In the wake of the Oscars and the multiple achievements of “No Country for Old Men,” I’ve been thinking about the Coen Brothers a lot lately. Especially about what good writers they are. They do all kinds of things with dialogue and structure and symbolism that really shouldn’t work, but because they’re really good literary [...]

The 80th Annual Academy Awards are but a few days away, and I’m getting all excited. Once again, my local, brick-and-mortar video store is sponsoring an Oscars contest, and I’m determined to win a bunch of rental credits.
This year I’ve actually seen three out of the five nominees for Best Picture, so I’m not making [...]