No Country for Old Men
For penny-pinching to four decades , the Coen brothers have been one of the leading voice in American cinema , but how do their picture show rate ? The author - director - editor program squad is the brains behind a slew of critically acclaimed and often commercially successful moving picture that traverse musical style , motif , and styles , all while fitting well under the umbrella of what has make out to be known as the Coenesque . Whether it ’s comedy , thriller , dramatic play , or noir , you screw a Coen brothers movie when you see it .
It ’s knotty to pin down what exactly makes aCoen brothers movieso especial . While there ’s a lot of connective tissue between their film - a love life for total dope as hero , thick satire , experiential apprehension , a portmanteau word of jokes and violence - their picture are often as unique as they are familiar . It ’s a strange cycle of contradiction in terms that determine few other film - makers , and far less on the level of recognition and acclaim as the Coens . What makes them so notable is their eubstance , their prolific output , and their continue phylogenesis as fibber , even after most 40 years in the industry . Often working alongside familiar collaborators – cinematographers Roger Deakins and Bruno Delbonnel , composer Carter Burwell , role player John Turturro , Frances McDormand ( who is married to Joel Coen ) , John Goodman , George Clooney , and many more – the Coens retain to challenge and storm even their most cynical viewers .
arrive up next , the Coens are splitting up for one picture , as Joel directs an adaptation of Shakespeare’sMacbethwith McDormand and Denzel Washington in the leading roles . That yield is currently on break due to the COVID-19 pandemic but is sure to be on the top of many a film lover ’s most anticipated releases . The brothers are also working on the script for the latest remake ofScarface , which will be guide bySuspiria ’s Luca Guadagnino . While waitress for these , here ’s a smell at the feature film of Joel andEthan Coen , ranked from unsound to best .
18. The Ladykillers
Arguably the only film in their back - catalog that feel like a total miss , the Coens ’ conclusion to remakeThe Ladykillerswas always going to be a controversial one . The original Ealing comedy from 1955 , asterisk Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers , is an all - time classic , a slow - burn and deeply morbid tale of forged men outwitted by the last person they would ever expect to take them on . On paper , it seems like perfect material for the Coens , but their adaptation is much forte and blunter in its approaching . There are funny moments here and there , andTom Hanksis clear relishing the opportunity to play such a sleazy somebody , but the final ware feels labored in a way that does n’t suit the material or the directors . For the first time , the Coens seem unsure of their own work .
17. Intolerable Cruelty
Given their popularity with critic and audience likewise , it ’s deserving remembering that the Coens are n’t exactly mainstream movie - makers . They do n’t deflect their trend or intent to beseem Hollywood ’s tastes or the current industry vogue . 2003’sIntolerable Cruelty , however , feels as close as the brothers ever got to making an old - fashioned ready - for - primetime romantic clowning . It ’s not a utter fit for the Coens , who are more dry and caustic than the conventional take on the genre typically allows . George Clooney and Catherine Zeta - Jones have great chemistry in the vein of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey ( whose films are a clear influence here ) , but overall , the picture show is one of the few unmemorable efforts by the Coens .
16. Hail, Caesar!
A lot of 2016’sHail , Caesar!felt like an exculpation for the Coens to live out their classic Hollywood fantasies while their famous protagonist join in on the merriment . That ’s not a knock on the movie itself , which is extremely pleasurable , even as a less Coens effort . Josh Brolinplays Eddie Mannix , a real - lifetime methadone hydrochloride for a Hollywood studio apartment who is tax with keeping the rich and illustrious in line : A dim - witted extend man has been snatch by a group of communist screenwriters ; an Esther Williams - esque bathing beauty is dealing with a secret gestation ; a guileless young cowboy histrion struggles with being reinvent as a serious actor .
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The good moments of the motion picture fall when the movie lets the Coens be Coens , specially in a hilarious scene where George Clooney , who plays the most wonderful doofuses in Coen movies , is increasingly won over by the tenet of communism . While the story is report - thin , the pic beautifully homages favorable age Hollywood image , from the Gene Kelly - panache dance identification number ( performed beautifully byChanning Tatum ) to the warring gossip columnists ante up testimonial to Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper both being play by Tilda Swinton . Alden Ehrenreich walk away with the picture as the singing cowpuncher force to be a Cary Grant case .
