The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This move got totally shafted by only getting one Oscar. We both thought it was incredibly beautiful to look at—it won the statute for cinematography—but it was also a sort of brain-bending, quiet, sad human story.

Robert Ford, played by Casey Affleck, joins Jesse James' band of outlaws right at the tail end of their exploits. He's a handsome young man who nobody likes or wants to be around, because he is so insecure that he seems dangerous, like a stretch of quicksand or a bridge held together by string. Affleck's eyes shift around constantly as he tries to ingratiate himself into the gang. Despite his good looks, he's completely unappealing.

Watching Affleck's Ford reminded me of the phenomenon childhood studies scholars talk about in questioning people's reactions to being around young children. They point at the horror that adults feel upon realizing that a particular child seems to be faking cuteness in order to be loved. That moment lays bare all of the assumptions that the adult has had about adult-child relationships and their naturalness and goodness, by exposing the power dynamic that's always present. Like the cute-faking child, Affleck's Robert Ford tries to play the part of the handsome young gunslinger, but the responses of everyone around him show that he is failing. And like that child might, Ford lashes back by becoming more and more angry and confused. He loses his initial hero worship of James, and as he begins to think that James is going to kill him and his brother (played by the awesome Sam Rockwell), he forms the resolve necessary to kill James first.

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt's James is mercurial, likeable at one point, unlikeable at the next, and always in control of every situation. By playing off of Ford's hero worship and insecurity, James creates a situation in which he practically aims Ford's gun at his own head and pulls the trigger.

The barren, muddy old-West landscapes (the movie was actually filmed in Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg) and and the cold, unvarnished frontier interiors make every scene look paradoxically clean and perfectly arranged.