Pretty good, pretty good

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2014)

(Warning: also contains spoilers for Gone Girl, Nightcrawler and season 4 of Game of Thrones)
This is the third movie in a row I've seen where the antagonist (or at least an unsympathetic protagonist) wins. That's rapidly climbing up the list of my least favourite tropes in fiction, but I can look past it here. My stepfather's theory is that I have a strong sense of justice that it offends, but I think a more accurate reason is that it's just hard to pull off a satisfying conclusion where that happens. The previous two (Gone Girl and Nightcrawler) are movies I have made no secret that I hate, in spite of their critical acclaim. I would compare those characters to Joffrey from Game of Thrones. They're made out to be so awful in every respect that seeing them die (or at least arrested) would be the most satisfying thing that the movies could've done. But, unlike Joffrey, you don't get that satisfaction, and when you don't, the movie ends with you angry for it. I'm a film student, and I would jump at the chance to write a paper on the importance of satisfying endings. I can forgive a lot of things in a movie, but an ending that you want to boo is not one of them.
With that said, I think this movie deserves credit for not having that happen. Like I said, it's hard to pull off a satisfying conclusion where an unlikeable character comes out on top. This movie does it. And other than that, it's well written, well directed, well acted, has a few great lines in it, it's an all-around solid movie. I'd compare it to a more serious Fargo (another great movie), so I wasn't too surprised to find out this is also a Coen bros. movie.
If I had one gripe with it, it's that the main character dies off-screen and ostensibly not at the hands of the antagonist. Not sure I agree with that creative decision, but it may be faithful to the novel it's adapted from.