Discussion. That’s one of the real joys of being a movie fan, isn’t it? Whether it’s getting together with your friends or logging on to the Mighty CHUD Message Boards, chatting about movies is one of the things we all love to do. And we really get excited when a movie like No Country For Old Men comes along, one which really gives us something into which to sink our teeth, whether we like it (ie, the Correct People) or whether we think the ending is a bad decision (ie, the Folks Who Don’t Get It).
Want to know how professional movie critics talk about a movie? Well, Miramax – surely out of the goodness of their own heart, and not out of any desire to promote No Country as the smart, fascinating and thrilling front runner for the Oscars* – has asked Elvis Mitchell, a guy who kicked my seat more than once at press screenings, to moderate a roundtable (or roundphone) discussion with some of the luminaries of web film criticism. There’s Glenn Kenny, from Premiere.com, Jim Emerson of RogerEbert.com, Harry Knowles of Aint It Cool and Jen Yamato from Rotten Tomatoes (big shout out to Jen, who came to my rescue in a huge way this weekend. I owe you one!), all chatting up the movie, beginning with the ending and how people have reacted to it, and then going on all over the place.
I kind of love this, even if Miramax didn’t think to include one of the damn smart people we have writing for us here. Not only do I find the conversation to be really interesting, I dig the fact that they got all web people to do it, and not a bunch of print critics. Hooray for the internet! There’s more than lolcats here – although I do believe Miramax does have a locat version of this discussion coming. It’s can I Can Haz Sudden And Polurizing Endingz.
Click here to listen to the delightfully lengthy discussion. You probably don’t have to be told that it contains spoilers.
*which it is