Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen

Starring: Tommy Lee-Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

Certificate: 15

Self-proclaimed mavericks of Hollywood, the Coen brothers have been playing the boundary between mainstream and arthouse for nearly twenty years. With their most recent offering, a cinematic reworking of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the infamous duo seem to have toned down their at times gratuitously intricate plots and caricatured style, to create a film uniting a slow dreariness with unflinching and affecting realism.

The film essentially follows a case of cash around the sun parched roads of Texas (and occasionally Mexico), which has been found in the desert among a group of slaughtered Mexican bandits by trailer park cowboy Llewellyn Moss (Brolin), and simultaneously pursued by mild-mannered psychopath Anton Chigurh, who receives a darkly comic portrayal from Javier Bardem. The whole thing is pursued in turn by aging sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) and mysterious “businessman” Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson)

What this relatively simple pursuit lets play out is not so much a chase across the countryside, but an insight into the psychological and emotional motives of each other the characters. The Coens’ film holds easily the best performances from the three lead players in a long time; brilliant in their smoldering simplicity. Jones is particularly exceptional as the thoughtful sheriff.

This stripped down manner pervades the aesthetic also, which is rarely embellished by any music or elaborate effects. Instead the film is soaked through with a kind of meditative paranoia, which is balanced between the sprawling movements of Llewellyn as he runs for survival, and the balanced, understated actions of Sheriff Bell. The cinematography captures the ascetic beauty of the desert to create a pensive mystery, distilled through unwavering but subtle depictions of violence. Though the Coen brothers have never been quite the mavericks they’ve made themselves out to be, they have certainly kept their reputation alive with their latest film. The flawless performances and skillful narrative construction makes for a more toned down, but no less effective viewing.

4.5/5