almost perfect adaptation. The ending of the film, which divided some audiences remains in tact, and is not a comfortable ending. Nothing really seems to wrap up neatly, and this is one of the strengths of the film. It would be all too easy to end things with dramatic logic, but I would have felt somewhat cheated. This isn’t a conventional film, and it doesn’t really warrant a conventional ending. That isn’t to say it’s not satisfying. It totally makes sense in the context of the story.

Like I’ve said, it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a great Coen brothers film. But No Country For Old Men changes that. Is it their best film? It’s certainly arguable that it is. It’s not my favourite, that’s reserved for The Big Lebowski. But it’s certainly their most accomplished film. It leads this year’s Academy Awards with There Will Be Blood, both with eight nominations each. And with Bardem deservedly in contention for best supporting actor, it should prove for an interesting (if pointless, really) competition with Paul Thomas Anderson’s apparently amazing fifth film (something I’ve yet to see).


9/10