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- "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
(Reviewed December 20, 2000)
- Excellent return-to-form for the Coen brothers, whose last movie was the disappointingly ho-hum "Big Lebowski" but whose best films are flat-out brilliant ("Blood Simple,"
"Raising Arizona," "Fargo"). In this bizarre retelling of Homer's "Odyssey," transplanted to America's Depression-era South, George Clooney plays Ulysses as a verbose and demented Clark Gable-type
with an unnatural fondness for "hair treatments." (I loved the scene in which a deadpan general store proprietor has to tell a disappointed and surly Clooney that he does not have "Dapper Dan" hair cream in
stock, because his store only carries "Fop." Fop! What a great word.)
Chain-gang escapees Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson end up encountering twisted equivalents of the Cyclops, the Sirens, Charon, Cerberus, Penelope and...Robert (rechristened
Tommy) Johnson and Babyface Nelson! If that doesn't whet your curiosity, you've been watching too many crap Hollywood comedies like "What Women Want" for too long. The humor ranges from
slapstick-stupid to very dark (such as when Babyface utters the immortal line, "I hate cows"), but it all somehow manages to work together.
The film's visuals also get high marks. Some scenes have the look of hand-tinted antique postcards (such as when the trio are hitchhiking on a dirt road overhung with green trees). Others have a
striking sepia appearance (the desolate landscape surrounding the first farm where they take refuge).
But forget all that artsy-fartsy stuff. The best thing about this movie is that it is literally laugh-out-loud funny. And then there is the great music. George Clooney does a very believable lip-sync of
"Man of Constant Sorrow" (which would have been a much better title for this movie; I have no idea why the Coens went with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"). It's foot-stompin', Jesus-praisin',
hoe-downin' musicality goodness!
I don't hand out a whole lot of "A" ratings, but any movie I would pay to see a second time definitely rates that grade. And I definitely will be going back to see this one!
Back Row Grade: A
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