Top 5 Coen Brother Movies

Happy Friday. Let's keep the ball rolling:

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Big Lebowski
3. Fargo
4. Barton Fink
5. Raising Arizona

1. Burn After Reading
2. Barton Fink
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Fargo
5. Blood Simple

Lebowski would be 6.

I'd say all of them are Top 5 but Ladykillers ... woof ... also I haven't seen them all

1. Raising Arizona
2. Fargo
3. Big Lebowski
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
5. True Grit

Top 5 I Still Need to See
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Blood Simple
3. Miller's Crossing
4. Hail Caesar
5. Inside Llewyn Davis

1. Miller's Crossing - I'm a big fan of Prohibition Era gangsters, and this movie offers a gang war and some wry comedy. I like how the main character plays the two sides off against each other but always tells the truth.

2. No Country for Old Men - Although this movie stumbles at the end due to a critical moment being left off-camera, the overall intensity is impressive.

3. Blood Simple - Noir doesn't getting any darker, despite the occasional humor. An impressive first effort.

4. Raising Arizona - This movie made the Coen Brothers famous, and with good reason. Funny as hell.

5. The Big Lebowski - Maybe if I smoked enough weed, I would like this movie more. It's fun, and very quotable, but somehow the noir hippie detective thing doesn't quite work for me.

Honorable Mention: I also liked True Grit and The Ladykillers, but those were re-makes, so I valued them slightly lower. It was great to see Tom Hanks play a villain, and the schtick with the painting was fun. Of all the movies I just listed, The Ladykillers is the one that I really want to see again soon.

Dishonorable Mention: I really, really hated Burn After Reading. I dislike that style of farce, and I'm really tired of the limited range of Frances McDormand. Brad Pitt turned in a lazy and stupid performance, just like he has in every movie he has been in for the last decade.

1. Fargo - one of my top 10 of all time, I love this film
2. Big Lebowski
3. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Miller's Crossing

I need to see Hail Caesar.

I haven't seen nearly all of them, but here would at least be my top 3.

1. Raising Arizona - A legitimate contender for my favorite movie ever.

2. O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Every time I see it I like it more. "Damn, we're in a tight spot" was a very common refrain in my early games of BSG.

3. Fargo - One of the few "dark" Coen movies I've seen a couple times, and easily my favorite.

Others I've seen (Burn After Reading, Ladykillers, Big Lebowski) are less impressive for me.

1. True Grit - i've been rewatching this a bunch lately. I think it's a total blast.
2. Fargo - i'm pretty sick of it at this point but it's hard to forget the magic of seeing this for the first time. So insanely good. "...I"ll make ya some eggs"
3. Inside Llewyn Davis - i've been dreading having to decide if I like this better or No Country for Old Men, but I really do think it's this. I absolutely love this movie. The music was hauntingly good the first time through. I'd get chills
4. No Country for Old Men - i just rewatched this last night, as a matter of fact. I think it is probably the greatest villain ever on film. I was terrified of that guy. And the movie gets better and better each time you see it. Tommy Lee Jones has amazing lines. Lots of depth here.
5. Paris je t'aime - it wouldn't be a Black Barney movie conversation unless I talked about something no one saw but me. The Coens do one of the short films in this collection of short movies (18 of them! OMG). Theirs was the Steve Buschemi one in the subway, and it's a total blast. One of the top three in the movie for sure. Really good movie.

I'll bite on this one:

1. Miller's Crossing
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Fargo
4. Raising Arizona
5. No Country For Old Men

When I'm channel surfing I'll stop and watch any of these any time.

1. O Brother "We gots this recession on, and I gots to do for mine"
2. No Country "What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo?"
3. Fargo "Okay, now you stay away from Scotty...."
4. Lebowski “This is not ‘nam. This is bowling. There are rules.”
5. A Serious Man OR Miller's Crossing....that's too tough for one as simple as me.

Shellhead wrote: 1
Dishonorable Mention: I really, really hated Burn After Reading. I dislike that style of farce, and I'm really tired of the limited range of Frances McDormand. Brad Pitt turned in a lazy and stupid performance, just like he has in every movie he has been in for the last decade.