15. Burn After Reading
There are few thing the Coens love more than become Hollywood ’s most darling hunky leading hands into utter idiots . It ’s the nonpayment mode of George Clooney in their workplace and forBurn After Reading , they also roped inBrad Pittand gave him one of the best and most hysteric roles of his career . This black comedy about piteous gymnasium employees who come up against every bit useless spies and CIA analysts blends the blanket laugh of a frat - bro farce comedy with the season paranoia of a 1970s political thriller . It mostly works but it ’s all dependent on how much patience you have for this cavalcade of numbskulls . Brad Pitt in full Looney Tunes mode , however , is a comedic delight , and the Coens ' keen heart for detail is on top form .
14. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
As with any and all movie anthologies , The Ballad of Buster Scruggsas a whole is n’t as strong as its respectable parts . base on stories by Jack London and Stewart Edward White , as well as their own work , The Ballad of Buster Scruggscombines six disparate storiesbound by the common base of death and survival in the previous West . Some stories fare well than others . " The Gal Who Got Rattled " , for instance , is a stellar piece of work that fiercely capture the inherent contradictions of America ’s own myth - making circumvent its origins as a nation , and features a substance - breaking performance by Zoe Kazan . The repugnance in timbre between the fib is to be ask for this medium , but the punctilious craft of each make them deserving your while .
13. The Hudsucker Proxy
The Coens have never concealed their sexual love of the kit and boodle of Preston Sturges and 1940s nut case funniness , and 1994’sThe Hudsucker Proxyis their most lavish court to those fib . The film infamously flopped intemperately upon acquittance , hardly make back a tenth of its budget , and critic slammed it as a thematically empty pastiche . fortuitously , many changed their minds over the years andThe Hudsucker Proxyhas now win over a mighty fanbase . It ’s a mile - a - minute and delightfully overloaded screwball fib where everyone is verbalise as tight as they can and the artistry deco production designing overwhelms the viewer as much as its story skewers the hollowness of boastful - business concern cant . Paul Newmanand Jennifer Jason Leigh feel right at home with this globe and its dialogue . While it ’s occasionally drown out by its own ambition and scale , the laugh fly boneheaded and fast .
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12. The Man Who Wasn’t There
A love of film noir has defined the Coen brother since their earliest days , andThe Man Who Was n’t Theresees them leaning hard into that rage for the first fourth dimension sinceBlood Simple . Slowly paced and often harsh , especially with Billy Bob Thornton play the Bogart - esque protagonist with a deeply unknown edge , the pic revels in its mixture of dense , near - philosophic idea and total emotional distance . Some viewers may chance that off - putt but it work for this story of crimes , misdemeanors , and wrongful charges , while its stunning black - and - whitened filming mate with an array of leading performances ( including a young Scarlett Johansson ) make this cinema one deserving re - watching or revisit for the first meter , as it remains one of the Coens ’ most underseen titles .
11. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
It ’s easy to draw a blank just how big a dealO Brother , Where Art Thou?was upon release in 2000 . The moving-picture show , a retelling ofThe Odysseyin the American South of the Great Depression , made a tidy sum of money and exhort a abbreviated mainstream revival of kinfolk and bluegrass music , with the soundtrack even winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year . Reimagining a Greek epic poem , one of the key fundament of millennia of storytelling , as a Preston Sturges movie is the stuff of genius that only the Coens could draw off with this story of effortless panache . The cracked character of the movie conceals a quietly sinister centre , best embodied by John Goodman ’s case , and the translation of Homer ’s tarradiddle into this format is a cunning reminder of the Coen brothers ' ability to remould almost anything into their inimitable fashion . It helps that the soundtrack is , indeed , first-class .
