Mean Streets (Scorsese)
Very good. I prefer Scorsese's older stuff to the new, although I do love the new.
Having watched Taxi Driver recently, it's interesting to contrast character development in these two films, as they were made around the same time. One models gradual isolation resulting in madness, while the other models mounting pressure from multiple angles resulting in a somewhat similar madness. Both end with a bang, so to speak. Great stuff.
What I don't understand is his tendency to flood bar scenes with intense red lighting. It's annoying as hell. I don't know what effect he was going for other than creating a feeling of danger, but there's gotta be a better way.
No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers)
Phenomenal. I finally got around to seeing this, and was in no way disappointed.
While the ending was initially puzzling, it was very fitting. It helps to consider the sheriff as the character we get to really dig into, not Llewelyn. Consider the name of the film after all. It's not about Llewelyn's ordeal: stumbling across the cash, evading Anton, and trying (failing) to save himself and his wife. Rather, it is about the sheriff's struggle to continue, given the awful nature of his job, and his sort of existential pondering at the end. This is wrapped up nicely in the ending scene with the ex-sheriff dude in the wheelchair.
Anton is easily one of my favorite characters in any Coen brothers film, rivaled only by Charlie Meadows in Barton Fink. He's just so intense, so precise, so recklessly stable. Early in the movie, we get to see all that he does, and we get a good idea for how his character will respond in certain situations. Then, once we have that idea, we are often left following other characters, left to our own conclusions about what exactly he is doing. The death of the Mosses is not surprising in retrospect. The film is about the sheriff, and Anton is not a character that loses.
One thing in particular that I can't make sense of is Anton's car crash at the end. If anybody has any insight into that scene, feel free to enlighten me. I was thinking that maybe it reflected 'chance' or fate, as Anton often used a coin flip to determine the life or death of people he happened across. I can't really see anything beyond that.
Definitely my favorite Coen brothers film so far. 9.5/10