I typically am not a big fan of that type of comedy but for some reason I love this movie. I do also like Pitt so that helps. I think Malkovich turns in an excellent performance.

It's kind of my Big Lebowski as I quote this much more.

"Osbourne Cox? I thought you might be worried... about the security... of your shit."

"You think that's a Schwinn!"

"You sit down there, make yourself comfortable, put your feet in the stirrups, and..."

"Maybe I can get a run in."

I've seen more than I really remember. I need to rewatch some. Of the ones I really recall:

1. O Brother, Where Art Thou
2. Raising Arizona
3. Fargo

After that, they don't really stand out. Big Lebowski is fine, but I think I came to it too late. I really didn't care for Barton Fink, and Hail Caesar was just kind of there. I actively disliked Burn After Reading. No Country, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, True Grit, Man Who Wasn't There I've seen and don't remember much about.

Oh I also didn't get through The Hudsucker Proxy. I'd like to, but I found Jennifer Jason Leigh's character absolutely grating.

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Miller's Crossing
3. Fargo
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Raising Arizona

1. RAISING ARIZONA
1. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
1. MILLER'S CROSSING
1. FARGO
1. O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU

1. Miller's Crossing. It's an homage but even better than many of the films it was giving the nod of respect to. It's Gabriel Byrne's best role by far (yes, better than The Usual Suspects.) All of the characters are real people with real flaws and I have a great deal of respect for the kind of screenwriting that creates characters with that kind of texture. I don't think it's their best film, but it's still my favorite.
"But... they took his hair, Tommy. Why would they do that?"
"Dunno. Maybe it was Injuns."

2. O Brother Where Art Thou? There are so many layers to this film, it's ridiculous. It's the Odyssey. It's Gulliver's Travels. It's a modern comedy and an homage to Depression-era escapism. The soundtrack actually carries the message of the film. It's just great.
"I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight to sell my soul to the devil."
"Well, ain't it a small world, spiritually speaking! Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one that remains unaffiliated."

3. No Country for Old Men. I think the best thing about this film was the pacing. They displayed patience in a number of their earlier works, but in this one they had little concern about leaving long stretches bereft of dialogue or even music. You were just supposed to absorb the emptiness which was the narrator's main complaint about the world: it being devoid of the kind of life that he felt was essential for civilization. Obviously, you can go on at length about the performances, but I think the storytelling was the real high point.
"I didn't put nothin' up."
"Yes, you did. You've been putting it up your whole life. You just didn't know it. You know what date is on this coin?"
"No."
"1958. It's been traveling 22 years to get here. And now it's here. And it's either heads or tails and you have to say. Call it."

4. The Big Lebowski. I like the little insights in the script, but this one is mostly about the performances. Almost everyone involved was just spectacular. It's definitely their funniest film, as well.
"This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta whathaveyous. And a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily, I'm adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen to keep my mind, you know... limber."

5. The Man Who Wasn't There. Again, the noir. But it was also about someone surrounded by possibility and opportunity and basically too restrained to take advantage of any of it. Was it cowardice, depression, ignorance, or was he just unique? I like the questions that the film asks and leaves open. Plus, Thornton was amazing in the title role.
"Time slows down right before an accident, and I had time to think about things. I thought about what an undertaker had told me once - that your hair keeps growing, for a while anyway, after you die, and then it stops. I thought, "What keeps it growing? Is it like a plant in soil? What goes out of the soil? The soul? And when does the hair realize that it's gone?"

Honorable mention to True Grit and Fargo. I was actually OK with Burn After Reading. It was far from their best, but I liked aspects of it; especially the ending, where JK SImmons just kills it as the CIA director:

MILLER'S CROSSING, for the uninitiated, is pretty good the first time you see it and gets better and better with each subsequent watch. Tom covers the angles. Mink is Eddie Dane's boy.

RAISING ARIZONA is their funniest film, Jackwraith. It is the funniest movie ever made. The camera angles are funny.
"When there was no meat, we ate fowl. When there was no fowl, we ate crawdad. When there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand--"
"Y'ate what?"
"We ate sand."
"Y'ate SAND?"
"Das right."

Anton Chigurh in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is from a dark place and I don't know if a film has better portrayed a stone sociopath better. Maybe HENRY, but even then, this is a much better film.