Fargo (1996)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
DOP: Roger Deakins
Cast: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi 

Jerry Lundegaard's (William H. Macy) inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's constant bungling and persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand).

I consider myself to be part of what I call 'outsourced subprime crisis generation'. Meaning that we got a lot of free time due to the fact that we graduated in 2008. This helped us in getting a chance to take a thorough look into the wide world of foreign language cinema. This and the perfect timing of BSNL Broadband (jeez that 2-8AM unlimited download plan!) taking off in a big way around that period. The rite of passage quite often involved starting off with IMDB's top 250 list. You'll learn with experience that IMDB is a crock of shit (stupidity of masses) but that top 250 list was always a good place to start. That is how I remember stumbling on to Fargo and the filmography of Coen Brothers' who are either second or third in my list of favourite directors, depending on my mood, along with Michael Haneke.

Their filmography have been quite amazing from the get go but it was Fargo's success that brought them their limelight. It won them best director award at Cannes and an academy award for best original screenplay. Film is famous for its cold Minnesota setting and very distinctive accent (Yah, you betcha!). Stunning cinematography from Roger Deakins is a given and the excellent BGM was something that I caught on to on rewatch. Events that happen in the film are quite horrific but is depicted in a comedic folksy manner. It is based on a true event but the characterisation is fictional. So you have quite contradicting disclaimers when you go from opening credits to closing credits. Performances from the cast is excellent and the film has spawned a TV series and the Japanese film  Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter.

If I were to rank Coen Bros films that I've watched, it would go something like this:

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Blood Simple
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Fargo
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. O brother, where art thou?
6. Raising Arizona
7. Miller's Crossing
8. Hudsucker Proxy
9. True Grit
10. Burn After Reading
11. Barton Fink
12. Intolerable Cruelty

Rating: 5/5

Burn After Reading (2008)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers:   Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast:        Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich

A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempts to sell it, first to the CIA agent and then to Russians. 

Coming immediately after the universally acclaimed 'No Country For Old Men', Burn After Reading kind of received a critical backlash at the time of its release which was more of a reaction based on what people expected from the film rather than an objective assessment based on its merits. It is not a great film by any means but is nevertheless a very good watch with so many funny moments. We are used to sophisticated intelligence community films and also films where they are shown as bumbling fools. This kind of treads the middle path with those from CIA trying to get their heads around what is happening which is very much like how the audience is also reacting even though we are privy to more information. 

It is as star-studded as it can get in a Coens film. Performances are very good with many of them playing against type. It is one of those films with plenty of chance encounters connecting all the various characters and driving the film forward. But one does feel the connection between Frances McDormand and George Clooeny's character is a bit too convoluted and unnecessary in the large scheme of things. It was interesting to see some of the actors from Veep showing up in the film. I had seen it several years back close to  its release and was pleasantly surprised by it because of low expectations. It held up well on re-watch and is an underrated gem in the Coens' filmography. Camera was handled by Emmanuel Lubezki rather than their usual collaborator Roger Deakins.

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                       

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Director: Joel Coen
Writers:  Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast:       George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton

A revenge-seeking gold digger (Catherine Zeta-Jones) marries a womanizing Beverley Hills lawyer (George Clooney) with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.

It is the first film from Coens that is not set in a period of sorts. Even Big Lebowski was set in 1990 making it not exactly a contemporary set film on its release year 1998. Since Intolerable Cruelty, they have made Burn After Reading, an underrated film of theirs, which was also set in contemporary times. This aspect certainly gives it a different feel, at least initially, to the film when compared to typical Coens film and another novelty was that it was not an original screenplay from them. Film is not looked favorably now even though upon its release it was very well received by the critics. After watching this, it makes 'The Ladykillers' to be the only film from Coens that I have not watched and am not planning to watch that anyway.

