The Coen brothers' movies, ranked
Cinema has a shorthand, which comes from an earned reputation at being beyond proficient at portraying some semblance of the human condition on celluloid. Like any art effort, some people focus on realism, some on abstraction, and others are absurd or surrealists.
The Coen brothers, however, have found the connective filmmaking tissue that intertwines all these ideas and have consistently explored the fact that being human is absurd, surreal, realistic, and abstract all at once. We aren't the stoic and rational creatures we posture as, not as much as we are a mess. So, the Coens have, in turn, become shorthand for making fantastic films. "Want to go to the movies?", "Sure, what's playing?", "New Coen brothers film"; it's shorthand for a great night out. Forget the fact that they came up making films with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, which must have informed their sense of storytelling in an indelible way. The Coens are true American classics, indefinable and incomparable. Here is our ranking of the Coen brothers films from the fine to fantastic.
17. The Ladykillers (2004)
This remake of the 1955 Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers film finds Tom Hanks, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst and Marlon Wayans hatching a scheme to rob a casino. Part of the plan is to rent a room from Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) and utilize her root cellar in their plot. Things do not go to plan and murder becomes part of the stratagem, but even that is harder than it looks.
This film is… fine, but it falls short of the Coen brothers' uncanny brilliance and focus. Perhaps being limited by the constraints of a remake does not play well to their strengths? Ladykillers is by no means a bad film, but in comparison to the rest of this list, it leaves the viewer wanting much more.
16. Blood Simple (1984)
Misunderstandings are the basis of many Coen brothers films; they're practically the main character and certainly a muse. The duo's feature film debut Blood Simple features great performances from Dan Hedaya, Frances McDormand, John Getz and M. Emmet Walsh in this story of betrayal, confusion, and double dealing. When a disliked bar owner catches his wife cheating on him with a bartender, of course foul play is the next step.
However, things get cattywampus in the process and nothing goes down like it's supposed to. The muse is on full display in this crime noir, and the Coen brothers would use a lot of what they learned on this film to better effect later in their career. Consider this first outing a mission statement by burgeoning auters.
15. Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
George Clooney is a powerful divorce lawyer in Beverly Hills who is hired by a philandering Edward Herrmann to cheat his wife Marilyn (Catherine Zeta-Jones) out of what she's owed in the divorce. Clooney's character Miles is very good at his job, and Marilyn ends up getting nothing in the settlement. However, revenge is a dish best served cold with, as the title suggests, an intolerable cruelty. In this case, sexual tension builds with underhanded tactics and deception as a battle of the sexes plays out.
Enticing premise aside, films can sometimes become watered-down versions of their true selves in an effort to reach a wider audience, which seems to be the case here. While trying to make a darker, perhaps updated Sabrina or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the Coens fall a bit flat with Intolerable Cruelty, which, while a decent effort, seems a bit out of their territory.
14. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
A green businessman is installed as the head of a manufacturing company in a stock scheme in this satire of Frank Capra and late-stage capitalism. Tim Robbins' naïve businessman Norville Barnes has the best of intentions, but no actual business acumen to speak of. In a different movie (or real life), he would fail upwards, but here, Jennifer Jason Leigh, as fast-talking investigative reporter Amy Archer, has the goods on Norville and can smell the rat that is Paul Newman's character, Sidney J. Mussburger.
Despite the stellar cast, however, The Hudsucker Proxy feels rushed. It's got some great concepts and a fun story, but the Coens, for one, don't seem to do much with the legendary Newman. The film is a big parody of a bygone era of Hollywood but is saddled with the issue that it's a bit overstuffed.
13. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
It's hard to separate the fictional Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), from Simon and Garfunkel. Clearly, Davis is an amalgamation of several characters from the Greenwich Village folk music scene of the early 1960s, but his unfortunate split in the film with his writing partner who performed with him as Timlin and Davis complicates things. This week in the life of a struggling artist who can't seem to get out of his own way in trying to make it, starts to learn that he may be his own worst enemy.
Isaac plays Davis as a couch-surfing, unlikable, self-loathing jerk. Perhaps the intention was to make a smaller film, but while Inside Llewlyn Davis is a masterful recreation of New York's folk scene, its main character leaves a lot to be desired in the charm department.
