Further On Up the Road (Looking Towards Episode 5)

Hope y'all enjoyed The Coen Brothers conversation this week, and judging by the late-but-large amount of feedback we received, it seems as though you have.

I, for one, will be interested in hearing the reaction to our next director as he too is quite a polarizing entity in the world of cinema. Here's a clue as to who's on tap...



Well, you know...when something happens, you can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like, if someone burns toast. Well, maybe things that happen leave other kinds of traces behind. Not things that anyone can notice, but things that ( certain people ) can see. Just like they can see things that haven't happened yet. Well, sometimes they can see things that happened a long time ago. I think a lot of things happened right here in this particular hotel over the years. And not all of 'em was good...

"Oh You Betcha Yah..." (Simon Reviews FARGO)

What is the best Coen Brothers film? One could make a case for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN...certainly MILLER'S CROSSING is up for discussion...some might even suggest THE BIG LEBOWSKI (though I wouldn't).

For my money, I think it's hard to top FARGO - even though, as I mentioned in the show, I didn't like it at first go. Simon reviewed it for Screen Insight a while back, here's a taste of what he thought...


Frances McDormand's 'Marge' is such a force that as soon as we see her and 'Norm' wake up to the call of a homicide, it is she who is the centre of the story. Everything else turns to dust. Her idiosyncrasies and mannerisms, "yah" simply make every sequence amazing to watch. She notes on the documentary that she can only do 'Madge' when in the wig - which doesn't surprise me. Something so fluid can't be turned on and off - you have to physically become the character...

The full post can be found here.

"I Do Not Know This Man" (Hatter Reviews TRUE GRIT)

Talking about The Coen Brothers proved to be a tricky task. They have so many truly great films that one could easily dedicate an entire twelve part series to them alone! But in the effort to keep things succint, Simon and I were forced to skim past some of their titles.

Such as TRUE GRIT.

But thankfully, both he and I have done a lot of writing on the Coens over the years, so we have them covered with the written word.

Here's a taste of what I thought of their western remake last year...


TRUE GRIT feels like a sermon about cowardice and consequences. The movie begins with a quote, pointing out that the lowest form of cowards are the ones that run when nobody is there to chase them. What sort of fate should befall such a person? Do they deserve the mercy and luxury of the law? It wouldn't seem so if even a fourteen-year-old can grasp the gutlessness of the action. No. In the society TRUE GRIT inhabits, such lack of spine merits bounty hunters, vigilante justice, and retribution...

The full post can be found here.

Episode 3 Scoreboard

Sorry for the late reply on Cronenberg Trivia, but if Reel Insight can tack on their scoring update - so can we!

And as of posting time (11am EST on Monday 6/27) nobody has sent in submissions for Coens trivia! A potential 24 points are still up for grabs - who wants it?

Here are the results after three rounds, with everyone's point pickup for this episode listed in parenthesis...

Rachel Thuro 37 (+5)
Rhys Bendeix-Lewis 35 (+10)
Courtney Small 25 (+15)
Andrew Buckle 24 (+24)
Shane McNeil 18 (+6)
Duke 12 (0)
Andrew Robinson 3 (0)

Just a quick reminder about the scoring structure - The first person to email their answers is awarded 4 points per correct answer. The second emailed response gets 3 points per correct answer. The third gets 2 points per correct answer. Everyone after that who emails in before 5pm EST the following Friday gets 1 point per.

So, as evidenced by Mr. Buckle this week, just because you are late getting into the game, doesn't mean you can't do some immediate damage on the scoreboard!

Hatter's Questions

What film does Cronenberg play a gas clerk worker calling customers? LAST NIGHT

Which is based on a graphic novel? A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

Name the bad Whose lead singer is featured in VIDEODROME? Blondie

Simon's Questions:

How Many Fly Films? 5 - THE FLY (1958), RETURN OF THE FLY (1959), CURSE OF THE FLY (1965), THE FLY (1986), THE FLY II (1989)

Which Actor has Cronenberg worked with the most? Viggo Mortensen

Who has composed the music to the vast majority of David Cronenberg films? Howard Shore

Entries for Trivia close at noon EST on the Friday after the show; please email all answers to filmlocker@hotmail.com. The prize dvd/blu-ray can be worth a maximum $30 USD on Amazon.com

FROM START TO FINISH: (Simon covers The Coen's Back Catalogue)

The Coen's, for me, marked a success in how I chose to watch their entire back-catalogue and succeeded - whilst my ongoing attempts at watching the back-catalogue's of Woody Allen (so-o-o many films!) and Steven Spielberg (damn you Always!) continue.

It was due to this success that I chronicled the Coen's collection on my blog, analysing each and every film I watched and commenting on them. It was broken into four parts - and preceded True Grit and delves a little deeper into what reoccurs in their films - and what is unique about each one.

As a taste:

"Blood Simple brings together a simple story set in Texas about infidelity and murder. Influenced by genre cinema - namely Film Noir and, to some extent, Horror. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld even worked on the film - to go on to direct features such as Get Shorty and Men in Black. Even the awkward murder-gone-wrong, a huge centre-point to the story, is something that became a recurring theme - though clearly inspired by Hitchcock, whereby it was always a nightmare to dispose of bodies and even commit the murder itself in classics such as Rope and Frenzy."

And here are the links to each post -

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 1) - Blood Simple and Raising Arizona

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 2) - Miller's Crossing through to The Big Lebowski

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 3) - O Brother Where Art Thou through to The Ladykiller's

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 4) - No Country for Old Men to True Grit

The Film Locker #4: Joel and Ethan Coen and 'No Country for Old Men'

Having spent two weeks covering film directors who may be a little off the beaten track, we regain the road by moving to younger and hipper folk in Joel and Ethan Coen. Having both watched both back-catalogues, Hatter and I argue it out with our favourites and not-so-favourite films with an in-depth analysis of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

We go through our top-of-the-shelf choices and choose two films that reflect the diversity of the Coen's style with a nice little musical treat tp finish the episode!

On a sidenote, results for Episode 3 will be released soon so - don't let this stop you from entering this weeks competition!

And, as usual, it is already up on itunes and can be found easily on podomatic - so, please do try and write reviews and support us if you can! We have the ol' RSS feed and 2.0 RSS and, if you link in different ways, we also have it on Google and Yahoo

Further On Up The Road (Looking Towards Episode 4)

It appears that the reading material to support Cronenberg is limited between Hatter and I - with only a review of Eastern Promises each to support. I can guarantee that after Saturday's episode, we should be posting one-a-day for coverage on our directorial choice this week...

C: You don't have to do this.
A: [smiles] People always say the same thing. 
C: What do they say?
A: They say, "You don't have to do this." 
C: You don't. 
A: Okay.
[A flips a coin and covers it with his hand]
A: This is the best I can do. Call it. 
C: I knowed you was crazy when I saw you sitting there. I knowed exactly what was in store for me. 
A: Call it.
C: No. I ain't gonna call it.
A: Call it.
C: The coin don't have no say. It's just you.
A: Well, I got here the same way the coin did.