Goonies85

Hi All,

Yes, another one...Two of my favorite filmmakers of all-time...and the makers of my absolute favorite movie of all-time (FARGO!!!)...I haven't seen some of there movies, mainly because I didn't care to see The Ladykillers or Intolerable Cruelty (I pretty much hate the movies they do with Clooney, as you will see)...But I've seen most of them, so here we go...Again, feel free to provide feedback...

1. Fargo - As stated, my favorite movie of all-time...I went through a phrase where I watched this on VHS after school every day for weeks at a time (sometimes twice). I wanted to understand how they created this masterpiece. How the characters all fit together. How they crafted such wonderful dialogue (especially the scenes between Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi...some of the funniest scenes, most deadpan dialogue scenes you'll ever listen to)...Frances McDormand is great...The movie has such an unusual structure, and there's simply nothing like it...Their masterpiece.

2. The Big Lebowski - One of the funniest, if not the funniest movie of all-time. Firing on all cylinders...The dialogue is kick-ass...The interactions between Goodman, Buscemi, and Jeff Bridges are hilarious...And Turturro's turn is a scene-stealer...One of the most quotable movies of all-time...Love every minute of it...The Coen's twisted take on a Raymond Chandler/Dashielle Hammett old school detective movie...Only this time the "detective" is a pothead...

3. Blood Simple - What a great debut picture. M. Emmet Walsh is gifted a fantastic role from these first time filmmakers. McDormand is lights out. And John Getz is great. Love this neo-noir...The cinematography is great...Also love hearing the backstory about the efforts they had to go through to get this one made...And just a great script, which shows what you can really do with a limited budget...

4. Inside Llewyn Davis - This one crept up on me...I haven't necessarily been a fan of a lot of their more recent stuff, but this was just a heartwarming/breaking movie. The whole thing with the cat...The folk music was great...I hadn't really known too much about Oscar Isaac aside from his small role in Drive, but this really showed what he was capable of...Lots of little bits of humour...This movie really felt like it was filmed in Greenwich Village in the '60s...Great stuff...I've since purchased the screenplay in book format and it is a fascinating read...

5. True Grit - Great remake. Better than the John Wayne original. Loved Bridges, Brolin, and Damon...And I can't remember her name, but the actress that played the little girl was amazing...Couldn't believe how fast she was able to read her dialogue...She should have a bright future in film...

6. Miller's Crossing - Awesome, albeit a tad slow, gangster movie...Featuring one of the best gangster movie scenes set to "Danny Boy", as Albert Finney learns he's about to be "hit", so he hauls out a tommy-gun and shows everyone how it's done...Love the scenes in the forest, and the weird hat metaphor thing (I love how the Coen's respond every time somebody asks about the symbolicalness of the hat; "It's just a hat." Ha)...Love the scene where Turturro's character begs for his life...Some of the best dialogue ever written...Again, just a tad slow at times...But aside from that, a really good movie...Really got lost in the shuffle at the time of its release because it was out during the same period that Goodfellas and The Godfather Part III were released...It's reputation has grown quite a bit since then...

7. Raising Arizona - A childhood favorite. One of my mom's favorite movies, she'd show us this all the time. Found the whole Mad Max/Road Warrior thing hilarious, and Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage were just sooooooo good. The country/hillbilly score is also so-fitting...And Goodman and Forsythe are hilarious...Just a great way to spend an hour and a half...

8. The Man Who Wasn't There - Really underrated in my mind. I think Billy Bob gives one of his best performances (his others would be Sling Blade and Bad Santa), and it's a wonderful homage to classic film noir. Not sure why others don't like this one as much as I do...The cinematography is great...And Billy Bob does most of his acting without even saying anything...

9. A Serious Man - Still not quite sure what to make of the plot...especially the prologue...but I like this movie. Odd movie, features a great Jefferson Airplane tune...But it is a weird movie...