12. A Serious Man (2009)
An underseen, underrated Coen brothers film, A Serious Man centers on Larry Gopnick (Michael Stuhlbarg), a very put upon Midwestern physics teacher in 1967. Nothing goes right for him and his life seems to be getting worse by the minute. His daughter (Jessica McManus) is stealing money from him for a nose-job, his pot-head son gets stoned at his own bar mitzvah, his wife wants a divorce and is moving the new beau into the house so Larry has to go, someone is anonymously sending poison pen letters to his tenure committee, and on top of all that, he's having a land feud with his neighbor — it's a lot to digest.
Larry looks to his Jewish faith for answers, but he only seems to get the runaround from the rabbis, who speak to him in platitudes instead of nuance and compassion. But God works in mysterious and sometimes very strange ways. Serious Man is a sleeper that surprises in its twists and turns. It feels like a smaller production made by different filmmakers, until the story begins to spiral out of control. With the introduction of chaos, the Coen brothers' presence is very apparent.
11. Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a "fixer" in 1950s Hollywood. His job is to ensure the stars stay in the sky, with their name in lights, above suspicion of any wrongdoing. However, when he's tasked with finding Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), he gets more than he bargained for. It's a star-studded affair that is at once a satire of late '40s and early '50s Hollywood and a mystery worth trying to solve.
Hail, Caesar! leans in on Hollywood lore, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, for those in the know, the in-jokes and references are a delightful surprise in this ode to the classic studio era.
10. True Grit (2010)
Jeff Bridges takes on the role of Rooster Cogburn in this remake of the 1969 Western classic. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a stubborn and determined teenager who is out to track down her father's killer, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She needs to hire a man with "true grit" to get this job done and Cogburn seems like the man to fit the bill.
Joining them on this journey is LeBouef (Matt Damon), who wants Chaney for his own purposes. While not every remake on this list hits its mark, True Grit is elevated by amazing performances from the whole cast as all the unique elements of the Coens' craft seem to fall into place.
9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
Tom Waits is in Buster Scruggs and for some, that's enough reason to tune in. However, there's a formidable cast of characters (played by Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Tim Blake Nelson, and Zoe Kazan among others) running through these six vignettes of life and violence in the American West. All the characters are united by death and their time and place in the world, and each tale provides a compelling perspective on that very scenario. The vignette-style storytelling gives the audience bite-sized shorts in trademark Coen brothers fashion, and it really works to build an overall highly satisfying film.
8. Burn After Reading (2008)
Hot buns, money, and a healthy heaping of sexual conquest are the subjects du jour in the dark comedy Burn After Reading. A clueless FBI spook (John Malkovich), mimbo (Brad Pitt), a sex crazed George Clooney, and a love-lorn Richard Jenkins, pining for Frances McDormand and a viperous Tilda Swinton, maneuver this looney spy mystery that may not be a mystery and might not contain any spies. Again, misunderstandings abound, and the main crux of the story is, what just happened?
Burn unleashes silly chaos from beginning to end with great performances, particularly from Malkovich as an unhinged man with delusions of grandeur. The entire cast, though, chews up scenery and spits out fire performances that make this film one of the Coens' more enjoyable cinematic experiences.
7. Barton Fink (1991)
One would think the devil would be nicer, especially in Hollywood. In Barton Fink, John Turturro plays the eponymous, promising New York playwright who wants to make the jump to screenwriting, so when he gets an offers to write scripts in LA, he makes his move during one of the hottest summers on record. As he maneuvers the movie-making system in his new city, he starts to realize that behind the glitz and glamor lies a layer of dirt within.
Along with a stirring turn from Turturro, John Goodman gives an epic performance as insurance salesman and next-door neighbor Charlie Meadows in this movie where things are never quite what they seem. Barton Fink is an experience in noir, mystery, and dark comedy. The fact that it's essentially a Faustian bargain disguised as a small fish-in-a-big pond scenario adds to its captivating nature. But seriously, this film may contain Goodman's best performance, ever.
6. Miller's Crossing (1990)
Gabriel Byrne plays Tom Reagan, the right-hand man to Albert Finney's mob boss, Leo, in this beloved crime thriller. Byrne is trying to keep the peace between warring mobs but finds himself stuck between several unforgiving and deadly parties. This stylized "genre" film is an amalgamation of several gangster movies, with black humor and extreme violence making it one of the more intriguing additions to this list.
Miller's Crossing is often found — deservedly — at the top of many critics' best films list, so its spot on EW's may not seem too controversial. Frankly, though, none of the Coen brothers' films are bad. Some just suffer from too much of one thing and not enough of the other. Balance is key to the Coens and this particular movie, while brilliant, gets a little wobbly as it has almost too much going on.
