Well fans of Coffin Joe over at Tuesday's Latin-AICN column should enjoy this review he sent in to Father Geek. Check it out...
Hey there , Coffin Joe here , with my review of the Coen bros. latest adventure in surreal territory with the musical/comedy/adventure/road movie " O Brother Where art Thou ? " , which I saw two days ago at the São Paulo film festival.
It´s a homage , from two guys who clearly love movies , to American movies of the Golden era of Hollywood . I mean George Clooney looks so much like Clark Gable in this one , the mustache and his hair , that I don´t think they were afraid to admit that this movie is one big salute to those days . It´s not really a musical , as some people have said , although some characters start singing for no apparent reason . It´s a comedic screwball farse , a slapstick-y too , with dashes of the Coen brothers touch ( watch for the flood ).
It´s based , loosely I have to say , on Homer´s " The Odessey " . The entire film is the quest of three guys , Everett ( George Clooney ) , Pete ( John Turturro ) and Delmar ( Tim Blake Nelson ) to get to this buried loot , which was stolen and then hid by Everett .
Well along the way they find quite a colorful cast of quirky characters ( this is after all a Coen bros. flick , isn´t it ? ) . Out of dozens of weird people they staumble upon , I found Babyface Nelson , played by Michael Badalucco ( the fat dude from The Practice ) , to be one of the funniest . Stephen Root plays a radio station owner who records the three fellas´ hit album ( don´t ask ) in a such a manner that if I hadn´t seen him in Newsradio before ( remember Jimmy James ? ) , I wouldn´t know that was an actor . Seriously , it´s creepy how well he plays the part . The three sirens in the river are stunners , babe alert there . Holly Hunter is just so cute as the mother of Everett´s kids , all girls . The frog subplot ( You´ll know what I mean when you see it ) is hilarious , Tim Blake Nelson has the best lines of the movie in those scenes with the frog . John Goodman is in it , of course , funny as always ( " They are nihilists Donny " ) , playing a " priest " who isn´t really who you think he is . The final musical number is worth the price of admission alone .
The DP´s work and SDTK ( by T-Bone Burnett w/ Carter Burwell) are pretty neat too , some of the old songs stick in your head , and the boy´s hit single is pretty catchy .
If you can get the spirit of the flick , an inocent one , and undestand what the fuck they are saying ( thick southern accents ) you´ll have a good time . Sit back and enjoy Joel and Ethan working their magic . I´d rank it a notch below Fargo , Blood Simple and Miller´s Crossing , and above Raising Arizona , The Big Lebowski and The Hudsucker Proxy .
Coffin Joe says : bye .
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