This might seem like a strange observation, but it’s a reaction I can’t quite shake: I think Inside Llewyn Davis is the gentlest film Joel and Ethan Coen have ever made. There’s a lot of aggression across the shared filmography … Continue reading But I’ve got no home, nowhere to roam, don’t even have a place to sing my songs
Spectrum Culture eased back into operation after a holiday break this week. Even though we had a very limited amount of content, I still squeezed some of my high-falutin’ words in there. On the film side, I wrote about the new film from director Miguel Gomes, which has been turning up on some of the more esoteric year-end “best of” lists. It’s not quite at that level for me, but I certainly see the appeal. This week also marked the return of a regular yearly feature in which the writers collectively look back at the albums and films from five … Continue reading Spectrum Check
#9 — Jennifer Jason Leigh as Amy Archer in The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1994) To the degree that Jennifer Jason Leigh is pigeonholed, it’s as the dark, damaged character whose rolling displeasure probably helps drive the … Continue reading Greatish Performances #9
Twenty years ago, I thought of the Coen brothers as cheeky titans of upending genres. They started their mutual career with a crime film, a broad comedy and a gangster picture, each of them adhering to the tropes of their … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2010 — Number Two
The most important scene in the Coen brothers’ new adaptation of the Charles Portis novel True Grit occurs early on. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross has journeyed to the Old West town where her father was shot and killed to retrieve the … Continue reading What separates me from you? What separates me from you now?
#6 — Fargo (Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen) Fargo begins with a sly gag. Maybe it’s more appropriate to say it begins with a bit of a prank. A title card appears, asserting that the film that follows is based … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Six
#29 — Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen), 1990) Joel and Ethan Coen are marvelous visual artists. They conceive of extraordinary set pieces and understand better than most of their peers how a perfectly executed sight gag or sly … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Twenty-Nine
#39 — Barton Fink (Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen), 1991) More than any other filmmakers, the nineties were all about the Coen brothers. At least that’s what it was like for me. There were more influential directors, to be sure, and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Thirty-Nine
There was a time when Joel and Ethan Coen were known (and, in some quarters, loathed) for the gymnastics they regularly took their camera through on the way to a finished feature, sending it racing down a bar with a … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2009 — Number Four
#1 — No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2007) After all the words I’ve tapped out in the name of this ongoing project, this public exercise in grappling with the films that have meant the most … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number One
Coffee for Two 