Outscourced and No Country for Old Men

You'd think after the film festival, I'd be ready for a movie break. But there was a movie about India at the Bear Tooth Monday night and Joan wanted to see a movie today so we went to the one with the most stars in the newspaper.

Outsourced


[I'm still have mixed feelings about videotaping films in the movies. When the Film Festival folks emailed me, I was wondering if they were going to complain about that, but not at all. Since movie reviewers on tv and the radio use clips from the movies they review, I should be able to do the same. I only use a tiny percentage, I don't give away anything that would spoil the movie, etc. But I also don't want my camera to disturb people around me. So if I don't get a seat away from others or I'm not surrounded by friends, I also tend not to take out my camera. Or if I get so absorbed in the movie I forget. Anyway, these two movies I took no pictures. So I'm using the Outsourced trailer. You can see more clips from the movie including the first 8 minutes of the movie at the official site.]

India is another universe. While I enjoyed 'being' in India watching Darjeeling Express, that movie was more focused on the three American brothers who used India as the backdrop for their reunion and bonding. Outsourced gives a more balanced view of both how the American call center guy from Seattle who is dropped suddenly into India feels, but also gives more of an India viewpoint as well. This is not a heavy film, but it gave a good sense of how it feels to be embraced by the world that is India - the smells, the huge crowds, the different rules for doing most everything - in a don't take yourself too seriously way. This guy made far more progress than I think possible in only three weeks, but that aside, it pulled me in that my critic hat fell off and I just enjoyed the movie.

No Country for Old Men

I don't like violent movies, but I was hearing more and more good buzz for this movie, and it was at a convenient time and place, so we went. I am drawn to psychopaths - because they are out there and we need to understand that and them - but this movie didn't give us any real clues about them. We saw one in action, but nothing that helps us understand why. Overall it was a very well made and gripping movie. Again, I was totally pulled into it. And I liked the fact that there was no Hollywood ending, in fact it was left open enough there could be a sequel.

I would note there are long blog discussions about some of the scenes in the movie and apparently a lot of head scratching about what actually happened in the movie. I didn't have that reaction. Not everything was perfectly clear, but neither is life. It wasn't unclear in that the Coen brothers did a poor job of making the movie. A good movie, like a good book, deserves a second look. But Nora Ephraim did write a funny review in the New Yorker, but I'd see the movie before I read the review.