10. Raising Arizona
Charm often come by nature to the Coens , albeit with a sly twist , butRaising Arizonasees the pair work at their most buoyantly delightful . A screwball tale that does n’t minimise or dilute is strange shadow , the picture show feels like the materialisation of a Mel Blanc or Tex Avery cartoon from the 1940s , complete with slapstick topsy-turvydom and a truly touching fellowship story . raise Arizonais Coens at their most surplus , as they fling everything at the screen on top of their own develop proficient artistry . It helps that the picture is rightfully screaming , in big part thanks to the committed foolishness of Holly Hunter and the constantly gameNicolas Cage .
9. Miller’s Crossing
At the time , Miller ’s Crossingwas considered a disappointing whole tone down for the Coens , following the financial success ofRaising Arizona . The movie did n’t make any money and some wrote it off as trying too heavy to subvert the tropes of the gangster literary genre . All of that cynicism overlooks how skillfully the movie straddles the gap between the past and future of such history , as well as its thematic and creative tightness . It would take multiple re - scout to fully peel back the on the face of it interminable layers ofMiller ’s Crossing , from its former - school Hollywood roots to the ways its deliberately self - conscious approach to storytelling exposes the ludicrous fictions of these characters ’ predicaments . Few filmmakers put together ensemble as dead cast as the Coens andMiller ’s Crossinghas one of their best , with John Turturro offer what may be his large performance of his storeyed career so far . It ’s the perfect balance of style , substance , and foreignness .
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8. True Grit
When you register the novelTrue Grit , spell in 1968 by Charles Portis , you ca n’t help but question if it was somehow always intend to be a Coen brothers film . The germ material is so eerily double-dyed for the twain , from the witty dialog to the elegiac narrative to the character who would not count out of place in any of their other movies . So , it ’s no wonder that the dyad worked wonders with2010’sTrue Grit , make a classic Western that entirely enjoy even skeptic of the musical genre . Hailee Steinfeld ’s carrying out is a lucent highlighting of their filmography , a plucky and compulsive heroine who makes big piece quake but is ultimately still a teenage missy lost in the wilderness . Is it a more conventional effort from the Coens ? Sure , but when it ’s this expertly done then who cares ? It ’s also one of the rare example of a remake that is far better than its original , although the picture is such a sharply opine adaptation of the novel that to even consider it a remaking of the John Wayne movie does it a ill service .
7. Inside Llewyn Davis
The 86th Academy Awards was fix - pack full of incredible movies , to the point where many notable films and performances were overlook in dramatic fashion . Perhaps the most egregious snub of the mint was the penny-pinching - aggregate shutout ofInside Llewyn Davis , The Coens ' black funniness about the Village folk aspect of the former 1960s . Perhaps their most melancholic motion-picture show , the story agonizingly captures the conflict and thwarting of artists stress to make it vainglorious and being chase by letdown at every turn . Tales of virile neuroses are a big part of the Coenesque and Llewyn Davis , wonderfully played by Oscar Isaac , is one of their good . He seems ready for renown but sometimes ( indeed , most of the time ) it ’s destined to betray , and the film ’s cold shadows captured beautifully by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel always hint at the approaching arrival of one Bob Dylan . The songs , both originals and covers , are spookily evocative of both the era ’s actual - life music and the fantasy that every music swot has of that clock time .
6. The Big Lebowski
What take place when you mix in the hard - bitten noirs of Raymond Chandler with a languid shirker tale and Dali - esque aspiration successiveness ? You get one of the dandy rage movies of the nineties . The Big Lebowskiinfamously received assorted revaluation upon release and was seen as a step down for the Coens after the Oscar - winning success ofFargo , but it ’s now one of the truthful icons in their filmography and deservedly so . This absurdist take on innovative America revelry in its overly - complex plot of ground of false identity and kidnapping , all of which it proudly lets the audience do it is ultimately inconsequential . The real kernel of the story is in Jeff Bridges ' performance and the incredible craftsmanship that went into developing the world of a homo who would ultimately be too busy relax to even notice it . Even by the unique standards of the Coen Brothers , The Big Lebowskiis truly one of a kind .