10. No Country for Old Men - Always felt this has been overrated. Now don't get me wrong, this is a good movie. Maybe a great movie. But it's not up there with the all-time classics. I remember this was up against There Will Be Blood the year it came out, and I'd argue that There Will Be Blood is ten times better than this movie. It's a good movie. That's it. And even though I like Cormac McCarthy books, I did not like No Country for Old Men as a book. I didn't. I feel it's one of his weakest. The performances were good, but I just did not buy into many of the decisions the characters made throughout the movie. And I could've done without the pointless monologues from Tommy Lee Jones's character that seemed to go on for 5 or 10 minutes at a time...Again, it sounds like I hate this movie. I don't. It just bugs me that so many people absolutely love this movie and rank it as one of the greatest of all time...It's not...

11. Barton Fink - Amusing movie. Turturro and Goodman are good. The plot just isn't that compelling...Doesn't really draw you in...I can appreciate it, and agree that it is well made...The subject matter just didn't interest me that much...

12. O Brother, Where Art Thou? - I wish they never started working with Clooney, as I've loathed most of the movies they've done with him. This is one of them. I don't understand why this movie was popular back in the day. I don't understand why the soundtrack was popular back in the day (I worked in a music store at the time, and there were days where we had to play it all shift on loop, as it was a big seller). One of my least favorite Coen brother movies...Oh but wait...next up...

13. Burn After Reading - Hated this. Again, I hate seeing Clooney act so slapstick in their movies. Their best comedies feature characters who don't realize they're being funny. They read their lines in a serious fashion. And yet they're funny. Clooney always seems to feel the need to do stuff with his eyebrows and read his lines like a bumbling idiot. If he read them seriously, they might come across as funny. The only redeeming thing about this movie was John Malkovich. I thought he was funny. That said, the trailer for this movie was about 1000x funnier than the movie itself.

14. Hail, Caesar! - Finally got through this recently. I remain with the comments mentioned above about Clooney. Just a piss-poor movie. Especially hated the stupid musical sequence with Channing Tatum. There were a lot of great actors in this movie...What a waste of talent...

Nevertheless, while I feel the Coens have been slipping for a while, I still look forward to every movie that they put out, and hope that they eventually release another movie that can rival their greatest hits...

Thanks

bunkaroo

No Hudsucker Proxy?!? That's in my top 5 for sure.

Crocker Jarmen

Watched Blood Simple last night for the first time since I was in high school. I'd forgotten so much it was like seeing it for the first time. What a fantastic movie. I was struck by how the colour and lighting of the film (even some of the POV shots) looked just like The Evil Dead.

One of the movie's biggest strength is it's belief the audience will understand the plot twists, so there is no reason to waste time reviewing them. The best parts of Blood Simple are the long stretches without dialogue. This movie must have played really well when it was translated into languages other than english.

dvdjunkie32

Good ranking. I can't really do one since I haven't seen a few of those films, but True Grit is definitely my #1. That Coen flavor just adds so much richness to a simple plot with very interesting characters and perfectly cast. Love even the secondary characters like Barry Pepper who just owns that role.

inri222

I like a bunch of their stuff, but for me this is their top 5

No Country for Old Men
Fargo
The Big Lebowski
Barton Fink
Blood Simple

EddieMoney

I like about everything they've done. My top 3 would be:

Fargo
No Country for Old Men
Miller's Crossing

funkyryno

I re-watched "O Brother" a couple of weeks ago. It holds up pretty well. Clooney's is pretty hammy in his role, but it works well enough for the character.

"Man of Constant Sorrow" is a pretty catchy song, but I'd probably be sick of the score, too, if I had to play it on loop.

"Burn After Reading" certainly should sit the end of the list. Pretty dumb movie, although it did have a few scenes that made me chuckle.

bunkaroo

My top 5:

Fargo
No Country For Old Men
Hudsucker Proxy
Burn After Reading
Inside Llewyn Davis

I only saw Blood Simple once a long time ago - maybe I should give it another chance.

printerati

My top six, in order:

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Raising Arizona
3. Blood Simple
4. Miller's Crossing
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
6. The Hudsucker Proxy

With the exception of Intolerable Cruelty, I have at least enjoyed the other films I have seen. I haven't seen Burn After Reading, Inside Llewyn Davis, A Serious Man, The Ladykillers, and Hail, Caesar!, and I have no interest in seeing those last two.

