Looking at their production rate before 2000, it was about two to three years. The basic style is mostly joking and cursing, revealing the darkness of society and the rout of human nature, and the tone is serious and profound. The 2003 and 2004 "True Love and False Love" and "Sister Milk Killer" shocked everyone, thinking how these two people also began to confuse with the mainstream Hollywood market, the film was released quickly, lacked nutrition, and was extremely disappointed. . Then came the 2007 blockbuster, adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, the black thriller "Old Nowhere". This film swept the 2007 big and small awards, and defeated rival Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Blood Is Coming" won the Oscar for Best Picture.
I thought that the two brothers would "return to the right path" with "Old Nowhere", but in 2008, the movie "Burn After Reading", which looked very like "The Teacher Naked Killer", hit the audience severely, telling everyone clearly: Yes. Let's sort out the cards, no way!
This black comedy brings together many Hollywood stars, and the actor arrangement is very exciting. George Cluny continued to show his funny side, Tilda Swinton also continued the ice and snow in The Chronicles of Narnia, and Ferrancis McDormand in "Ice Blood Storm" The comedic talent shown is also fully effective. But the most hilarious person is Chad, the gym employee played by Brad Pitt. This guy is an idiot with excessive adrenaline secretion. It is too stupid to make a low-level blackmail with zero technical content. A nonsense sentence that made the former CIA intelligence analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) mad. I personally have never been optimistic about Brad Pitt's acting skills, but his performance this time is indeed outstanding and it adds to the film. It can even be said that he is one of the most memorable roles since the original performance of "Autumn Legend". In fact, although the role of George Crouney is not a break from the norm, the Hollywood first-class diamond king is willing to subvert the image of such a super wretched man, which is also quite worthy of attention.
The plot arrangement and overall style of the story are very similar to those of "Senior Killer". In short, the characters are more wretched and stupid than the others. There is no positive image from the beginning to the end of the film. The Coen brothers ridiculed these characters one by one, gathering fake, fake, and ugly together. But the irony of the characters is negligible compared to the fact that they play with the audience. Every time the CIA officer in the story asked his subordinates what happened, the subordinates always looked innocent and said, "We don't know what happened. Anyway, this one beat the other, and the other killed this, but the motive behind it is unknown. In the end, simply make a clear announcement-do you want to find out the realistic meaning of the political irony behind these bastard incidents? No, not at all! It's a bunch of stupid people who played you a game, that's it.
It’s hard not to compare this arrangement with the black meaning of "Old Nowhere"—the whole meaning of "Old Nowhere" lies in the obscure metaphors and symbols at the end—to say that the Cohen brothers did not do this deliberately, so ghosts believe it. The film review of "Time" magazine was simply frustrated, and could not wait to scold these two stinky boys, and finally put down one sentence in angrily: Let's see, see who the joke is at last!
If the Coen brothers just want to play with the audience, and the performance is too obvious, the film will only stay at the entertainment level of "Sister Milk Killer", and there will be no breakthrough; but the actual situation is, even though the end of the film said , There is no meaning, no realistic irony, but the laughter and curse in the process of the movie are obvious. Whether it is the victory of feminism, the stupidity of bureaucrats and politicians, the bleakness of humanity, or the hypocrisy of human nature, if you want, you can always find a few details to analyze in detail. But once you go this way, you will inevitably hit the trap of the Coen brothers-ha, we are the one who laughed at you! In this case, this film gives people a kind of alternative pleasure that is not about love and hate, so you can't wait to grit your teeth and squeeze out a sentence, hum, Cohen, let's wait and see!
"Movie World" November 2008 draft
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