No Country for Old Men | Movie Reaction

"why were you even singing to a man who's passed out" they probably just thought he drank too much and as a Mexican-American, singing mariachi to a man passed out in the street from drinking too much is just something you do

No Country for Bowl Cuts .....................in the final scene, the sherrif mentions that in his dream he's the older man to his younger father who carries the flame (hope) in the cold (dead darkness). it's nice to think this is what the title is actually referring to, that the future is hopeful...the book's author McCarthy refers to this image more than once as well, that it's the young who are the mentors to the old, using Wordsworth in the book Blood Meridian : "the child, the father of the man" https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/249420-i-had-two-dreams-about-him-after-he-died-i

There are some absolutely amazing Korean movies out there. Excited for y'all to see them

The gas station clerk is one of my favorite one scene performances by a character actor. Javier is of course incredible in that scene but he's a known powerhouse. The actor for clerk stood toe to toe with him in that scene, really selling the cold sweat fear.

Too many comments to check and see if anyone said that the sheriff’s wife was Jesse Pinkman’s mom. And the sheriff’s old uncle at the end was in Better Call Saul when Kim told Jimmy to represent him in a fight to keep his house and fucked over Mesa Verde in the process. Good flick and prettt damn close to a scene for scene adaptation. A little fat got trimmed from the novel but nothing major was changed. Good stuff, movie seems to get a bit of shit and I’m assuming it has to do with the offscreen death and bad guy getting away. In the book all that happens plus they let you know the sheriff felt a deep sense of failure. Literally ended with it saying dude felt like a big ol loser lmfao. I’m from the Stephen King school of unhappy endings so this one wasn’t so bad for me but I can see it leaving folks with a bad taste in their mouths. Unfortunately more oft than not the bad guys get away with it all smh.

anton has nothing on the cruelty of systems in saying "[t]he coin don't have no say. It's just you", Carla Jean centers that cruelty is enacted by human agency, not chance like ok you might get randomly hit by lighting, car, illness, or by a wild animal, but importantly those instances are rare, and not done with malice 99.9% of brushes w/ violence are bc ppl have chosen to inflict it as individuals, or systematically. this view pairs with the 2nd dream. it's a call to action after experiencing disillusionment. yes, the world is cruel, and has been for awhile, but it's not set in stone. people have the power to reject cruelty, to become those "fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold," creating small pockets of change in the present, and forging a different path for future generations

The day they finally watch One Battle After Another, is the day I can finally rest 😭 it won soo many awards in 2025, it's crazy good

this quote is the whole movie (from what i remember) and ever so relevant, rich with meaning "What you got ain’t nothin new. This country is hard on people. You can’t stop what’s comin’. Ain’t all waitin’ on you. That’s vanity." i've only watched once before. looking forward to a rewatch and hearing the analysis. rn im steadfast it's NOT about nihilism/random chaos which i think i've see in other discussions. i haven't read comments here yet

Enjoyed seeing you react to this. You're very skilled at analysing TV shows, and this is a movie that doesn't follow convention at all.

I really hope we get some more Coen bros movies. They're all good, but some personal favourites are O Brother Where Art Thou?, True Grit, Inside Llewyn Davis (not Llewellyn lol), and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Ballad of Buster Scruggs is probably my favourite. But a lot of people didn't seem to like it because it's an anthology of six short films in one rather than one, movie length feature. But the stories are great and they work so well to tell an overarching theme that you don't quite understand til the end l, just like NCFOM.

Two reminders in movie of my personal experience in Texas at the time. First, the phone bill -- we had service through Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Second, Texaco stations were all over Texas. Texaco founded in 1902 in SE Texas near where I went to high school in 1977-81. Many of my friends' dads worked at nearby Texaco refinery -- one of the largest refineries in the country -- and in which had huge acrimonious strike (4,200 employees) that went on so long that my friends' families ran out of strike money. SE Texas petrochemical industry had some of the strongest unions in the country.

I guess part of what makes the movie confusing but also great and super suspenseful is that there is basically no music to tell you what's going on or how to feel. I think it works so well because as thrilling as the cat and mouse chase is, it's not the main point, and Llewelyn is not really the main character. That the sheriff (Ed Tom) is the main character is clearer on rewatch when you know he starts off the movie with his narration, it ends with him and the title kind of refers to him. Ed Tom's conversation with his uncle (?) is so great. The uncle kind of robs him of his illusions about the past being more peaceful and tells him his hopes and worries are grounded in vanity. I find the end monologue about the dreams so touching, one of my favourite endings to anything. I suppose Ed Tom longs for some comfort and it is nice that even in this world as the movie depicts it, he seems to have found it in knowing that his father had gone ahead and whenever he himself will get there, his father will be there. By the way, "We live in a society." I can't hear someone say that and not think of Seinfeld.

