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Retreading Ground: The Best Coen Brothers Movie

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by KJIM, Feb 16, 2012.

  1. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Burn After Reading and The Ladykillers should be ineligible for discussion, like baseball players who don't meet the minimum thresholds to make the Hall of Fame ballot.
     
  2. CentralIllinoisan

    CentralIllinoisan Active Member

    "Burn After Reading" is sublime. One of my favorite comedies all-time. Such fun with language. Clooney, Pitt, McDormand, Malkovich, Swinton, Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, David Rasche -- a tour de force in comedic acting. Even a nice little turn by Jeffrey DeMunn, who plays Dale in "The Walking Dead."

    I understand it's not for everyone, but to exclude it as if not worthy of discussion? That's unfair. It definitely deserves a second look, during which you need to immerse yourself in the language, the feel of the film. Framed a whodunnit, but populated by fools. There's parable there about Western culture. The intense importance placed upon physical beauty, even at the expense of your own livelihood. So many levels, even beyond the side-splitting antics of these fools.
     
  3. maberger

    maberger Member

    I agree about The Ladykillers. I'd also probably put 'O Brother Where Art Thousand?' as number 3a..
     
  4. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    Nice to see the love for Millers Crossing, thought it was one of ther Coen brothers movies that always got overlooked but one of my all time faves.

    1 - No Country for Old men
    2 - Big lebowski
    3 - Millers Crossing
    4 - Barton Fink

    I have not seen True Grit or O Brother yet but they are on my iPad viewing list for travel. I have tried to watch Raising Arizona more than a few times but it does not resonate for whatever reason.
     
  5. Bodie_Broadus

    Bodie_Broadus Active Member

    Lebowski is terrible.
     
  6. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    I should edit my post to say that I love J.K. Simmons. I thought he played a great role as CIA Superior. Suited him to a T. All the way to the last line of the movie......"Jesus Fucking Christ"

    Then we roll to outer space and credits. Typical Coen Brothers Ending.

    My wife feels the same way about the Coen Brothers as I feel about Quentin Tarantino.

    She can't stand the way that they end, and I can't stand Tarantino. In fact, the only movie I can ever recall seeing of Tarantino's is Inglorious Basterds.
     
  7. Quiet Man

    Quiet Man Active Member

    I thought Thornton's performance in 'The Man Who Wasn't There' was terrific. He speaks throughout the film, but the vast majority of it is narration. His facial expressions perfectly mirror the narration throughout the film.

    O Brother is probably my favorite, slightly ahead of Fargo, No Country, and Lebowski.

    "Well, isn't this place just a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere."
     
  8. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    One of my favorite movies, for some weird reason, is The Family Man. I love Cage in it. It's one of the few times I've thought Tea Leoni was hot.

    I just really like it.
     
  9. wedgewood

    wedgewood Member

    Nic Cage seems to be in two or three dogshit movies a year. But for every Ghostrider 12 he's in, there's always Peggy Sue Got Married and Moonstruck. I loved him in that movie about the weatherman that kept getting shit thrown at him. Was it the Weatherman? I forget.

    As for the Coens, in no particular order, I love No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Serious Man.
     
  10. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    What an amazing run, from "Blood Simple" in 1984 to "O Brother" in 2000. Eight greatly entertaining films in 16 years. You would almost say that was an impossible output in modern Hollywood.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    David Fincher since 1995...

    Se7en
    The Game
    Fight Club
    Panic Room
    Zodiac
    Benjamin Button
    Social Network
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I personally think the Coens are more artistically ambitious and push the envelope more, although Fincher does in his own way, within a more commercial framework.

    Both are tremendous, though.
     
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