O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

It’s the old-timey Americana setting (the soundtrack is a revelation) and the infectiously fun rural road trip escapades (“Gopher?”); it’s a Dapper damn good Clooney with the rest of his terrific trio and an endlessly quotable script (“Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!”), but it’s also the yearning (see the campfire convo) amidst very real life or death stakes, decorated with sensationalist religious flair–the danger of fire and the salvific power of water.

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