“I would just move to Europe!” 😂

I think you girls would love Interstellar! I just saw it in IMAX theatres today for my birthday with my brother it was an amazing experience!! I cried twice 😭😭❤️

I want to praise Kelly Macdonald, for a Scottish(!) actress she pulled off the accent and mannerisms perfectly, you'd never be able to tell. I also just love her character, she has no agency in the story but that's the point of her character, everything just happens to her and it's unfair, but that's life.

Let's watch Suzume or Silent Voice next!

This is like an anthitesis of a normal arc of a main character. Deffinetly not for people who just started watching movies but ok haha.

The way Lola smiled at the final cut to black really looked like everything clicked into place in her mind in such an incredible way. Immediately recognized it because I've absolutely had that moment with films (probably including this one, it's hard to remember my first watch because it was in middle school). To me, this video is a great portrait of what makes film special compared to shows. I absolutely think that shows are generally a stronger medium when it comes to story/character arcs. But the process of making a film to be watched a single sitting and just releasing it to the world can create such a unique lightning-in-a-bottle effect. There isn't time to delve into every character from every angle by throwing them into a variety of situations like a show can, and so much attention and care is put into crafting the 2 hours or however long. In this film in particular the scenes it decides to spend time on are obviously really unconventional and interesting, and that's such a big part of what makes this film special. Cannot recommend the rest of the Coen brothers filmography more highly; they delve into so many different genres and tones but are so uniquely themselves (and absolutely a huge influence on Breaking Bad and a lot of other modern media, like Barry). I think Fargo would have to be my top recommendation, but almost every movie they made is a classic in my eyes, including some incredible hidden gems.

I don’t think the film is about fate or randomness. I think that reading mistakes Anton Chigurh’s self-mythology for the movie’s worldview. The coin flip is not philosophy, it is a ritual that allows him to evade moral agency. He converts murder into procedure so he can experience himself as an instrument rather than a chooser. The film repeatedly exposes this as fraud, he kills without flipping when it suits him, manipulates the conditions of “chance,” and survives through nothing more exalted than accident and pain tolerance. Fate, if it exists here, is clumsy and indifferent, which means it isn’t fate at all. Death in No Country for Old Men is deliberately stripped of meaning. The most important character dies offscreen. The supposed climax never arrives. People die because they misjudge, hesitate, grow tired, or believe the wrong story about who they are. The structure of the film itself rejects destiny by refusing catharsis. If this were a movie about cosmic order, it would arrange events into significance. Instead, it rejects significance. Sheriff Bell is the real center, and his crisis is not metaphysical, it is historical and moral. The world has not become more random, it has become incompatible with the stories that once made him functional. His monologues about the past are not wisdom but function as medicine. He narrates an earlier America where violence had limits, where law had coherence, where men like him still belonged. These stories are not true, they are survivable. The title makes this explicit: the problem is not chance, it is age, not biology, but moral obsolescence. Bell is a man whose reality has outpaced his language of justification and rationalization. What the film ultimately dismantles is the human need to disguise chaos as principle. Chigurh calls it fate. Bell calls it memory. Llewelyn calls it skill. Carla Jean calls it conscience. These are not competing philosophies; they are competing medicines. Each character invents a narrative that allows them to continue acting without confronting the emptiness underneath. The film’s brutality is not in the violence but in the exposure: none of these stories hold, and there is no rationalization. So I don’t think this is not a meditation on randomness or fate. It is a postmortem on explanation itself. The terror is not that the universe is arbitrary. The terror is that our frameworks, moral, generational, religious, procedural, were never sufficient to begin with, and time is simply the moment when that insufficiency becomes undeniable. His wife for example is not killed by fate or randomness, she is killed by a decision. Her death is the final consequence of Llewelyn choosing the money and the story of his own competence over the unglamorous work of securing her safety. Chigurh’s coin flip is only the last ritual in a chain of human causality that begins with Moss’s refusal to withdraw from danger and make the deal with Anton. To call her death “chance” is to repeat the film’s central lie, that responsibility can be converted into abstraction. The film instead insists, quietly and brutally, that what looks like inevitability is only the delayed arrival of a choice to avoid the reality.

These are the type of films that on the surface look like they are saying nothing but actually contains essays of layers to unpack, and leave you thinking about them far after. Which to me is always better then getting spoonfed and easily presented the meaning.

