Josh Brolin Is the New Tommy Lee Jones

It seems unlikely if not unfathomable given the first leg or two of his filmography, but it occurred to me a while back that Josh Brolin may be the new Tommy Lee Jones, and not merely because the duo costarred together in No Country for Old Men, and he’s set to portray George Bush in Oliver Stone’s W. No, it’s more that Brolin has clearly become the go-to guy for grizzled Texans and southwesterners in general, a career track that offers up its own assurances of longevity and profitability. In addition to the above-mentioned films, Brolin also worked this angle — quite well, it must be stated — in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse. Next up on the occupational agenda will be proving that he can pivot from playing salty hard-asses to lampooning his reputation of the same, something Jones did with the Men in Black flicks and (hard swallow, here) Man of the House. Plus Brolin has Diane Lane, too. So that’s pretty sweet.