Miller's Crossing (Netflix)
Although I've seen this several times, I've not watched it recently, and was pleased to have the chance to revisit it this week. Part of that amazing run of Coen Brothers films that takes in Barton Fink, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, this was better than I remember it.
I recall Gabriel Byrne's crafty fixer running rings around the lumbering power players, but noticed on this rewatch that he's wrong footed by things he should have seen coming almost as much as they are. Fantastic performances too, Albert Finney's wounded but dangerous crime boss is a particular favourite for me. Dare I point out that lies and half truths unsettling established power structures, and causing mayhem in people's lives seems somewhat topical too? Well worth catching up with if you've not seen it in a while.
Bone Tomahawk (Netflix)
Terrific horror western (imagine The Searchers crossed with The Hills Have Eyes) - as a fan of the Western genre, I'm pleased to see people still using it to tell different stories. Although Westerns don't flood the release schedules, we've had Meek's Cutoff, Slow West and the Coens' True Grit, as well as Tarantino's surprisingly ok Django Unchained, among others. Noted by most reviewers is the gruelling violence, as far from the weightless gore of Tarantino as I think it's possible to be. We have spent sufficient time with these characters to care about their fates, and the acts themselves are crunching, spattering, gurglingly awful. However, there's a great film in here about the relationships between the characters, and their bickering back and forth as they set off to save two of their number - indeed, had this been a roadtrip film featuring these four men, I think I'd have been as happy to watch that.
A slightly anti-climactic ending brings this down a little for me, but Kurt Russell and Patrick Wilson are as good here as you'll see them being in anything.
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