Blood Simple. (1984)

One of Joel and Ethan Coen's greatest films (and their first), Blood Simple carries us through the major splash created by an adulterous affair followed by a murder. The setting is a small town in Texas and the protagonist is the wife of an embittered bar owner. She decides to carry-on with one of the bartenders and they both become the target of a hit man.

The Coen's help us through the painstaking agony of covering up murders, escaping murder and committing murder using superb film techniques and selfish characters.

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True Grit (2010)

Loved the absolutely sharp dialogue in this film. Tremendous performances by Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and the new Hailee Steinfeld. Great and gritty western!

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A Serious Man (2009)

The Coen brothers present another masterpiece - this time on the subject of God and mystery.

Professor Larry Gopnik is living the American dream in the midwest when things start to crumble. His wife wants a divorce. A student is threatening him with a defamation lawsuit. His brother is getting into trouble. His kids are always fighting and demanding either money or immediate results. His doctor wants to talk about the results of some tests. And his neighbour is pushing the property line into Larry's land. Through all of this, Larry wants to do the right thing and be a good person with the help of several rabbis.

The entire premise is based on how so much of what happens to us can not be explained, but our response to these situations is truly how the remarkable and miraculous can express itself.

I love this film! The bar mitzvah scene is one of the most poetic and beautiful and hilarious scenes I have ever seen.

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Barton Fink (1991)

The Coen brothers have made heaps of films since this most acclaimed art house film came out. Barton Fink is even characterized as an anti-type story on every level which, when done by master filmmakers becomes an instant classic.

When Barton Fink is charged with writing a money making wrestling movie for a hollywood studio after moderate stage success back in New York, he experiences writing block. Between the severe heat, a pesky hotel neighbour and difficult to read studio executives, Fink can barely get an opening line typed out. 

But the film is much more than a comedy about a self-absorbed writer, it's about story-telling and representing others. The role of authors carries an enormous burden to retell the plight of one part of society, but to tell it after listening to them.

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Burn After Reading (2008)

It was the Coen brothers turn to make a goofy violent comedy again (Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers). But who can resist their Oscar-winning wit?

Two worlds collide: a fired CIA agent and his governmental circle with a couple gym employees bound to capitalize on a found CD with classified secrets. They bumble and they lie and they ultimately, well, you'll have to watch the movie.

For a long time now, the Ethan and Joel Coen have been able to pretty much handpick their actors. Frances McDormand makes her seventh film with them; George Clooney makes his third. Along with newbies Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich, they all nail the comic timing in this rather gruesome tale.

Truth: Greed blinds our sense of justice.

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No Country for Old Men (2007)

Finally. If I had had the chance, I would have seen this on opening night.

Joel and Ethan Coen have once again proven that they are among the top film makers in history. Their adaptation of No Country for Old Men is introspective and visually exciting at the same time. The writing is highly original, but also keeps us grounded in Texas.

Because of their successful cinematic achievements, the Coens were clearly able to handpick the actors because every single character is compelling, right down to the clerks and passersby (kudos to the casting department). The cinematography and sets exposed a barren landscape of fields, parking lots, and cheap hotel rooms.

The topic of the film really deals with the perceived shift in our society - one of anonymity (as opposed to community), greed (as opposed to helping your neighbour and doing the right thing), and loss of respect for life (as opposed to a belief that life is sacred). The truth is that people really haven't changed much. Atrocities have always been and they always will be. We simply have the choice to decide whether we will stand up for the justice or be bought or scared off.

Of course the way these atrocities express themselves changes with time and place. The Coens created a place I sure don't want to visit (and I've never been too fond of Bush's homestate, though Arcade Fire's frontman was born there), though having a coffee with the Sheriff would be nice.

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Raising Arizona (1987)

Eccentricity rules in the Coen brother films. Before I knew who writing/producing/directing team Joel and Ethan were, I was already a big fan of this, their second feature film. I had watched several times with my sister Salomé and we could probably recite the entire film by heart when we were in high school.

The enchanting feature in this film are the pure emotion Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter put into their characters as parents who are unable to have children. The fact that one is a law enforcement officer and the other is a re-offending armed robber doesn't detract that these two really are in love and really want to have a family. Their situation, as sad and affecting as it is, also doesn't detract from the hilarity of their lives. And that's why I keep coming back for more.

The two jailbirds (one of them John Goodman, a Coen bros. regular), the Arizona family, and the painful family of Cage's foreman round out the absurd cast. Each brings a charicature of americana that makes the American dream that much more ridiculous. I especially enjoy how much each character so eagerly pursues materialism while displaying overt unhappiness. This makes us that much more sympathetic to the erring protagonist couple. What's fun too is that there really are no holds barred for the writers; Pollack jokes and irreverent offers by Nathan Arizona make you twinge, but they also reveal so much about American culture.

I have a couple favorite lines in the film: When Hunter finally meets her baby for the first time, she is overwhelmed with emotion and gushes over and over "I love him soooooo much" and Cages final narrating line in the film about Utah is pure gold.

The accompanying soundtrack is quite simple and beautiful using Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as a regular theme but on guitars with humming and whistling.

I actually got something new watching it this time. I understood the villain's relationship to the protagonist in a much deeper sense than the temporal. It finally clicked when the Woody Woodpecker tattoos were revealed. The matter of liberty for Cage's character is quite succinct once the biker warthog from hell dies (the same way as Randal 'Tex' Cobb is killed in Uncommon Valour).

Here's to watching No Country for Old Men before it hit's DVD!

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Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Another Coen bros. spectacular takes the viewer on a tour of extreme selfishness and oddball characters. I saw this in the theatre on its release with high hopes of another The Big Lebowski or O Brother, Where Art Thou. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with my first viewing at the flaky characters. This could have been in part to some of the added writing partners the Coens employed. But after having seen it a few more times, I can honestly say that I quite enjoy this film.

The most gratifying part is certainly watching George Clooney's divorce lawyer antics. He is given a different obsession in this film (it was his hair in O Brother if you recall). Now it is his teeth which he constantly whitens, polishes and freshens. His comic charm easily wins over viewers easier than it does the cold-hearted Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The film focuses on the loneliness of gold-digging wives and leeching lawyers and ultimately pairs a couple of them (take a stab at which two). The film's goofiness can hinder the deeper messages of vulnerability and exposing your need for companionship. How can you take characters like Wheezy Joe, Rex Rexroth, and Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy seriously?

I don't think we are supposed to take them too seriously. The filmmakers are smarter than that. Their ultimate goal is to expose the ridiculousness of the divorce epidemic. At one marriage ceremony, the presiding minister asks the groom "what's the matter, haven't you been married before?"

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The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

There really hasn't been a Coen brothers' film that I didn't like. This one is no exception. Their sharp wit, eye for the mundane, and amazing sense of texture, genre, character, and story are well rendered in their 10th feature film.

With a theme similar to many these days - living a meaningless life - they bring us back to the fifties and have fun with it. We have Billy Bob Thornton narrating and starring as subdued barber. He's Ed, about as short a name as you can get. He is lifeless and he knows it.

It is in black and white so contrast is a big thing visually. This is then mirrored in the characters: Ed is quiet, his working partner won't shut up. Ed is motionless, his wife is fooling around. Everything Ed touches disappears, but it's still like he's not there.

All of the characters are flamboyant and very interesting to watch. The Coens were able to take some of the fifties melodrama and really ham it up in their traditionally unique characters; I mean names like Nirdlinger, Riedenschneider, Birdy, Big Dave, Creighton Tolliver, Officer Krebs aren't heard everyday.

A reflection of our times when it all began - in the materialistic fifties - the decade of opportunity.

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