O Brother, Where Art Thou ***

I've never understood the popularity of the Coens. Okay, so "Blood Simple" was probably THE debut of the eighties, but since then they've turned their attention to comedy. Sadly their idea of comedy is to fill the screen with bizarre looking characters and label them with even more bizarre names. O Brother carries on this tradition.

While laughs are virtually non-existent, the movie is made passable by the excellent bluegrass soundtrack, Clooney's performance, and the impressive photography.

The Coens claim it's based on Homer's "The Odyssey", which is probably the most pretentious statement of the year. Ninety percent of films could make this claim in way or another and this just an arty wank marketing ploy. Coens, cop the fuck on, we are not amused.