No Country for Old Men

Amazing acting and great compelling plot but the ending was so bad. Before the ending, I was thinking 9.5/10 but the ending just left me with metaphorical blue b***s so far that reason alone, I give it a 7.9/10

I’m going to be honest, I hadn’t read anything about this film going in, so my expectations were in the wrong area. Maybe it’s because I don’t fully understand the point of this film, but I didn’t find it to be very entertaining or that good. I usually like thoughtful movies 🤷‍♂️

Javier Bardem with one of the greatest acting performances I have seen

Wow did this catch and hold my attention. I watched it then made the family watch, so altogether I saw maybe…4 times in a span of 7 days

My favorite characters in movies and TV are almost villains. There’s just something so compelling about characters that are so awful and so evil but, at the same time, have such amazing performances that you can’t help but love them. Homelander. Wilson Fisk. Terence Fletcher. And Anton Chigurh absolutely falls into that very upper echelon. Javier Bardem steals the show from the very first second he is on screen, and doesn’t let up for the entire movie. He pulled off such a captivating performance. You literally never know what he’s going to do next, but it’s pretty much always going to be the most terrifying option.

I also just love this film’s general theme of the world being a hard, uncaring place. It is a pretty dark movie, and that overwhelming feeling of helplessness permeates every aspect. It’s one of those movies that, despite being a pretty personal, intimate story, just makes you feel so small as the viewer. It’s hard to describe if you haven’t seen the film, but it just had a really unique vibe to it that paints a not-so-pretty picture of the world.

They also did an incredible job of realizing the atmosphere. The setting of the story is perfect — those massive deserts contribute so well to the feeling of being “small.” The lack of pretty much any soundtrack was also a really interesting choice, and one that I feel like totally works. With no music to distract you, the directors force you to be fully confronted by the oppressive atmosphere they’ve set up.

I know people have problems with the ending, and I do get it. Without spoilers, it’s definitely not the traditional ending you would expect from a story like this. But, I honestly think it is EXACT kind of ending a story like this needs. If it had been any different, I don’t think it would have gotten its message across in the same way.

So, overall? Great movie. And Javier Bardem is undeniably the best part.

5.8/10. Too long and what the hell was that ending.