Milena talking about the movie “…that was a fun watch…” Me remembering the entire reaction “🤔 are you sure about that?”

More Coen brothers in the future would be great!

Lola’s dad sounds sweet, and it was an interesting discussion on how religious attitudes are connected to a belief in a cosmic justice or “karma.” It’s weird for me too, though, since I was raised to believe in God, but actively discouraged from doing good out of an expectation of reward. Do good because you want to!

Great reaction to a fantastic film. The book is also well worth reading. I really love how the violence is so random yet matter of fact. Everything transpires simply because some guy was at the wrong place at the wrong time and then the greed of everyone involved just ruins everyone. So much of the film really is about capital. From Antons use of coins to the driving force of getting the 2 million and how detached Anton, the cartel and the americans are to all the death happening. I'm so excited to see more movie reactions from you guys. I do hope the polls are a bit less one sided though but it makes sense when No Country is one of the options lol. Both one of the best and one of the most popular movies of the 21st century so it was always gonna win

The amount of copium about Llewelyn's death at the end was hilarious Forever a masterpiece. Echoing others saying PLEASE watch Fargo eventually. (Movie + Show, each season is a separate story with slight connections). Shocking how few people react to the show.

1:11:48 Lola: "My mind was Wired to expect that [characters get what they deserve]" The Wire: "Deserve got nuthin' to dew with it"

This is one of those movies that really benefits from rewatches. I'm glad this one won, but I'd also love to see your reaction to Prisoners! In your discussion the thing that really resonated with me was how some people do the things they do because the expect some kind of divine reward/punishment. I see that a lot where I live too, even in my family. I never really liked that philosophy, it always felt kind of selfish to me. This movie pretty much rejects the idea that there's some sort of divine justice waiting to be dealt. And I loved how confused you were by that, because of your experience with tv shows lmao, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it and still picked up on the themes

I think you said your next poll will be for Korean films? I recommend including "The Handmiaden" on there, it is FANTASTIC and despite being a surprise hit when it came out, seems to have been forgotten over the past few years. Tommy Lee Jones (who played Sheriff Ed Tom Bell) is an Institution in Hollywood films, so his voice was instantly recognizeable to USA audiences in the opening narration. So even before we knew character names or the overall plot, we knew that Josh Brolin's character (Llewelyn) was not the one speaking. That meant we spent the opening waiting for him to show up. My favorite character in this film is the woman who staffs the office where Llewelyn and Carla Jean live. Because she gives Chigurh NOTHING. And I don't just mean she doesn't give him any information. I mean she doesn't give him visible fear or cowering or any respect beyond basic customer-service. Even he seems put-off by her a little bit. She just says "no" and sticks to it.

When I was 20 or 21 I saw this movie for the first time. I read the novel a year or so before the movie came out in one sitting and absolutely loved it I can't recommend it enough. A few of McCarthey's novels had already been adapted and it was easy to see how he would have written No Country with a movie adaptation in mind. At the time, I was dating a woman 4 years older than me and going to movies by myself was one of the great pleasures I had. Especially when you're re-watching a movie in the theater when you're by yourself you can go to the bathroom during a part you don't like and come back to sit in another seat which is a small thrill. I think I'd seen No Country at least three times before I saw it with her. I kept mentioning to her how much I loved the movie and eventually comparing it to another lil movie I'd see that same year about oil and the dual visions of America they offered. When the screen went black at the end she offered her thoughts plainly, "That movie was so stupid." The relationship had been struggling for a while and I said nothing as we walked to my truck. She probably said some more as I drove her home but I honestly don't remember. When we got to her place I told her, "We're done," and she climbed out of the truck, maybe expecting me to follow her inside and talk some more. But I drove away and never saw her again. And that's how a Coen brother's movie ended one of my relationships.