It is a pretty good watch overall even though it is not up to their usual standards. George Clooney's role and the story arc is very similar to his character in the film 'Up In The Air' which came much later. There are enough laughs in it till the midway mark and by then you figure out where it is going. Still, the way it gets there is a bit surprising, without going all melodramatic on us, and the killer at the house scene is hilarious. It goes more and more slapstick as it goes on and you could see a bit of 'O Brother' creeping into George Clooney. Film is essentially about cynicism behind pre-nup agreements and I think it should be made mandatory for all marriages so that people don't have to be guilty about demanding it. Guess rationalism is not something you associate with the institution of marriage.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                       

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers:    Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Homer (poem Odyssey)
Cast:         George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson

In the deep south during the 1930s. three escaped convicts search for a hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. 

O Brother is an overlooked film by many when they talk about Coen brothers' filmography and the period after Big Lebowski from 1998 up to release of No Country for Old Men in 2007 is often considered as a lean period for them. Apart from O Brother, they made The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers during that period out of which I haven't seen the latter two making them the only Coens films that I haven't seen yet. I saw O Brother some four or so years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. The print that I saw was a shitty one which didn't do justice to the Sepia-toned cinematography done by Roger Deakins and it was quite appropriate for me to revisit it in 720p.  It was the first film to extensively use digital color correction giving it, what fuckwits calls these days, an instagrammed look. 

The less than intellectual characters headed by rationalist played by George Clooney, who is a Dapper Dan man,  is at the center of it and I found them very funny. The level of enjoyments you get out of the film will very much depend on whether you buy George Clooney in his role and I didn't have any problems with it. There is a Forrest Gump feel to the whole thing with it touching upon features of the era it is set in like KKK, depression era politics, radio broadcasts, commercialization of music etc. It is really a charming film and the comedy is not as dark as they are in a typical Coens film. 

Film was quite successful at box office but its soundtrack was a blockbuster spawning a documentary and three follow-up albums. Noted musician and producer T-Bone Burnett, who is familiar for me from his work in True Detective, worked with Coens during the production stage itself. Even though George Clooney practiced his singing for the film, his part was dubbed over using the voice of Dan Tyminski. 

Overall it is great watch and might be up the ale of even those who are not quite fond of Coens. For me, they are in my top five three directors of all time and even possibly by most favorite period. They have tried out almost all the genres out there creating what can be described as classics in those and their broadness in range can be summed up by pointing out that they were behind 'The Big Lebowski' and 'No Country For Old Men'. 

Rating: 4/5

                                                                       

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers:    Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast:         Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Turturro

'The Dude' Lebowski, get his rug soiled by couple of shakedown guys who mistakes him for a millionaire Lebowski. Seeking restitution for his ruined rug, which really tied the room together, Dude enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. Things escalates quickly as he is hired by the millionaire to execute a ransom pay-off involving the kidnapping of his trophy wife. Well this is a very complicated case guys, you know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head.

Its been a while since I last watched it, at the least three years based on my previous post on the film, and I guess this is my fourth or fifth watch of this Coens masterpiece. I really didn't sense the time gap since most of the famous lines in it are referenced so frequently in places I visit on internet. If one asks you to name a favorite film that you can watch any number of times, most probably you will pick a comedy film. So for me those are Pulp Fiction and Big Lebowski and some other Malayalam comedy classics (Nadodikattu, Ramji Rao Speaking, In Harihar Nagar, Sandesham). Based on interviews that I have seen of actors talking about their work with Coens, they go into a film with a concrete script which doesn't undergo much/any change during filming. And Big Lebowski's script is one which is so brilliant that a plain reading of it will be hilarious in itself. This is true for all comedy classics like Seinfeld, This is Spinal Tap etc. The Dude says 'man' 147 times in the film and all of it were scripted. He is also in every scene of the movie, a film-noir convention, and you can really describe it as a film-noir genre bender. 

