Top 5 Coen Brother Movies

Miller's Crossing is my favorite, and I have watched it several times, but John Turturro is a bit much in a couple of pivotal scenes.

So many people rave about the Coen brothers but they always leave me cold. I keep watching their films thinking each time that I will finally see the genius there but it never happens. Miller's Crossing and Big Lebowski are 7 or 8 out of ten and I would happily watch them again, maybe Fargo too but for the rest I hope that I never see them again. There are at least 3 that I never finished watching and that is something very rare for me to do.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: So many people rave about the Coen brothers but they always leave me cold. I keep watching their films thinking each time that I will finally see the genius there but it never happens.

I used to hate the Cohen Bros. Then I finally realized I just hate their 'comedies'. Stuff like No Country and True Grit are great.

Late to the party, but I'll play along.

I still have seen Hail Caesar or Llewylln Davis. But everything else is fair game for me.

1. O, Brother Where Art Thou?
- still kills me every time. And not totally overplayed like Lebowski.
"it's time to R-U-N-N-O-F-T!"

2. Raising Arizona
- for obvious reasons. This movie is the Airplane! for film dorks.
Too many too list... but "You gotta have your Dip-Tet!" is some understated genius. or the "FART" on the wall is some overstated.

3. Fargo
- it's pretty hard to make a good black comedy. Before this I didn't think a black farce (dressed like a noir) was possible.
The scene where Macy pitches the one good idea of his sad life, (and then gets fucked out of the profits) it is something everyone in their first job needs to see.

4. The Big Lebowski
- yeah it's still a defining movie for a entire slacker generation.
The scene with Jackie Treehorn where the Dude tries in vain to be a real detective for just one moment, only to be rewarded with a cartoon of a big dong.

oh shit, I'm almost out of slots...

5. The Man Who Wasn't There
- Billy Bob Thornton is brilliant in this (weird to say), especially considering his job on film is to stand there and smoke. But combined with the voiceover work? Excellent.

Dammit. I thought Miller's Crossing was going to make the list. But I won't cheat. Call it #6. Or maybe #7, because of Blood Simple... or ... shit. I'm out.

I enjoyed Burn After Reading, and often find myself going back to the ending "What have we learned, Palmer?"

No Country didn't resonate with me as much as the rest of F:AT, in that I liked it, but not excessively.
A Serious Man didn't catch me either, but it was so steeped in it's Judaic themes that I had trouble really relating. Not bad, but not made for me. That's okay.

I even sat through all of Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers, and don't really regret either one. From anyone else those wouldn't be considered whiffs.

jeb wrote:

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: So many people rave about the Coen brothers but they always leave me cold. I keep watching their films thinking each time that I will finally see the genius there but it never happens.

I was just noticing one of the most intense shot-reverse-shot sequences I've experienced in awhile while rewatching No Country For Old Men, near the beginning of the film, when Llewelyn returns to the scene with a gallon of water. No dialog, but it's used amazingly well in a way I didn't expect. Apparently, it's a Coen thing, and it's damned effective.

Also, more love required for A Serious Man, particularly for the ending, as well as the most adept use of a Jefferson Airplane lyric in recent memory.

#1: Fargo - quintessential Coens in so many ways

Others I love - No Country for Old Men, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Hudsucker Proxy (I forgot that was a Coen film), True Grit, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple

Liked but didn't quite love - Hail, Caeser!, O Brother

Didn't like too much or felt was overrated - Big Lebowski, Inside Llewyn Davis, Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty

Haven't seen - Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, The Man Who Wasn't There

jeb wrote:

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: So many people rave about the Coen brothers but they always leave me cold. I keep watching their films thinking each time that I will finally see the genius there but it never happens.

Watching that reminds me how much I don't like the films.I suspect that it is the late point they make of mixing tragedy and comedy, and I just don't think that blend works (and probably why I like Miller's Crossing and The Big Lebowski most as those are two films that tend to heavily skew one way or the other).

They have yet to make a movie that I dislike.

One scene that clinched my love for them was the woodchipper scene with Buscemi.
He's frantic to cover up the evidence, that he doesn't realize he's in the middle of a snow field...
The first time I saw that, I laughed hard at the oddity lf it. Everyone else was just shocked at the sudden scene as the camera panned the woodchipper into view.
They just didn't understand.

1) Fargo
2) The Big Lebowski
3) Raising Arizona
4) Inside Llewyn Davis
5) Blood Simple

They do make some of my favourite movies but there's a few that stand apart for me.

1/ Barton Fink - their masterpiece and the best key to the Cohen's you're likely to get. I love the detective's grilling Barton about the missing person whilst really grilling him about his writing and person. Fantastic film and maybe one of my all time favourites.

2/ Miller's Crossing - so goddamn re-watchable. Pretty much a perfect film for what it is. The mystery of the hat, much like the mystery of what's in the box in Barton Fink, is kept sealed even after the film ends. I like that, I don't want them to tell me. Apparently they were stumped half way through writing this so they quickly wrote Barton Fink and then finished Miller's Crossing. The films have a lot of things in common even outside of the final scene in this one taking place at the 'Barton Arms'.

3/ A Serious Man - This late effort blew me away. I love the seemingly unrelated short film that starts this off. I say seemingly because it's done in such a way that I still think about and and try to figure it out. It might be another unsolvable mystery but I'm fine with that. The key here is that their best films are not disposable.

4/ The Man Who Wasn't There - Roger Deakins knocks it out of the goddamn park in this one. It's so beautiful to look at, the smoke curling up and around Billy Bob Thorton's face throughout... Scarlet Johansen as the young girl seducing him is almost something from French cinema... definitely way to risqué for American audiences and uncomfortably sexy. The inclusion of that Beethoven piece always intrigues me. The ending is fucking killer too. Great film.

5/ No Country for Old Men - I love how funny this film is. Sure, it's shockingly dark in places, the villain is truly disturbing... but amongst all that you almost don't expect the humour... once you see it though you quickly realize the film wouldn't work any other way.

No Country for Old Men
O’ Brother Where Art Thou
Big Lebowski
Blood Simple
Raising Arizona
Honorable Mention to The Hudsucker Proxy for one of my favorite opening scenes in a film. Reviewing their list, I’ve only not seen Ladykillers. It’s very hard to pick a top 5, but not very difficult to pick my favorite.