"all the time you spend trying to get back what's been took from you, more is going out the door. after a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it"

this is a powerful & unforgiving film driven by unconventional storytelling & a simmering tension that somehow coexists in the presence of heavy thick grey clouds of serenity. the atmosphere this film moulds & projects is so unique & uncanny. it captures this coexistence of tension & tranquility (specifically in the face of death) in such a visceral way & the opening sequence is a testament to that.

at its crux, this film takes the form of a mirror that holds a dreadful, piercing gaze at you (much like that of anton chigurh's). the mirror sees a reflection of the merciless, arbitrary & temporally distorted nature of life. no country for old men equally importantly concerns the notion of liminality & change (i'll return to this in a second). each of the three central characters at play epitomise all of these looming concepts in their own right.

we witness the subtle progression of sheriff bell - a man appearing to be driven by virtue & traditional values, constantly trying to grapple with the world around him. he seems to hold so much knowledge yet simultaneously makes no sense of everything unfolding around him. this is until the conclusion of the film where he accepts the unrelenting hand of life & retires both in his job & his sense of self, in order to turn inwards & understand himself. he realises that he can't gain an understanding of the perpetually volatile world around him but instead, he can understand himself.

llewelyn embodies the capriciousness of life. seemingly our protagonist to follow, who all the events revolve around, only for his significance to be violently stripped away. this is the beauty of the narrative - its naturalism. it deconstructs & crushes any perceptions you conceive about its direction & abruptly veers off into the unknown - much like life can. the narrative also holds a precious quality in how it feels like a novel unraveling visually - reminded me a lot of season one of true detective.

& finally anton chigurh. chigurh is the most brutal & poetic personification of fate. all the scenes with the coin tosses encapsulate this neutral, inevitable & mericless nature of life that he signifies, particularly his interaction with carla jean:

"the coin don't have no say, it's just you.

well, i got here the same way the coin did."

i love this film for how it immersed me into its nuanced atmosphere & instilled me with such a vivid, indescribable feeling about the arbitrary nature of life. the way in which it ties together so many expansive motifs cohesively is masterful & has left me with a lot to ruminate.