Best Coen Brothers Movie - 2017

Do we give a shit about the Odyssey adaptation aspect of O Brother? It adds a level of enjoyment for me.
Aimless OTM above, also iatee with the "shaggy dog" comment. I always feel the Coens most strongly when the quotidian is foregrounded in a story ostensibly about bigger things - Margie and Norm bantering while a series of murders is unleashed, or the continual sidetracking of their protagonists by the random real stuff of life (i.e. the entirety of Lebowski).

It would be interesting to know how the Coens rank their films from favorite to least favorite.

a serious man may well be one of my favorite films ever

do you drink wine? because this is... an incredible bottle. this is not mogen david. this is-- a wine, larry. a bordeaux. open it--let it breathe--ten minutes. letting it breathe. so important. i insist! no reason for discomfort. i'll be uncomfortable if you don't take it. these are signs and tokens, larry.

I think I'll plump for A Serious Man too, perfect right to the final frame. I remember watching it and thinking "oh shit how cool would it be if they just cut here" AND THEY DID. No spoilers for the yet-to-enjoy of course.

i can't think of many other films that feel both warm and humane and completely bleak and shattering in quite the same way that one is

both alive and dead

intense focus on language and the frustrations of communicating

i am the walrus??

a serious man may well be one of my favorite films ever

there's a reason it has a lotta crossover w/Boondock Saints stans imo

What do you mean by this mean exactly? There's no comparison between the two films in terms of the quality of the writing, directing and performances. I understand Lebowski isn't everyone's cup of tea (and you're right that it was regarded as a disappointment at the time) but saying stuff like this veers a little too close to "the wrong kind of people like it" for me

Also underwhelmed when i first saw Lebowski, definitely suffers from being considered a classic in popular culture. But it's a film that shines best when you're bored and you stumble across it on tv, which is how it finally hit me emotionally. Ross is otm about how comforting it is, it's a movie you soak in like a warm bath.

A Serious Man really didn't make a mark on me at all, I should probably rewatch it.

That said, maybe I'm an outlier. I liked Ladykillers, True Grit and Hail Caesar. Damn it, I loved Intolerable Cruelty. And the answer to the poll is probably Burn After Reading.

when big lebowski came out it was widely regarded as a pretty minor effort iirc, especially in the wake of Fargo. i saw it years later and i guess it wasn't but but...there's a reason it has a lotta crossover w/Boondock Saints stans imo.

this is perhaps the most egregiously wrongheaded challop ever posted on ilx

boondock saints is the gaudy irish theme pub of post-tarantino cinema

gaudy Irish theme pub in Magaluf

with fewer sympathetic characters

id love to disagree but yep yep yep

A Serious Man really didn't make a mark on me at all, I should probably rewatch it.

Do non-Jews like this movie too? It felt very culturally specific to my experience (suburban reform/lite-orthodox Jewishness) in a way that nothing else I've seen (or read) has, except maybe "White Teeth".

(Which is to say, I think it's one of the rare movies you probably get more out of, if you're Jewish. Although my parents - both Coen fans - hated it.)

I'm a non-jew and I agree with

a serious man may well be one of my favorite films ever

One of the v few movies my dad (an atheist) and I agree on

My slightly challopsy curent ranking would probably be, from fave to least fave (leaving out the ones I've not seen, or not rewatched in an eon, which rules out Raising Arizona):

A Serious Man (2009)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Burn After Reading (2008)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
Fargo (1996)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Blood Simple (1984)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

yes but read inascending or descending?

xpost

Fair enough! Some of the scenes are so specific - the barmitzvah, losing your place in the Talmud, all that stuff - I really got a kick out of seeing them onscreen for the first time.

serious man might be maxed out if youre jewish but as a lapsed irish catholic it still strikes powerfully imo

amen to that

(works on lapsed french-cdn catholics too)

Can definitely imagine getting even more out of it if I was jewish but people of all faiths can appreciate the greatness of Larry angrily shouting "Santana Abraxas".

I stand by my challops. BL is a better movie than BS by far, I mean the directing and acting alone obv, but what it has in common is it's a movie that strains way too hard all over the place and has little payoff and for a quotable movie the quotes are vv weak.

I wasn't really bored by it and I wasn't offended by it (two more pluses in its favor vs BS) but the above ranking placing it third from the bottom seems about right. It's the coens giving into their worst instincts. Imo.

t/s: a charming shaggy dog story about a stoner dragged into a crime plot he barely understands vs a crass, dumb-as-a-rock pantomime of american-oirishness filled with meaningness violence and covered in a nanometre-thick veneer of catholicism

for a quotable movie the quotes are vv weak

there is a v obvious quote in response to this nonsense

i'd like to offer this visual quote instead

http://media.giphy.com/media/CEaCdl21DOIDu/giphy.gif

I regret humouring the challops tbh. There is no comparison between the two movies other than "some people like both of them"

I ain't mad, you guys can like it all you want. This is just like my own thoughts on the matter and things of that nature.

you are of course welcome to your incorrect opinions

the forced zaniness of the Clooney trilogy is what really typifies the Coens giving into their worst instincts. Now those are movies that are trying too hard

quatro!

when big lebowski came out it was widely regarded as a pretty minor effort iirc, especially in the wake of Fargo

fwiw, there were critics at the time (not a vocal majority or anything) that thought Fargo was minor Coens. They were idiots, but they were there.

testament tho that i think youd get at least one good case itt for each movie on the list to make at least a top five spot

I think their humor is best when it's really dark, which I guess is why a serious man is my favorite of their comedies. I was encouraged to watch it by the rabbi who taught the interfaith marriage Judaism class I took before I married my wife. Said it was a great, great movie. Otm!

(I'm not Jewish either btw.)

(But I am a struggling professor and Grace Slick fan.)

One of Big Lebowski's charms is that it's a comedy about a stoner, but not a stoner comedy.

I stand by my challops. BL is a better movie than BS by far, I mean the directing and acting alone obv,

I read BS as Blood Simple here, and was wondering if I should send some kind of medic team around.

It's possible that being a lapsed catholic helped with A Serious Man, something about understanding the pools and ripples of power around these slightly silly men.

Lebowski ran away with that old poll. I suppose the cult has lowered its status in the meantime.

From the comments itt, they've aged into A Serious Man.

Which, good.

testament tho that i think youd get at least one good case itt for each movie on the list to make at least a top five spot

maybe not Ladykillers, but I can't help thinking I owe it at least one rewatch

somebody could, even for ladykillers

saw the prologue husband from ASM at MoMA for some '30s Universal shorts last night, he clued me in on some of the Yiddish jokes i missed.

the coens are probably my favorite filmmakers, so this is like choosing a favorite child. i'll vote for this one with my heart--the big lebowski

But you should have some familiarity with American jews to really appreciate everything they put in it.

― A is for (Aimless), Monday, May 15, 2017 10:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

minnesota jews tbrr. i saw it in the theater in st louis park. when the meshbesher letterhead came up the place was HOWLING.