Finisher

Yep, he's awful. Smug, head bobbing douche who never really becomes the character. No coincidence he's in 4 Coen films and those are their worst, other than that POS Ladykillers.

Always had a warm spot for second tier Coen films like Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn't There, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis .. these would be considered near masterworks if made by other directors.

As far as their best, No Country will always be at the top for me because of Anton Chigurh, just one of the most creepily effective performances ever. True Grit is also right up there.

Hokeyboy

Holy crap this is gonna be rough. OK... of those I've seen, in order:

1. Fargo
2. No Country For Old Men
3. A Serious Man -- by far the best movie of 2009. Absolutely stunningly brilliant.
4. Raising Arizona
5. Miller's Crossing
6. The Hudsucker Proxy -- so massively underrated, it hardly abides the telling
7. Barton Fink
8. The Man Who Wasn't There
9. True Grit
10. O Brother Where Art Thou
11. Inside Llewyn Davis
12. Burn After Reading
13. The Big Lebowski
14. Blood Simple
15. Intolerable Cruelty
16. Hail Caesar

Goonies85

You got me there. I've owned it on Blu-Ray for a couple years and have always meant to watch it...I've usually only gotten 20 minutes in (that's not to say I didn't like it, it's just other stuff always came up)...I'll try and give it a shot in the next day or so...I'll let you know what I think...

atrium

I really can't agree with Barton Fink ranking so low on your list. A film doesn't sweep the Cannes without having a lot of interesting things to unpack and discover.

Went ahead and made my own list, I broke it up by tier:

Tier 1 (Excellent):
1. Fargo
2. Barton Fink
3. Blood Simple
4. Raising Arizona

Tier 2 (Very Good):
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Miller's Crossing

Tier 3 (Good):
7. The Big Lebowski
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
9. True Grit
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
11. Hail, Caesar!

Tier 4 (Decent):
12. Burn After Reading
13. The Man Who Wasn't There
14. A Serious Man
15. Inside Lleweyn Davis

Tier 5 (Average):
16. The Hudsucker Proxy
17. Intolerable Cruelty

Tier 6 (Below Average):
18. The Ladykillers

Mabuse

I never really liked Oh Brother, but recently gained some new appreciation. We were preparing to drive cross country and visit Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

It dawned on me to show it to my 9 and 12 year old. The movie contains all the tropes of the South and the Great Depression. Chain gangs, Tennessee Valley Authority dam projects, bank robbers, the KKK, lynch mobs, blues singers selling their soul to the devil, local radio, hillbillies, etc. I could go on and on. It has everything in one movie, it has great music, and very little profanity. It’s a perfect piece of what some critics would call “low tourism”. It’s a perfect intro to our myths about the south and the Great Depression. And a perfect intro to the Cohens for little kids.

It was a more effective overview than making my two little kids watch The Grapes of Wrath, Sullivan’s Travels, and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde.

Goonies85

I did finally watch The Hudsucker Proxy. I guess I'd rank it 12, bumping down O Brother. It's an interesting movie, and I really liked Tim Robbins' performance, but it's nothing special. Also watched Intolerable Cruelty. Like Clooney's other Coen brother roles, I thought the movie sucked. The only redeeming aspect was Billy Bob. I pretty much love everything he does and thought he was terrific. But for the life of me, I have no idea what anyone sees in Catherine Zeta-Jones. I thought she was awful (although Clooney was worse). I just don't get it. I don't think she has a lick of talent, and I remain surprised that she still gets roles (I even hated her in Traffic, which I think is an enormously overrated movie; one of Soderbergh's worst). Nevertheless, if I had to rank it, it would still be one notch above Hail, Caesar! Still looking forward to the Joel Coen Macbeth movie...But not sure how it can top Polanski's (which I love) or even the Kurzel version with Michael Fassbender (which was great)...

dex14

Macbeth isn’t a straight up adaptation apparently.

Goonies85

Heard that. Still intrigued by what they'll do with Denzel...just sounds fascinating...Still surprised Ethan Coen isn't involved but oh well...