It is interesting to compare Big Lebwoski with the recent Paul Thomas Anderson film, Inherent Vice. Both of them are stoner films with complicated neo-noir plots. While in the former you can very well understand what happened even though that is not essentially the point of the film. In Inherent Vice, PT Anderson takes it to the extremes by making the plot impossible to follow and some have been put off by that. I consider it more as a failure in understanding what the film is about and Anderson himself might be partly to blame for making a really misleading trailer for it. Anyway, his films are meant to be watched multiple times to fully get them and since I was aware about the point I noted above going into it, I could really enjoy it the first time itself. A word of advise for those who are planning to watch it, the mood should be as if you're watching Big Lebwoski even though the humor is of a very different kind. It also aims to take you more into the mind of a stoner than Big Lebowski which is more about us making us want to lead Dude's lifestyle, without any care in the world.

Dude and Walter Sobchak are certainly among my all time favorite characters but the film is littered with other brilliant but brief characters. I really feel sorry for Donnie, a very against the type role for Buscemi, who is much abused by Walter and ends up dead after having an heart-attack. To make matter worse, he also ends up getting his ashes blown in the wrong direction after a very heart-felt but hilarious eulogy. This time round I spotted that it was David Thewlis who is playing Knox Harrington, the video artist at Maude's. One can talk endless about Dude, the other characters, lines, the Big Lebowski festival, Dudeism etc, but fuck it dude, lets go bowling...

Rating: 5/5

                                                                       

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Director: Joel Coen
Writers:  Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Sam Raimi
Cast:       Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh

A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.

Hudsucker Proxy was Coen Borthers' first big budget film with it costing around $40 million including the marketing budget. It was a box office disaster grossing just over $2 million. It is a screwball comedy whose script was ready before 'Blood Simple' was even made. It is set in late 1950s New-York and contains references to many old films like Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'. It also reminded me of Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil'. I had seen it some four years back and loved it. This time also I enjoyed it even though it is not consistently great. But the high points  of the film like the kid with the Hula Hoop scene and the climax fall scene are outrageously hilarious. Your enjoyment of the film will depend a lot on your reactions to the performances especially that of Jennifer Jason Leigh. Am neutral about her in the film. 

It is a great watch, especially for Coens fans.

Rating: 4/5

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers:  Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast:      Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake

A week in the life of a struggling young folk singer as he tries to make it in the music scene, sleeping in his acquaintance's couches who generally doesn't like him. 

The great thing about the film is that protagonist is portrayed as a bit of a jerk who the audience shouldn't be rooting for but still end up wanting him to make it. But the loser stays as a loser and there is no happy Hollywood ending. One could say this is precisely why it didn't find any love when it came to academy awards nominations. The final scene has Llewyn exiting the pub making way for a young Bob Dylan.  Another great one from Coens who are on a roll since 'No Country For Old Men'. I even liked 'Burn After Reading'.

They initially looked for singers who can act since they wanted to shoot the songs with them sung live. They were unsuccessful and finally decided to go for actors who can sing and ended their search with Oscar Issac who does a very good job.

Rating: 4.5/5

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Director: Joel Coen
Writers:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast:      Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro, Marcia Gay Harden, John Polito

Tom Regan (Gabriel Byrne), an adviser to a prohibition-era crime boss, is trying to keep peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties.

I had seen it a few years back and was watching it again as part of my plan to go through the Coens filmography again. I didn't love it on first watch and the plot being very complicated could be one reason. This time round I loved it. It is their third film and after making a noir and a comedy, this time they jump to the gangster genre. As always they do genre-bender job out of it which is always great. Tom is an ice-cool character who is always calculating what is in it for him. But still it is really a love story and by the end both of them do kind of self destruction. There are several great scenes and dialog set-pieces.

Whats the rumpus? Its all about the angles...

Rating: 5/5

Blood Simple. (1984)

Director: Joel Coen
Writers:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast:      John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh

A rich but jealous man hires a private investigator to kill his cheating wife and her new man. But, when blood is involved, nothing is simple.

Debut film from Coen Brothers and it is one of their best. Rewatched it after a long time. 

Rating: 5/5