In the book, the sheriff plays a larger role (in the sense that we follow him more, not that he really affects the outcome of anything) but the film's adaptation choice to reduce his role really enhances how insignificant and powerless he feels. Like the film treats him as an afterthought as well. His bookend monologues were still impactful in light of that and part of what makes this film a masterpiece (and it's also one of the rare film adaptions that's more acclaimed than the novel). And while the film isn't a big character based film, and at times they feel more like symbols than fully fleshed out people (and i don't mean that as a big negative, it can serve the lack of agency theme well), there's still some small additional layers to chigurh that's more apparent on a rewatch. While he kills pretty indiscriminately, when he's in a situation that isn't part of his "mission" (escaping the cops, looking for the money, killing other assassins), he is set off more by a person making small chit-chat and talking more than necessary. With the gas station clerk and the chicken truck guy, he only started to "turn" on them when they started making idle chat. With the accountant and the trailer park clerk, they didn't make idle chat and stuck mostly to business and there's possible implications that he spared the accountant (assuming he answered "no" to his question). There's still some ambiguity though, since with the clerk, he heard someone making noise nearby but the fact that he's set off by idle chat is pretty evident in the other scenes (which just makes it all the more petty and a nice little grace note for the character). Even the karmic aspect has a bit of wrinkles. While he doesn't die from the car accident, the dude has his bone sticking out and in the novel at least, the police are still looking for him. He's out of commission for a while and this medical injury isn't like the previous one where he can treat himself. He HAS to get professional help that may accelerate him getting caught.

Fargo next for more Coen bros and especially if you ever get to the show

All time movie, great reax. Has to be their first foray into Coen Bros movies if they were expecting a linear, predictable plot😭. One day, I hope they get to other masterpiece/classic movies from 2007 in 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Michael Clayton'.

This and there will be blood were the two great paramount vantage movies that came out in this time

You guys should still watch Prisoners. It’s very good with some good performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, and Quentin Tarantino’s favorite actor Paul Dano 😉

Listening to the speech at the beginning of the movie puts it allll back into frame. Love this film and its theme of terror in the face of the unknown/unfathomable.

A movie defined by the monologues that bookend it, and rightly so. That ending is breathtaking every time. And the opening, over those Texas landscapes, is just as important, I think. "A man would have to put his soul at hazard." Ed Tom's uncle suggests that the violence has always been there, going back generations, but I think the spectre of Vietnam is too present in the film to take that at face value. There's something uglier and more impossible to understand about Chigur than what they've faced before. These men are changed. I remember seeing this in theatres and you could hear a pin drop when the credits rolled. Incredible movie.

Another connection to Breaking Bad. The woman who plays Sheriff Ed's wife, Loretta, also played Jesse's mother.

A million years ago in my freshman writing class I chose the diner scene after Llewelyn dies to build my assignments around. Their conversation would be funny if what it was in response to wasn't so gruesome. We learn his Uncle Mack was murdered in cold blood on his porch before Bell was even born. He would have grown up in rural Texas in the early 20th century... the second Klan, Jim Crow, lynchings. The sheriff was a WW2 veteran (this is in the book but didn't make it to the movie) and it was as grisly as you'd imagine. People have been complaining about our violent modern times and "kids these days" for thousands of years. The deterioration Sheriff Bell feels so acutely is his own. No country for old men, indeed

Ok I have even more thoughts after the reaction (please bear with me guys sorry for the long takes). I am really glad with the girls reaction to the anti-climactic ending. As they said it is deliberately so. It also enters them into that more film-cinematic space that doesn't nececerilly follow the structure of a series but plays with it to make a point. It is a good starting point for many other more experimental movies and I am glad they enjoyed it And every choice seems to be deliberate to that end. The movie doesn’t offer a cathartic confrontation, a release of emotion, it has no music, only gusts of wind leaving us in empty homogenous time without guidance and its protagonist, weary lawman Ed Tom Bell is barely in the main plot. The end is not an epic gunfight but a confusing description of two dreams by a man who seems deflated and overwhelmed by the state of the world. The film seems to give you more questions and leaves you weary. Was Llewelyn Moss punished for his act of kindness or his act of cruelty? Is Chigurh cosmically punished for his crimes, or vindicated for his belief in chance, and random nature of the world? Are the times to blame in a land that was settled through violence as sheriff’s Ellis’s story seem to indicate? Movie leaves us without any answers, any guiding principles or any moral compass to traverse the world, only with the question of Anton Chigurh (arguably the man who "wins" in the end) in our minds: “If the rule that you followed led you to this, of what use was the rule?”

One scene that confused and stuck with me is when the Sheriff returns to the motel where Llewelyn died. He looks at the blown-out lock and then, we the audience, see that horrifying image of Chigurh in the dark with his gun. But then the Sheriff opens the door and looks around and its all fine. It really confused me for awhile but I think that scene of Chigurh in the dark is what the Sheriff thinks is inside, his fear stopping him from opening that door. It feels like the moment he knows he's been overmatched by what the world has become and what is out there.

