With The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs arriving on Netflix, it felt like time for a daunting career appraisal of the brothers Coen. Theirs is a cineliterate canon; a body of work in constant awe of past masters, yet imbued with their own inimitable style. Their reverence is transformed into the personal. Thanks to faithful work with … Continue reading Ranked: The Coen Brothers
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Zoe Kazan, Tom Waits, Liam Neeson The Coen Brothers have made Westerns before, and more than just the two 'obvious ones'; the Texan noir of No Country For Old Men and their adventurous remake of True Grit. In truth the West has scored through much of their cinema which is resplendent … Continue reading Review: The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
Over the last decade especially, the Coen Brothers' output has swung steadily like a metronome; from bleak, lean thriller No Country For Old Men to the acidic comedy of Burn After Reading; the existential crisis of A Serious Man to the crowd pleasuring adventurism of True Grit; the melancholy of Inside Llewyn Davis to their latest effort, Hail, Caesar! - a classic … Continue reading Review: Hail, Caesar!
On the closing credits of the Coen Brothers' 2010 hit western remake True Grit there was a telltale executive producer credit for one Steven Spielberg. Despite Oscar glory three years earlier for No Country For Old Men, it was this quiet accumulation of characters at the close of one of their most popularist movies that cemented their … Continue reading Review: Bridge Of Spies
"Life's dealt me some bum cards, or maybe I just haven't played 'em right," so says ever-self-deprecating narrator Ed Crane in The Man Who Wasn't There, one of the Coen Brothers' several masterpieces. It's a line that feels fitting to a few of their movies, but one which suits their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, perfectly. To eschew … Continue reading Review: Inside Llewyn Davis
Year: 2007 Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Stars: Josh Brolin (Llewellyn Moss), Tommy Lee Jones (Sheriff Ed Tom Bell), Javier Bardem (Anton Chigurh), Kelly Macdonald (Carla Jean Moss), Woody Harrelson (Carson Wells), Garret Dillahunt (Wendell) Genre: Crime Thriller / Literary Adaptation It's only been six years since the release of No Country For Old Men, … Continue reading Why I Love… #57: No Country For Old Men
Year: 1996 Director: Joel Coen Stars: Frances McDormand (Marge Gunderson), Steve Buscemi (Carl Showalter), William H Macy (Jerry Lundegaard), Harve Presnell (Wade Gustafson), Peter Stormare (Gaear Grimsrud), John Carroll Lynch (Norm Gunderson), Steve Park (Mike Yanagita) Genre: Crime Thriller / Comedy "They got this guy, in Germany. Fritz Something-or-other. Or is it? Maybe it's Werner. … Continue reading Why I Love… #39: Fargo