5. Blood Simple
In 1984 , the Coens made their feature debut withBlood Simple , a Dashiel Hammett - style neo - noir crime thriller that take them a year to fund independently and united them with future long - time collaborators like Frances McDormand and Carter Burwell . The movie ended up being the perfect calling wit for the brothers to announce to Hollywood their endowment as well as their intent . Plotting - wise , it ’s as tight as a barrel , with nary a moment wasted . While the movie is often hilarious , the Coens adhere more to the traditional tenets of noir , with echoes ofTouch of EvilandThe Maltese Falcon . The former is most evident in the scenery - slip public presentation of the legendary part actor M Emmet Walsh , who suggest images of Orson Welles ’s deceitful detective with his perpetually exertion - sheened forehead and the sleaze that much exhale from every stomate . origin Simplealso features one of the most in truth terrifying minute in any Coen brothers movie .
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4. A Serious Man
3. Barton Fink
TheCoen brothersutterly prevail the 1991 Cannes Film Festival withBarton Fink . The movie no only won the top swag , the Palme d’Or , but cross the major awards for Best Actor and Best Director , something that almost never happens and is actively discouraged by the fete . It was worth it , though , becauseBarton Finkis a multi - superimposed and deceptively tense narration that combines noir , horror , buddy comedy , and historical dramatic event in a means that only the Coens could .
John Turturro plays the eponymic author , a dramatist with suitable dreams who move to Hollywood like F. Scott Fitzgerald to drop a line movie scripts . Struck down with writer ’s block , he finds himself unhinge by his next - door neighbor , an insurance policy salesman with a dark secret , as well as the more and more labyrinthine machinations of the fortunate eld of the moving picture . The billet between drollery and tragedy has never been thin for the Coens than it is withBarton Fink , which veers wildly between Lynch - esque surrealism and a scathing characterization of the psychological manipulation demand to keep Hollywood in patronage . Only Joel and Ethan Coen could make a motion-picture show that ’s equal partsSullivan ’s TravelsandNaked Lunch .
2. No Country for Old Men
The oeuvre of Cormac McCarthy is notoriously difficult to accommodate , but the Coens made it seem almost pathetically promiscuous withNo Country For Old Men . An utterly disquieting Western that feels like the picture Sam Peckinpah never nonplus to make , the dramatic play is an unforgiving thriller that has the spectator on edge from the first scene and does n’t let up for the ensuing two hours . The Coens still find ways to inject some desolate humor into their surroundings but they keep their most esoteric quirks at a aloofness and take what could have been an pontifical or accidentally silly story altogether seriously . Even with the forged haircut committed to synthetic on his header , Javier Barden ’s Anton Chigurh is appall in his methods and mind - games . The post are actual and the Coens take this familiar narrative of revenge and stock in the young West and make it into something borderline - revelatory .
1. Fargo
No film better signifies the tycoon and prevailing uniqueness of the Coenesque as good asFargo . Roger Ebertfamously said that Fargo was"one of the serious films"he’d ever realise as well as a reminder as to why he roll in the hay film in the first place . Close to 15 years later – as well as three time of year of a critically acclaimed spin - off FX series – and none of that initial thaumaturgy has worn off . That motley of grotesque and cheeriness gets to the heart of what the Coens do best . They revel in the inherent strangeness of humanity but are at their best when they remember the shining spots , as embodied by Marge Gunderson , the pregnant law chief who symbolise the idealistic American hero in a less - than - conventional exterior ( Frances McDormand rightly get ahead an Oscar for her warm and charming performance ) .
The jokes never undersell the shocking gore of the story , nor do the burst of heart - stop violence make the comedy seem pat or misused . It ’s a correspondence put together so perfectly that you inquire why any other theater director even rile trying to replicate it . It may not actually be based on a true chronicle as the picture famously claim but there ’s such lifetime at the heart ofFargothat its general truths telephone just as loudly as its ethnic and originative specificities .
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Amy Landecker and Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man
Amy Landecker and Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man
