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Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition Nov 20-22
A couple of Seattlest haters and their friends went to the SIFF Cinema last night to check out the new Coen Bros. movie, which is still every bit as good as we already said it was when we saw it months ago. Lucky for us No Country for Old Men is more along the lines of vintage Coen masterpieces like Blood Simple and has absolutely nothing in common with the turd-arific misfires of their more recent crap, which might be the only sign of a loving and forgiving God than anything you're going to get out of the Coen's trademark brutal-ass nihilism. Warning to whiny pussies: Don't go see this movie if you're already depressed; it won't help.
More cheerful than the film was the awesome and hilarious Q&A session with lead actor Josh Brolin immediately following. This was one of the funniest Q&A type deals we ever sat through and Brolin wasn't stingy with the quality behind-the-scenes gossip. Hilarious trivia highlights:
Tommy Lee Jones lent the Coens a book on turn of the century brothels and they decided to base the look of Javier Bardem's character on one of the hookers. His haircut is this retarded-looking bob, and when they were cutting his hair for the part, Bardem whined, "I'm not going to get laid for three months." Everyone laughed. Then Brolin added, "And he didn't."
Brolin was vying for the part while filming Grindhouse and actually shot his audition tape for the role on the set, with the same cameras Rodriguez used to shoot Planet Terror. Tarantino was on hand and kept meddling with the audition and insisted Brolin put in an obviously wrong inflection on the line about getting a gun at "the getting place." Brolin said he had to shoot two versions, one for Quentin and one for the Coens.
Asked about the styles of the different directors he's worked with, Brolin said when the Coens give direction after they shoot a scene they would kind of just look at him blankly and shrug. At first he took this to mean he was sucking, but soon realized the gesture actually means, "That scene was fine but if you want to shoot it again, we can." He contrasted that with Woody Allen's direction, which apparently involves Woody reading the newspaper and ignoring him completely.
Brolin claimed to have a sketchy friend who's good at tracking people down, and he was able to get the phone number of author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote the novel on which the film is based. Brolin said he was even more proud of the fact that the Coens had to ask him for McCarthy's number than he was of being in the film.
It wouldn't be a SIFF member gathering without some hilariously dumb questions. The one that takes the cake: A woman asked about the fate of one of the characters in the film, who obviously died. Brolin had to explain why this was obvious. Note to film enthusiasts: Don't ask one of the lead actors to explain the plot of the film to you. Ask anyone else.
The best question of the night had nothing to do with anything: Someone asked Brolin what his favorite memory was from his experience filming Goonies. The question stunned Brolin, whose wit evaporated. He waved his hand across the audience and said, "This entire audience will always be remembered as the one that asked THAT question." He then admitted the question made him blush, and the best he could come up with was that his favorite memory of Goonies was being asked that question, his "only bluff" of the night. Clearly dark territory for him. Maybe some horrible secret involving a one-eyed willie? Seattlest learned the hard way years ago not to piss off Goonies fans with irreverence, as we were subjected to anonymous internet threats on a Goonies message board for not showing enough worshipful fealty in our blog report of the annual Goonies convention in Astoria, so we totally feel your pain, Brolin. And we understand.
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For the record, this Seattlester doesn't advocate the use of the word "retarded" (except possibly by developmentally disabled people who are seeking to re-appropriate the label).