A masterclass in tension, that gas station scene sticks with you long after the first viewing 👍

Add all the Coens brothers films to the list

Fun sidenote:: Anton Chigurh was labeled one of the most accurate depictions of a psychopath in a 2018 study involving clinical psychiatrists. He avoids most of the usual Hollywood tropes — he isn’t flashy, theatrical, or overtly sadistic. He’s cold, detached, and largely indifferent to other people’s suffering. That’s probably why he’s so unsettling. He doesn’t feel exaggerated — he feels real.

What a refresh pull! Excellent film.

There will be blood NEEDS to be on y'all list

No Other Choice is a great choice to watch!

“Ya’ll getting any rain up your way?” Anton Chigurh: “ … 😠”

“Sugar?”

By the way, Reze killing the serial killer on the rooftop in the Chainsaw Man movie was a clear reference to Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men

Even though it was last in the poll, Memories of Murder is still a must watch for you guys

I absolutely LOVE the start of this movie where you see the antagonist Anton Chigurh before the plot kicks off while we hear a story of senseless violence by sheriff Bell. Throughout the movie, Chigurh a psychotic killer acts not so much as a traditional villain but as a primordial unstoppable force getting invited to the plot by the forces of capital. He symbolizes the blurred lines between chance fate and choice all in one. That’s why the only reprieve he sometimes gives to his victims is the coin toss that is the definition of these 3, a literal act of death through money you could say. His weapon of choice, a captive bolt pistol, indicates his view of humanity. Men are meat, no different from other animals and killing them should be treated as that. Chigurh in the end doesn’t get punished for his crimes but falls victim to fate. Or maybe he gets punished by the forces he claims to represent because he defied when he killed Carla Jean, who refused to call the coin. Confusion is the point in the film. Almost every scene is on purpose hard to read and thus analyse definetively. When Anton Chigruh (played AMAZINGLY by Havier Bardem) says to the gas station owner that "the coin is not to be put alongside the other coins which it is" are we focusing on that coin been special or common? Is the coin fate, chance or are we to concentrate on the choice of the owner?Is Llewelyn being punished for not helping the dying man or for not following through his act of cruelty? This one is different really hard to wrap my my mind around it came the same year as The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford and There wil be Blood (which is my favourite movie of the 21st centrury).

ugh, i hate that i can't watch until wednesday because i have zero time for anything that's not work, sleeping or eating these days 💀 i don't really remember the plot of the movie, just that i liked it and i also remember Javier's speech and the diss to the haircut when he won the Oscar

Just in time for dinner!

1. Javier Bardems Oscar for best supporting actor was very well deserved, not only for his acting but for the awful hairstyle they made him wear. 2. A curious fact about NCFOM is that according to research conducted by psychiatrists for the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the character Anton was chosen as the most realistic psychopath ever portrayed in Cinema history. They watched over 400 films to distinguish between a real psychopath and a fictional one and concluding that he is completely invulnerable to any form of emotion or humanity, zero. The writing, acting, and characterization make him the most faithful to a real psychopath. We have other great examples like Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) or Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) but they are represented more with strong violent tendencies and don't have such a deep exploration of antisocial personality disorder. I think the Coen brothers managed to delve deeper into the meaning of psychopathy in a better way than other characters have been portrayed. Now speaking of the Coen brothers, I think you'll enjoy their other works. Their style is very unique, divided between dark humor and very well constructed suspense. They manage to create such dark atmospheres in a very natural way and even introduce different colors on screen according to the tone of the theme being addressed. These are directing details that I personally appreciate very much. Anyway sorry for the long comment, sometimes I get too excited lol and thank you for bringing us movies little by little. I'm hoping the next poll will be about drama or animation and that it won't take too long (just kidding, no pressure, everything at your own time 😅)

Most terrifying bowl cut in the history of cinema 🫣

Let’s gooooo!

I’ve just watched No Country for Old Men today just to be ready for the reaction. For me, it felt more like a deconstruction of the western than a thriller. It is an intriguing subversion of both classical western tropes (Tommy Lee Jones’ character) and revisionist western tropes (Josh Brolin’s character) with a deeply nihilistic view of the world like others Cohen brothers films. I didn't understand the sheriff’s dream at the end. It's weird so many people liked this movie it's a great movie but also a complex one. Not the usual movie to become popular

Thank you two so much for branching out into film reviews occasionally. I love your TV stuff and these movies are a lovely extra bonus.

Siiiick. Should be a good one!

🫰❤️ thanks for the uploads

Loving these movie reactions!

HOLY FUCK

and i haven’t been able to look at a bob the same ever since😔

Cool !

Oh yeah this a nice way to end the night for me 🙂‍↕️

How much have YOU ever lost on a coin toss?