MovieChat Forums > Inside Llewyn Davis (2014) Discussion > EVERY Coen Brothers movie

EVERY Coen Brothers movie

posted 10 years ago by lubin-freddy
10 replies | jump to latest

The Coen Brothers are unique in that each film they make is unlike anything else they've ever done. Which is why each new film gets the same reactions by many, if not most, posters here that "I hated it, because it wasn't like some other one that I liked".

What I really love about their films is just that, how each new one challenges me to see things in new ways. I give them credit for having the artistic courage to refrain from doing another Fargo or Big Lebowski, and to keep on being fresh and original.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

[–] masterofallgoons 10 years ago

The fact that they made Burn After Reading immediately after No Country For Old Men illustrates that point exactly.

I feel like they have the ideal career that most filmmakers strive toward. To have a completely unique and distinct voice while doing something different each time is something that so many strive for and mist fail at.

[–] cahammill 10 years ago

I don't agree. I can usually spot Coen film from mile away. But occasionally they veer right instead of left with these oddities. I would break it down like this:

Veer Left (Coen typical/pure movies)
* No Country for Old Men
* A Serious Man
* The Man Who Wasn't There
* O Brother Where Art Thou
* Blood Simple
* Barton Fink
* Raising Arizona
* Fargo
* The Hudsucker Proxy
* The Big Lewbowski
* Miller Crossing

Veer Right (Oddies for Coen Brothers)
* Crimewave (written by Coen's, Directed by Raimi)
* The Lady Killers
* Intolerable Cruelty
* Inside Llewyn Davis

The two movies I am undecided on are: True Grit and Burn After Reading. Maybe other can help me place them.

[–] lubin-freddy 10 years ago

Yes, when looking at their body of work there are consistencies of character and theme. But my point is just that each NEW film is quite unlike its immediate predecessor, in terms of style and atmosphere, even if there are themes that the more advanced viewer can find. Just read any board on IMDb, and see the complaints that "I liked this-or-that, but the new one isn't that, so I don't like it".

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

[–] lizandrich 10 years ago

One critic wrote they make one film for themselves for every film with a more mass appeal.

[–] lubin-freddy 10 years ago

But it's not true.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

[–] chicago85 10 years ago

When they made A Serious Man it reflected their growing up in a Midwest suburb and being just about the only Jews living there.

I remember them saying the popular movies they had made for others allowed them to make this one for themselves. I gathered it took a hard sell to get the funding.

I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

[–] Mahmood-Buttrumps 9 years ago

How are John Goodman cameos considered to be "different each time"?

[–] tgemberl 10 years ago

cahammill,
I haven't seen a lot of those movies, but it's hard to see a lot in common between A Serious Man and Fargo. What are the "typical" qualities you see in common there? I suppose they do both give an impression of the world as random.

"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."

[–] lubin-freddy 10 years ago

There is little "typical" to Coen Brothers movies, in that each new one is quite unlike anything else. They're all well written and directed, while the only thing that I can find that's common is that the characters (who are almost always wholly original) usually seem to think that they're smarter than they really are.

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

[–] circe-13 9 years ago

I am not really sure I understand what your criteria is for which movies are in these categories. Granted, some of these I have not seen. But I would put them more like this:

Typical Coen brothers movies
* O Brother Where Art Thou
* Barton Fink
* Raising Arizona
* Fargo
* The Hudsucker Proxy
* The Big Lewbowski
* The Lady Killers
* Intolerable Cruelty
* Burn After Reading

Atypical Coen brothers movies
* Inside Llewyn Davis
* No Country for Old Men
* Miller's Crossing
* True Grit

The ones not listed are not listed because I have not seen them yet. I have them categorized as such because the ones I consider typical Coen brothers flicks, all felt like what I think of when I think of a typical Coen brothers film. The others, I felt did not have the same vibe. However, of all the ones listed, Inside Llewyn Davis is the only one I actively disliked. And I consider myself a big Coen brothers fan.