OldBoy

NCfOM for me. Just a master stroke. Though they are all so good in so many various ways...

OldBoy

Except Inside Llewyn Davis. Didn’t quite take to that at all. Maybe a 2nd try is in order...

thematahara

1. Miller's Crossing
2. No Country
3. Big Lebowksi
4. Barton Fink
5. Fargo
6. O Brother
7. Burn After Reading
8. Hudsucker
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
10. Raising Arizona
11. True Grit
12. A Serious Man
13. Buster Scruggs
14. Hail Caesar

Of the above, Hail Caesar is the only one I dislike. Only seen it once, so maybe I need to re-watch considering that their other movies get better on repeat viewings, but that cast is really off-putting.

I genuinely enjoy 7-13, and 1-6 are some of my favorite movies of all time.

Im ashamed to admit that I somehow have not ever seen Blood Simple, and to a lesser extent, The Man Who Wasnt There. Also havent seen Ladykillers or Intolerable Cruelty, but consensus seems to be that I should be happy to have not watched those.

Goonies85

You really do need to watch Blood Simple (the Criterion version is excellent) and The Man Who Wasn't There. But you are absolutely correct on skipping those other two. I thought Intolerable Cruelty sucked, and I couldn't even finish The Ladykillers, it was that bad. I usually always finish movies I start, but good God, I hated, hated that movie...But seriously, you will love Blood Simple...I rewatched it recently with the pseudo-commentary they did with Sonnenfeld and it was amazing...Emmet Walsh really owned that movie...

Goonies85

That movie surprised me. I remember going in and thinking I wouldn't like it and yet it is actually one of my favourites of theirs...the main actor really knocked it outta the park...And like I said in my original post, I also purchased the screenplay which is available in book format and it's really a great read...Just a great book...If anyone could ever make an excellent adaptation of James Ellroy, it'd be the Coens (and yes, L.A. Confidential by Curtis Hanson was great, except for the very end)...

fiver

Just curious if you were familiar with movies like "His Girl Friday" coming into Hudsucker. I find that movie hilarious and one of the Coens best and part of it is I just find their take on that genre so spot-on. I admit it's hard for me to really rank many of their films because I'd always feel I'm leaving behind a really good movie, but this one I think continuously gets under-valued since comedy is so subjective to begin with.

Oh, and Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, and Hail Caesar are the only ones I don't own - I HAVE had all of them on my shelf at one time or another, but I just can't bare to watch them. I tried Hail Caesar again on Netflix the a week or two ago and it was just as tedious as I remembered. Definitely looking for something they can sink their teeth into - hopefully their take on Shakespeare isn't really anything close to a straight adaptation of the Scottish play and is simply a loose adaptation of its themes as many of their films are.

milo bloom

O Brother Where Art Thou

and the parts of Fargo where Frances McDormand is on screen.

Jason Bovberg

My ranking...

1. Raising Arizona--Probably my most rewatchable and quotable film of all time
2. No Country For Old Men--Staggeringly good suspense filmmaking, long silent stretches, edge of the seat
3. The Big Lebowski--Hilarious riff on Raymond Chandler, more exquisite quotability
4. Fargo--The more I watch this, the more perfect it becomes
5. True Grit--A spectacular adaptation of one of my favorite books
6. The Hudsucker Proxy--The inventive tone of this one gets me laughing every time I see it
7. The Man Who Wasn't There--Underrated black-and-white gem
8. Blood Simple--What a debut! Inventive and seedy
9. O Brother Where Art Thou--Feel-good flick with gorgeous cinematography and music
10. Burn After Reading--So dark and devious and viciously funny
11. Barton Fink--Getting inside a writer's brain! Hits home.
12. A Serious Man--Fantastic black humor in a story with huge consequence
13. Miller's Crossing--I recognize its greatness, but for some reason it makes me fall asleep
14. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs--Every one of the stories is an intricate jewel in its own way
15. Inside Llewyn Davis--Probably a little too obscure for its own good
16. Hail Caesar--A tale of Christ symbolically, but I wanted a better top story
17. The Ladykillers--Quirky and fun but forgettable
18. Intolerable Cruelty--Mainstream fun