World Cinema

In 2007, the same year the Coen brothers released No Country for Old Men, they also directed a short film as part of a 60th anniversary celebration of the Cannes Film Festival. It stars Josh Brolin, playing a character very reminiscent of his Llewelyn Moss in No Country. In this short film, Brolin's charater is at a small arts theater, trying to decide which of two movies to see.

Let me take a second to give you my perspective on the Coen brothers:

I am endlessly fascinated with the work of Joel and Ethan Coen. I absolutely adore O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ladykillers. The Big Lebowski was bizarre, but very entertaining. Fargo was profoundly depressing, but is one of those movies that I'm glad I watched once, if only once (also see: Requiem for a Dream). No Country for Old Men was brilliant, if equally grim. By no means do I love everything the Coen brothers do (Burn After Reading was one of the biggest cinematic disappointments of my life), but I'm always excited to see what they're up to next.

This short film, World Cinema, is a beautiful three minute showcase of the things I love about Coen brothers movies: brilliantly written (and often hilarious) dialogue, an intense sense of place, and characters that are very stylized but still have real depth. The Coens are able to make movies on both ends of a spectrum: completely devoid of or completely built on subtlety. This one is definitely the latter. Enjoy.