Watching Movies Alone with crumbsroom

Apart from the outdated slang, have you been reading over my shoulder?

You givin’ me the high hat???

Since I'm not sure what lingo was racially tinged, and what wasn't, I'll pass on calling you any new word I learned from it.


I'll just sit here making Edward G. Robinson noises, even if that's entirely irrelevant to anything.

Well written review of Miller’s Crossing. Always enjoyed it, but I found my enjoyment increased with each subsequent viewing.

That's a film I need to revisit (that, and Barton Fink). Saw both around 15-20 years ago and I felt that most of its themes went over my head (particularly with BF).

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Totally agree with BF. I had a meh response to it because it was so weird, and I hadn’t been use to surrealism in films yet. I wonder how I’d respond to a second viewing?
I will also admit that, for me, surrealism is hit or miss.

Since it's one of my favorite movies of all time, like if I made lists it would probably be Top-25 and has a chance at Top-10, I will look forward to your words.

Funny, the first time I watched Barton Fink, despite being a huge fan of Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and Miller's Crossing, I did not care for it and I'm not even sure if I finished it. Watched it again something like 17 years later and thought it was fantastic.

One thing I love about Miller's Crossing is telling people it's actually about a gay love triangle that went very wrong and they have no idea that I'm not joking at all.

Now that's some sophisticating plotting via innuendo!

That's a penny you owe him.

Tom suffers. He may not trust it, but he definitely has a heart. He even looked into it at one point.

RIP, JE Freeman.

Yeah, I felt similarly about this one; the dialogue and period details are very striking, yes, but at the end of the day, it felt like it mostly existed to just pay homage to earlier works of Noir/Gangster fiction, instead of standing on its own two feet as a fully engaging experience in its own right, when other, better Neo-Noirs (like Chinatown or LA Confidential) have no problem doing both things at the same time. It isn't a bad movie, just a bit too... hollow-feeling for me to call it a great movie on the whole.

I like the movie a fair bit and think it is a lot more than a homage. Me wrestling with the movies deeper implications isn't an indictment of it in any way. It's testament to the fact that it means it made me lean in closer to see if I could hear its heart beating. And there was, upon further reflection, a little stirring that could have been one.



Is it as good as Chinatown? Probably not, but I don't think there is any real need to compare the two films. Just being indebted to noir doesn't make them brothers. If anything, I'd compare it to something like Night Moves, simply in the fact that it goes to great lengths to hold its mysteries close, like they are personal secrets of the main characters.



Is there a bit of alienation that happens when a movie keeps such a straight face as this one does. Sure. I'm definitely more emotionally invested in Blood Simple or No Country for Old Men (movies, I'm sure lots of other people would say are pretty emotionally remote as well). But it is also an essential factor of what makes it work, even if it simultaneously keeps me at arms length from it.



One thing I've learned over all these years of watching films, is it isn't always necessary for a movie to welcome you into the club. Not all movies that I like need to like me back.

Music Interlude





The best Canadian rock and roll album released in the last ten (plus one) years? Maybe. Why not.

Maybe this will finally give Obscure the courage to ask that coffee shop girl out.

I admit. I've got a bit of a wart. On my fanny. Giving me the fidgets.


Miller's Crossing is top-shelf Coens for me. I don't get the "hollow" thing at all. Tom is ice cold but obviously vulnerable. Men with no feelings don't sit on the edge of their beds chainsmoking about nightmares, no matter how silly they were. Verna and Bernie were the only ones who saw past his flinty pale eyes. He loves Verna, is jealous of her, is terrified of being hurt by her. That final shot of Tom at the end tells you all you need to know about his heart.


Since it's probably a foregone conclusion at this point, I might as well reveal that the two Coen films on my list were Raising Arizona and Barton Fink. Miller's Crossing isn't far behind, and, in fact, that specific trilogy remains my ideal of peak Coen powers, the ones against which all other are measured. There's been many superlative contenders, and I'm still not sure if The Man Who Wasn't There doesn't come the closest. But we all know how serendipitous and/or fickle people embrace the various Coen adventures. Sure, the three above were my first taste of Coens (along with Blood Simple, which is great but remember I had to deal with the "I'm a Believer" version) and Arizona is almost certainly the one I've watched the most, whereas others may also be biased to those specific trysts with which they fondled through their distinct Coen impressions. But every single Coen movie has occupied both the best and worst list of one fan or another. I suppose that's a remarkable feat.

I should probably drop by that thread again (the discussion has been moving so fast I gave up trying to keep up). I did not vote for any Coens, but if I had to put together decade-specific favourites lists, I could see myself throwing The Big Lebowski and Blood Simple on them. There are others I recognize are just as good, but they do not inspire any special love in me.

I only watched Crossing once a long time ago, so I can't go into a ton of detail on why I felt the way I did about it, I just remember feeling like it was a film that was mostly surface, without much substance. I don't know, maybe I'd like it more a 2nd time around, now that I know what to expect. That being said, Neo-Noir kind of strikes me as somewhat difficult genre to get right, depending on the circumstances; I mean, something like Blood Simple (to keep this Coens-related) works relatively easily by taking a Double Indemnity-like setup and updating it to an entirely contemporary setting, but when you lean really hard into homaging the classical era of the genre, you seem to get a lot of movies that exist just to be tributes (like Miller's), ones that are somewhat confused by whether they should satirize the tropes of the genre, or take them seriously (like The Long Goodbye), or ones that descend into unintentional self-parody (like Sin City). Of course you still have classics like Chinatown, but it still feels like a tricky genre to get right to me, from what I've seen.