Of course PTA’s next movie will be more anticipated, but that just goes to show how much more important, mind-blowing and definitive a film There Will Be Blood was compared to No Country For Old Men. I couldn’t agree with you more, but from a prototypical critic/mainstream stand point, the Coen Bros’ next move is more anticipated and has higher expectations.

Of course, NOW every movie critic holds PTA to the highest standards, and I fully expect the NCFOM vs TWBB debate to be re-lit if and when Burn After Reading doesn’t hit the highest mark. The Coen Bros. are good at downplaying everything, as they should, but that doesn’t swipe away the fact that this film has “modern classic” expectations.

I completely disagree and I think a lot of that has to do with their place in Hollywood and ability and tendency to do so many different things. They are perfectly content to make a cute tribute to Howard Hawks screwball comedies (Intolerable Cruelty) and or something like The Man Who Wasn’t There or just wacky movies like The Big Lebowski or O Brother (which, of course, were wacky for totally different reasons), but also do something like Miller’s Crossing. They are able to make incredibly different movies in terms of tone and genre, but also in terms of consequence.

And I think this also has something to do with their ability to come out with movies fairly quickly after one another (just look at The Man Who Wasn’t There coming out just months after O Brother… or the same thing with The Ladykillers after Intolerable Cruelty). It forces people to move on and not be hung up on one thing, unlike say Kubrick, Scorsese, or Paul Thomas Anderson.

I think expectations will be much much higher for the next PT Anderson movie after There Will Be Blood, because of his specific resume and the way he makes movies, than they will be for the Coen’s.

When a director(s) is coming off a masterpiece (at least, according to popular/Academy consensus), expectations are never higher. Expectations are as high and actually much higher for the Coens right now than they were post-Fargo. It’s not really a matter of buzz.

bullcorn?

Im very excited about this movie, far moreso then Iron Man and TDK of which for the last couple weeks 90% of all /film posts have been about. I will agree with above though, I’m not a big fan of Clooney, but his performance isn’t going to make or break the movie anyways so no reason to get panties in a twist.

I think this is total bullcorn. Expectations could not be any higher?!? Maybe if you were talking about The Dark Knight, but look, some people know about this movie, but it’s not like it’s been generating a ton of buzz and speculation. If you polled people on anticipation and title recognition, I bet it wouldn’t even be on most people’s radar.

Ghost… all you said was that you weren’t crazy about him in one movie. You seemed to like the other one. One movie (which I agree was on the weak side for them, though still had some redeeming qualities) doesn’t really merit such a response. But it’s different if you just don’t like Clooney, in general.

LL…. that’s just silly to say.

Maybe this movie will steal them another Oscar, I mean look at all of that star power!