The Coen Brothers

After a night out at the cinema last night I'm dying to tell you all about two of my hands-down, flat-out favorite films of the last couple of years: "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood". "No Country" I saw twice at the theater within a three week period in February and March, but it wasn't until last night that I finally saw "There Will Be Blood". Both films were released in late-2007, of course, but neither made it up here to our local theaters until recently. But it was definitely worth the wait. Filmmaking this fine is a rare thing indeed.

Raw, gritty, intense and, in the case of "No Country", quite violent, both films also have their moments of humor and are, simply put, incredibly-well-acted, -written and -directed pieces of cinematic brilliance. In other words, in case I'm not making myself completely clear, I absolutely loved both of these films!

You want to read a couple of rave reviews unlike anything you've read since I went nuts over "The Departed" last year? Then check out both Peter Travers and Glenn Kenny's effusive 4-out-of-4-star rave reviews of the Coen Brothers new film "No Country For Old Men".

They both call it the best film of the year so far and both rave about the acting, directing, storytelling and all-round great filmmaking. And Kenny, writing in Premiere Magazine, goes as far as to call it an out-and-out masterpiece.