No Country for Old Men (2007)

No Country for Old Men is a riveting, far-reaching story about the pervasive and corrosive effects of (drug-related) hard crime along the Texas-New Mexico border as traditional sheriffs and even a fiercely independent good-ol'-boy ply their talents to fight back (or just stay alive). Cruising the frontier in his 4x4, resourceful redneck Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across the aftermath of two rival drug-smuggling gangs and confiscates a valise packed with $100 bills. The clinical, vicious, unrelenting hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) pursues Llewellyn and anyone close to him, a master tactician intent on murder. He seems to live by two rules: He must always prevail (through overwhelming firepower or his bare hands), and anyone who happens to be in his path or sees him must die. He's also crazy like a fox -- sometimes deciding to spare his victims by the toss of a coin (whether they know they are pleading for their lives or not). He shows an existential side, sometimes reflecting aloud about "the path" that brought him or his victim or the coin to a pinnacle between life and death. Anton is in turn pursued by a third-generation sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones), struggling on the verge of retirement to understand how times have changed so that such war-zone slaughter haunts our streets. No one finds any answers (or justice) in this movie, even though Tommy Lee, in his folksy reflectiveness, seems aware (if not entirely consoled) about his place in his ancestral heritage, even as he considers his own mortality. Here is a taut, lean, unsettling, and nearly perfect film that grips me every time I see it. Enjoy! Technical merit 5 stars, emotional impact 4.5 stars. (3-8-2010, posted 7-23-2016)