PS: I am going to see Architecture in Helsinki on the sixth of February

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Overall, I thought it was terrific – Bardem fully deserved his Oscar – and it was easily the best thing the Coens have done since The Man Who Wasn’t There, but I agree in that it’s not as good as a lot of their early output. (The Big Lebowski, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink to name just a few) Still, I hope they make more films like that and fewer like Intolerable Cruelty.

Juno: It’s like a character from an incredibly cool film wandered into a really twee one. The soundtrack is unrelentingly precious (and therefore almost entirely great) and the direction is pure saccharine, but the protagonist is almost belligerantly blasé, fluently funny and often outright mean. The clash is completely charming: the sappy trappings filter a hard character through soft light, which stops them feeling mawkish and her from becoming dislikable. I wish other writers realised that when you have a pregnant character, her pregnancy doesn’t have to be the only thing about her.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: I get so much more out of historical films by not knowing any history – if it wasn’t for the title, I wouldn’t have even known he was going to get shot. Even with it, I had no idea how he would die or if Ford would survive. Even in the scene where it finally becomes clear it’s going to happen, the tension is almost unbearable.

I rarely like Brad Pitt’s characters, since he’s usually cast as men apparently so pretty that they need do nothing to incur the adoration and admiration of all around. So he’s a familiar but appropriate fit for a cousin-marrying serial killer inexplicably beloved by the nation he terrorised.

But Casey Affleck steals it, as much for the wonkily grinning fidget of a character he plays as his actual performance of it. He’s compelling to watch mostly because of the fierce vein of pride running beneath his meek doting – which, of course, is what turns him from fan to assassin. It’s a truly bizarre story – I had no idea his killer went on to perform the assassination on stage night after night for years.

The film suggests James’ death was more of an assisted suicide than a murder – knowing nothing I’m not sure if that’s based on some evidence or entirely speculative. Either way it’s a slightly less interesting story for it: it leaves James an unflappable and untouchable cipher to whom nothing happens without his consent. To me he’s more interesting if his success allows him to believe a little too easily in this adoring fan, to accept his devotion as granted and miss that it has soured.

Regardless, it’s intensely atmospheric, fascinating and often funny, and the climactic scene is as tense as No Country’s most heart-pounding pauses. Despite the foregone conclusion. Also: Nick Cave!

I’ll have to say There Will Be Blood was the better film though. From start to finish I was having great fun. But I can understand why someone wouldn’t like it, it is a film for cinema fans I would say. The composition and lighting was enough at times to keep me going…