But since when is a Coen film about the surface?
Not that this is a bad one, of course. Edited fantastically by the brothers under their longtime screen alias Roderick Jaynes, old Coen ally Roger Deakins shoots a startling film, brooding and moody and desolate and threatenening -- frightening in its starkness. It's fascinating to consider this is shot in the same town of Texas, Marfa, as There Will Be Blood, an entirely different looking film. Bravo.
The bare-bones rawness of No Country takes your breath away. Sure, there are clever clips and the movie is soaked in a dull, deadpan why humour, but forget the whimsy of the Coens' greatest cult successes. This adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel takes the directors back to their gloriously naked cinematic roots, and echoes their debut Blood Simple more than any of their other films. It's a deceptively impressive achievement, keeping things this plain, and when Carter Burwell's perfectly apt background score seeps onto the scene, you've already spent a musicless hour. Damn.