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000)
Homer has never been better than in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers' reimagining of The Odyssey as early Americana in the depression-era dust bowl. If that sounds kind of confounding, well, it is. However, the story is a fun adventure that follows the exploits of three men (Coen regulars George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro) trying to get home. They encounter a cycloptic John Goodman, a siren baptism, George "Baby Face" Nelson, Tommy Johnson, a stand-in for Robert Johnson, and the Klan on their journey home.
A loose interpretation leaves room for different opinions, but once one knows this movie is based on Homer's tale, it's hard not to see all the tendril-like connections to the epic story. What a fun ride it is to reinterpret monsters and sirens in the early 20th century South as very human obstacles, which makes O Brother an easy rewatch every time it's on — if at least to see what other references were missed before.
4. Fargo (1996)
The plotline for the multi-Oscar-winning dark comedy Fargo is centered on easy money but it comes at the expense of, well, everything. Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) thinks he has the perfect plan to make a fast buck, but every calculation he makes is wrong. This all turns out in tears for everyone except the very pregnant police officer, Marge Gundersun — played with aplomb by Frances McDormand — who is investigating the kidnapping shenanigans initiated by Lundegaard. It's a classic Coen brothers outing that redefined mysteries and gave Minnesota accents a boost.
There's a rumor that Fargo inspired a girl from Japan to come to the States looking for the "lost funds" from the film, where she ended up dying from exposure to the elements. It's an urban legend, but one that lends credence to the power of the performances in this film. For instance, as Gaear Grimsrud, one of the kidnappers involved in Lundegaard's plan, Peter Stormare does more with a sneer than any one character could do with an explanation. He's simply brilliant and helps to catapult this film to the upper echelon of this list.
3. The Big Lebowski (1998)
Lebowski (aka The Dude, effortlessly played by Jeff Bridges) didn't sign up to be the star in this L.A. noire, man; he's just, like, stuck here trying to find a new rug. There's the basic pitch for Coen brothers fan favorite The Big Lebowski, in which the namesake stoner/bowler gets mistaken for a rich guy with the same name and the world gets a little wilder because of it.
Since its release nearly a quarter-century ago, the movie — which features a stellar supporting cast including John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Sam Elliott, and Julianne Moore — has become a pop culture phenomenon that inspires Halloween costumes and has its own festival, which is not bad for a story about a guy trying to get his rug back. The Big Lebowski is, in essence, the Coen brothers' Divine Comedy. The intertwining characters and their bizarre arcs and behavior is Hitchcockian in nature and stands as one of their best celluloid offerings.
There was an unofficial 2019 sequel, The Jesus Rolls, written, starring, and directed by Turturro who reprises his role as Jesus Quintana. Though the Coens have no connection to the film, they did allow Turturro to use the character and interpret Jesus in his own, unique way.
2. No Country for Old Men (2007)
Every bullet in this neo-Western crime drama has a purpose. An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, No Country For Old Men offers a colorless look at drugs and murder on the border. It's stark and a bit nasty in places, but that's what makes it a masterpiece of celluloid. For one, the film features one of the most memorable villains in recent history in Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh, a bowl cut-sporting psychopath with an air gun, who gives most people a chance to survive having met him… most.
Meanwhile, as Llewelyn Moss, a hapless hunter who encounters the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, succumbs to greed, and becomes Chigurh's target as a result, Josh Brolin does a convincing job of making us think he just may make it out of his situation intact and breathing, while Tommy Lee Jones brings his patented grizzled charm to playing an aging, jaded small-town sheriff. However, it's Kelly Macdonald's Carla Jean Moss who surprises us the most with her steadfast hard-headedness in the film's unsettling final act. No Country's brilliant direction and performances across the board make this movie an easy number two on this list.
1. Raising Arizona (1987)
Babies are complicated. Raising children in the yin and yang homestead of criminal H.I. "Hi" McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) and his police officer wife Ed (Holly Hunter) gets even more complicated because they stole the child in question. Raising Arizona is a fairy tale that points out that no good guy is ever all good, and the bad guys are just flawed characters who were raised wrong.
The Coen brothers have a knack for dark comedy and nothing on this list has the comedic timing, sight gags, and storytelling prowess of this film. Even the soundtrack is intriguing and clues us into things happening in the background and periphery. In the end, everything turns out for the best, or at least that's what we hope as the sun sets quietly in the West in what's essentially the Coens' most rewarding film.
