Review of No Country for Old Men (2007) by Sebastian O — 12 Aug 2013

I can see why this film was eligible to win an Academy Award, but in my eyes, it didn't win the Oscar because it was good, I thought it was good because it won the Oscar.

First, I will point out the positives. Yes, the story telling is fantastic, and the dialogue is very specific and mostly quite interesting. Javier Bardem is truly a genius and the scenes he's involved in are what I looked forward to while I watched this film.

However, much of what I mentioned can also easily be seen as negatives. There really wasn't any climax, which is a fault of storytelling; the reason why Bardem was so powerful was because you really don't care about any of the other characters; and if this film's climax is a long dialogue with a character that doesn't have too much importance to the plot of the film (Jones), then that's another fault for the screenplay. Not to mention the cheap editing tricks like cross dissolve and fade to black are used constantly in the film and they put you out of it.

All in all, some good performances, interesting dialog and exciting sequences, but the audience wants more.