Ol' Smilin Jack Ruby laid this report on Father Geek this morning. We've got to keep ahead of the Coen Brothers, a tough row to hoe, but with guys like Jack around we'll manage...
With all the people seeing "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" for the first time over at Cannes, I thought it would be the thing to do to review the script for their next project, the so far untitled "Barbershop Movie."
As usual, the script denotes both Joel and Ethan Coen as the writers, but anyone who has read Ethan Coen's collection of short stories, "Gates of Eden" will feel as if they're in very familiar territory. While yes, at times it resembles "Fargo" as it is a crime film, it's much closer to "Blood Simple" or another Billy Bob Thornton project, "A Simple Plan."
As the story begins, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) works at a barbershop on the number 2 chair next to the shop's owner, Frank, who's also his brother-in-law. Ed's in a fairly loveless marriage to Doris (Francis McDormand) who has been cheating on him with Big Dave, the married man who runs the department store Doris works for - a position he married into himself as his wife is the daughter of the department store founder in the dusty little town where the action takes place. The actual crime comes to pass when Ed, not the brightest man in the world, but a quiet, brooding, numb fellow, sees an opportunity to turn everything around for himself, but all he'll have to do is commit a little simple blackmail and he'll have climbed up another step on the ladder to success, something that Ed probably didn't really think was possible up until now.
As usual, I don't want to give too much away at this early date and want to keep this a fairly spoiler-free review. The script is very funny, but in a pitch black way, and you know it's going to be filled with bizarre things to look at from page 3 on. The Coen Brothers are masters of black comedy, but this is at times some of the darkest stuff they've put together. It very much feels like one of the old pulp magazine stories - the kind Danny Devito's character in "L.A. Confidential" ran - and comparisons to James Ellroy's books could easily be made as far as the noir-y feel, but whereas the forthcoming "White Jazz" will be a much more hardnosed effort into the genre, the "Barbershop Movie" will have a far more ironic bent to it as well as the comedic angle which is completely absent in the bleak new Ellroy adaptation.
I don't know who else has been cast in this movie, but as for the role of Ed Crane, Billy Bob Thornton is beyond perfect for the role as it resembles his brooding character in "Pushing Tin" as well as the range he's been showing in just about everything else. Francis McDormand has the inside track on casting in Coen Brothers movies (that's what happens when you do the director's laundry) and Doris is a tailor-made part for her.
As this movie begins shooting next month for a delivery date of Cannes, 2001, I don't know where this puts their adaptation of James Dickey's "To the White Sea" or if it puts it anywhere at all, but regardless, it seems the "Barbershop Movie" is coming first.
Critics will inevitably compare this pic to "Fargo" which means it has a lot to live up to. However, it is a very different film especially as it is a period piece and does far more to embrace the kind of stories that were told at the time (we are told that it all begins in the summer of 1949) rather than experiment/modernize the genre like with "Fargo."
I know I'm looking forward to it, but I'd feel that way about just about anything with the Coen Brothers name on it, so sue me.
-Smilin' Jack Ruby
