O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Based on the epic poem, "The Odyssey" by Homer

Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, Charles Durning, Michael Badalucco, Chris Thomas King and John Goodman

It has been a couple of years since I last saw O Brother, Where Art Thou? I never heard of the movie until I saw that soundtrack of the movie winning beaucoup amounts of Grammy that next year. Seeing the movie at the time, the music is the probably the best part of the movie. The movie was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography. That has to say something, right?

Picture it, Mississippi 1937. A chain gang. Running through a vast field. Ulysses Everett McGill (Clooney), Delmar O'Donnell (Nelson) and Pete Hogwallop (Turturro) embark on a grand journey to find hidden treasure that Everett hid for an epic robbery. On their journey, the trio meets a blind seer that tells them that they would find a different kind of treasure. Will it be national stardom as they record "A Man of Constant Sorrow" as the Soggy Bottom Boys? Changing the tide of a gubernatorial race? Being infamous for hanging with notorious gangster "Babyface" Nelson (Badalucco).

As I stated before, the music of the film is the best thing about the movie. I don't like listen to Southern bluesy country music. I was so into it. You know, my feelings about the Coens. Their filmography is sketchy. It seems like that they have no success with their dramas then their comedies. This is one of the comedies I liked more their other ones.

My Rating

Best in Show

Best in Show (2000)

Directed by Christopher Guest

Screenplay by Christopher Guest & Eugene Levy

Stars: Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Bob Balaban, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, John Michael Higgins, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Don Lake, Ed Begley Jr. and Fred Willard

After having a awful day at work, I wanted to come home to movie that could take me away from my life. I have never seen a mockumentary before in its entirety. I have an aversion to dogs so the idea of this movie would make me not like it. I have to say the people should have been in the show.

Set in the world of competitive dog shows, handlers from across the country flock to the Mayflower to compete to see who wins best in show. The dogs seems like the normal people onscreen than the humans. You have the yuppie couple Hamilton and Meg Swan (Hitchcock, Posey) who is trying to coral their jumpy show dog while they are bickering with each other. There is the frumpy couple Gerry with the two left feet and the woman that get around Cookie Fleck (Levy, O'Hara) that has not much money. The hillbilly Harlan Pepper (Guest) thinks that his bloodhound will win first prize. The gay couple Stefan Vanderhoof and Scott Donlan (McKean, Higgins) wants to make sure that their shih tzu wins with flair. Lastly, you have vivacious Sherri Ann Cabot (Coolidge) has a two time champion poodle that is two timing her husband with her handler, Christy Cummings (Lynch).

You would think that a movie that has a large cast, it would be convoluted. It was not. I like the journey that the couples were going on. Some of these people are bonkers and should be committed. It's nice to watch train wreck play out onscreen. As the movie was going on I noticed a couple of surprises that I saw a mile away. The ending of the movie was a bit predictable.

Don't get me wrong. I laughed out loud in a couple of moments of the film. I would like to see the movie again. To watch the insanity unfold again.

 My Rating

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000)

Directed by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars: Jessie Misskelly Jr, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, John Mark Byers, Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, Brent Turvey

After the events of the first film, the story of the West Memphis Three has made international news. The way that the first film unfolds it is revealed that the boys did not receive a fair trail when they were convicted of murdering Chris Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore in 1993.

A group has formed to free the three who are now in the their twenties lead by Burk Sauls who has gathered people from across the nation in order to stomp for the cause of freeing them.

This movie does not have the same impartiality as the first film. It seems to take a very pointed look at the stepfather of one of the victims named John Mark Byers. He is a man that has very heated threates against the WM3. he is shown to have has a violent past. There was the mystery behind his wife's death. Damien Echols himself pointed the finger at Byers saying that he was the one who killed those boys.

There were experts for the defense that were not used during the first that dissemable the porsectuiong notions that the boys were killed in a different place and they bodies were dumped in the creek bed that faithful May day. An expert named Brent Turvey was shown the crime scene photo that suggested that one of the boys has a bite mark on his face that did not match anybody of the convicted men.

During the course of the film, it was suggested that the WMPD have covered up potential evidence that would have exonerated the teens, but either it was destroyed or simply lost.

The major misstep with this movie was the pointed way that the filmmakers accused John Mark Byers as the  killer without any evidence of his guilt or innocence. After a while, I had grown tired of looking at Byers face all the time if he was burning the graves of the killers with gasoline, him pulling out his dentures or his constant presence at the numerous appeals that the men have filed. It grew tiresome.

My Rating: