TOP 10: Coen Brothers

The Coen brothers' new film, A Serious Man, opens today. The Coens have made a career out of quirky, but beneath every odd story is (usually) a strong message and (always) an impeccably-made film. Here are their ten best, in my opinion.

10. The Big Lebowski

I personally tend to gravitate to the Coens' more serious work, but I can still appreciate their uniqueness of vision and their wicked sense of humor. Jeff Bridges as The Dude is easily the brothers' most iconic character to date. The Big Lebowski mixes elements of Leninist philosophy with mistaken identity, a kidnapping plot, a love of bowling, and a stained rug. Only in a Coen film could all those pieces come together to form one of the most beloved films in the Coen cannon.

9. Burn After Reading

A screwball comedy with zany characters, a dizzying plot, and of course, perfect dialogue and great acting. It's funny, sometimes delightful, sometimes a little sad, with dialogue that sounds perfectly logical until you listen a little more carefully and realize all of these people are crazy. A classified CD lost by a disgraced CIA spook and found by two simple gym employees sets off an outlandish series of events that could only be at home in a Coen feature. It's simply - amazingly - a collection of brilliant caricature studies interwoven by veracious, Coenesque, social interactions.

8. Raising Arizona

This is Nicolas Cage at his finest and a Coen comedy classic. Raising Arizona is the hilarious tale of ex-con H.I. and his straight shooting ex-cop wife Ed - their infertility issues lead them to kidnap one of the Arizona Quints. What follows is a strangely dark and comic series of events. This film did not initially do well in the theatres, dealing with a lot of dark humor and general strangeness that may have been ahead of its time. Yet this film has become a huge cult classic, and has gained a strong following.

7. Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing is a crime drama set in the prohibition era, with more double and triple crossings than a season of Survivor. The Coens display a love of classic gangster movies with their snappy dialogue, corrupt cops, shifting loyalties, and smoking Tommy guns. Gabriel Byrne plays Tom Regan, the right-hand man of Leo, an Irish gangster. An Italian crime lord calls for the life of a dirty bookie, but Leo is involved with the bookie's sister, Verne, who wants him protected. Sound complicated? That's only the beginning. The Coens weave a complex but hugely entertaining tribute to mob movies, with some classic characters, scenes, and as usual, a gruesome death or two.

6. Barton Fink

This 1991 genre-defying movie won so many awards at the Cannes Film Festival that officials changed the rules. Now each film screened at Cannes can only walk away with two. Barton Fink took the Palme d'Or, Best Director, and Best Actor for John Turturro, who plays an acclaimed playwright who moves to Hollywood and gets a severe case of writer's block. He claims to be a poet of the common man, but when his neighbor, Charlie, says he has some stories to tell, Barton proves uninterested, and thus is oblivious to Charlie's monstrous secrets. It's an assured and political piece of comic filmmaking about Hollywood and hell. Sometimes they're one and the same.

5. O Brother Where Art Thou?

O Brother Where Art Thou? is one of those movies that people either love or hate. I happen to love it. Three prisoners on a 1930s Mississippi chain gang (George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) escape and attempt to find a buried fortune with a relentless lawman on their trail. The journey is amazing and hilarious. This is a clever movie with sharp witty dialogue, the perfect three personalities among the convicts to clash with one another, and one of Clooney's greatest performances. The film has an outstanding, Grammy-winning soundtrack and was instantly popular among the mainstream. With a little help from the Soggy Bottom Boys, the Coen brothers finally proved that they could translate to a large audience.

4. No Country For Old Men

The Coens finally nabbed the golden boys for Best Director in 2007 with this grab bag of their favorites: grim humor, botched crimes, bizarre and bloody deaths, and the use of landscape as character. No Country For Old Men is the story of a mad killer on the trail of a Texas resident who happens across 2 million dollars and decides to keep it for himself. Brilliant performances from all involved - especially Javier Bardem as evil personified and sporting a bowlcut - and primal, unsettling storytelling upended the thriller genre and earned the Coens a slew of well-deserved kudos.

3. Blood Simple

Blood Simple was our first introduction to the Coen brothers - and they didn’t disappoint. This thriller set the stage for many amazing Coen collaborations to come. A rich saloon owner hires a shifty private detective (perfectly portrayed by M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his cheating wife and her lover, but the detective has ideas of his own. The Coens' film debut is considered one of the finest first films in cinema history - and oh how deliciously the double-crossings go down. As TIME's Richard Corliss said: "Who could tell from this debut feature that Joel and brother Ethan would become the most distinctive and unpredictable American filmmakers of their time?Everybody who saw it."

2. A Serious Man

Cited as the Coens' most personal film to date, A Serious Man is set in 1967, and centers on Larry Gopnick, a midwestern professor who is faced with divorce, and all the consequences it may bring to his Jewish family. The Coens' latest film has virtually no movie stars, but it doesn't need them. It's a compelling drama (with a lot of funny moments) that explores an everyman's faith and family. It's one of the best films of the year.

1. Fargo

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert attended the same screening of Fargo when it premiered back in 1996. Siskel couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the duration of the film. He famously left his seat in the middle of the screening, found Ebert, and said, "This is why I go to the movies." I don't believe there's a better way to put it. Fargo is, without a doubt, the Coen brothers' best film to date. The Coens lovingly poke fun at their homestate of Minnesota and its residents with a darkly humorous tale of a kidnapping plot gone awry. The desperate, pathetic schemer, Jerry Lundegaard, is played by William H. Macy, and the hilariously inept kidnappers are Steve Buscemi (a weasly neurotic) and Peter Stormare (a brooding sociopath). But the movie really belongs to Coens regular Frances McDormand, who plays the thick-accented and very pregnant policewoman Marge Gunderson. The characters, comedy, and violence come together to form the quintessential Coens masterpiece.

What do you think, folks? The Coens' mother must be an awfully proud woman, right? What are your favorite Coen films? And what did you think of A Serious Man?

October 2009

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October is here! The major festivals are behind us and now we really are in the thick of Oscar season. There are tons of titles out this month (though, sadly, no Shutter Island) that have me on the edge of my seat in anticipation.
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Tomorrow the Coen Brothers have A Serious Man, a film lauded by just about everyone in Toronto. At the very least we'll be looking for an Original Screenplay nomination, possibly more. You never know with those 10 Best Picture slots up for grabs. Drew Barrymore's Whip It, another film that got some love at Toronto, is out tomorrow too. This is one I will definitly be catching, even though I think it's safe to say it won't be getting much Oscar attention.
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I also have some interest in the Ricky Gervais movie The Invention of Lying, and Zombieland, the zombie-comedy starring Woody Harrelson.
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The most exciting release of tomorrow, for me anyway, is the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 double feature in 3D. It's only in theaters for two weeks, so get your tickets while you can!
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Next week will see the limited release of An Education, the film I've been beyond excited about since it stole the hearts of audiences at Sundance back in January. I don't happen to live in an area where limited releases are accessible, so I'll probably be making a four-hour drive to see this movie on opening day. Not kidding.
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The 16th brings Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze's film adaptation of the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak. This is probably the biggest fanboy title apart from Avatar, and will likely draw lots of families to the theater. I'm expecting this to be October's moneymaker.
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Amelia and Antichrist hit theaters on the 23rd. Both have been buzzy projects this year. Amelia hasn't been seen yet, so we don't really know how much of a player it will be this awards season, but I'm hoping Hilary Swank will hit yet another performance out of the park and land her third Academy Award nomination this year. I'm a sucker for a biopic, just like every member of AMPAS. Antichrist will likely be too controversial to garner much acclaim from the largely-conservative Academy, though.
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Lots of contenders to keep an eye on this month! This is the best time of the year to visit the cinemas. What are your must-sees this month, and what are you planning to skip??

Ten Toronto Tidbits

The Toronto International Film Festival - where the Oscar season unofficially starts - has come to a close. This year wasn't really revolutionary. Most of the big hits already had a substantial amount of buzz going in. There were a few great bits to come out of the fest, though. Here are the ten headlines that I'm most excited about.

10. An Education still getting great reviews. Carey Mulligan is the one I'm most excited to see make the rounds this awards season.
9. Drew Barrymore can direct! Whip It debuts to positive reviews and is a commercial success. Not an awards contender, but it proves Barrymore is a fun new talent to watch behind the camera, and Ellen Page is one phenomenal young actress.
8. Chloe is greeted favorably. Amanda Seyfried is touted as an up-and-coming actress who is pleasantly surprising as a call girl hired to tempt a woman's philandering husband.
7. Mother & Child star Annette Bening is getting great reviews for her role as a woman who gave a child up for adoption when she was 14. Ten years after her acclaimed performance in American Beauty lost to Hilary Swank, and five years after her turn as Julia Lambert lost to Swank again, Bening could be up against her if she gets a nomination for Mother & Child and Swank scores a nod for Mira Nair's Amelia. If I were her I'd be packing heat at the Kodak, just in case.
6. Ricky Gervais's The Invention of Lying does well. I will always root for whatever Gervais does. Can someone please book this man to host the Oscars?
5. Up in the Air continues to bowl people over. I've got a good feeling about this one and director Jason Reitman. For some reason they're striking me as the film and director to beat, so far.
4. The Coens' A Serious Man was really the only featival takeoff. Lots of talk of the film being their most personal and best film to date.
3. Tom Ford's A Single Man, which recently won Colin Firth Best Actor in Venice, gets picked up by The Weinstein Company. Currently looking at a December 4th release date, it's looking to be the actor's first big awards vehicle.
2. Precious is not showing any signs of slowing down. It doesn't seem like anyone has a negative thing to say about it. While Mo'Nique drew most of the praise earlier this year at Sundance, it was Gabourey Sidibe stunning Toronto audiences. Both actresses now seem on track for Academy Award nominations next March.
1. Robert Duvall delivers another stunning performance in Get Low. His turn as a Tennessee hermit who throws his own funeral was the talk of the festival. The film hasn't found a distributor yet, but if it does we'll be looking at a Best Actor campaign for Duvall, which I'd love to see.

What were you most excited about in Toronto? What Toronto films are you most excited to catch this year? Any major disappointments?

TIFF: A Serious Man

Hey, remember those kooky Coen brothers? Well, try to hide your shock as I tell you that the buzz from Toronto is that their latest, A Serious Man, is miraculous.

First is Kris Tapley at In Contention, who thinks it is their best film since Fargo, possibly since Barton Fink:

"The film is beautifully abstract, making the impact of its thought-provoking ideas all the more profound. It features a central performance that could seem merely capbale at first notice, but has a certain refined quality the more one considers it. And there is a remarkable rhythm to the film, a reminder of the Coens’ brilliance at orchestration and craft."

IndieWIRE's Anne Thompson chimes in with raves as well:

"This movie is utterly assured, personal, serious, sad and very funny. The Coens are in top form."

The Coens are a sure thing lately. A Serious Man opens October 2, and it's looking to be one you won't want to miss. Surprise, surprise.