Coen Brothers Films Ranked
3. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Broke, depressed and with his burgeoning musical career going nowhere, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) makes his slow journey to Chicago after losing his musical partner and growing apart from his friends.
You can spot pointed references to most of the Coens’ previous work throughout Inside Llewyn Davis. That’s what this film is ultimately about – not just following a struggling musician failing at life, but also the Coen Brothers self-examining how far they’ve come stylistically, how they’ve matured, even if they still refuse to give definitive answers in their films.
The soundtrack, meticulously constructed by regular Coen collaborator T-Bone Burnett, and mostly intoned and strummed by the ludicrously talented Isaac, is a real humdinger. Burnett’s songs semi-parody the self-imposed misery and occasional cheesiness of stereotypical folk music.
Capturing the Coen world in glum beauty is cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. Delbonnel’s aesthetic is appropriately bleak for Llewyn’s going-nowhere story, framing the desolate highways and unforgiving, bitterly cold city streets as imposing tableaus offering no comfort to our protagonist, and no hope of anything better.
Recommended for you: 100 Greatest Films of the 2010s
2. No Country for Old Men (2007)
Based on Cormac McCarthy’s neo-western novel, we follow Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) as he flees relentless hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), sent to retrieve the money he found in the bloody aftermath of a deal gone wrong in the desert.
Nobody else creates bleak mediations on existence or bittersweet morality tales quite like the Coens at the top of their game, and that goes double when they’re adapting the work of another master of their art form. DP Roger Deakins’ peerless desert tableaus make these characters seem insignificant and their fight to survive insurmountable. Deakins is obsessed by small details, a trait shared with the novella’s author Cormac McCarthy, who can happily spend two pages describing someone’s boots. Just look at how often characters are introduced by their identifying objects, whether it’s distinctive clothing, a weapon, or a vice in their life. The camera catches telling little details, things you’re going to have to pay attention to if you’re going to read every nuance in this rich tapestry.
Josh Brolin’s first collaboration with the Coen Brothers sees his beleaguered character really put through the wringer, his performance still being as subtle as Bardem’s is showy. The latter creates one of the most chilling movie killers in recent memory, a man who takes perverse pleasure in tormenting his soon-to-be-victims and seems almost supernaturally relentless in a grounded and cruel real world.
1. Fargo (1996)
Fraudulent car salesman Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to fake the kidnapping of his wife so they can split the ransom money, but things go south with the deaths of several people in the wrong place at the wrong time. This forces the heavily pregnant Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) to investigate.
Fargo not only incorporates many elements of the True Crime genre but hijacks that label of authenticity to tell its own story that is 100% fabricated but completely feasible in a world where what actually happens is often so bizarre it seems like it has been made up. It also feels like one of the Coens’ most personal projects because it is based so definitively in the culture and speech patterns of a wintery Minnesota.
Frances McDormand’s Oscar-winning performance as Marge is a standout, a lighthouse in a storm. Her character is the only decent, intelligent and competent figure among all the morally bankrupt charlatans and dangerously stupid killers and sadists. William H. Macy’s Jerry and his unrepentant greed is far more despicable than Buscemi and Stormare’s clumsy hired guns, but luckily for the citizens of Fargo none of them are bright enough to do lasting damage to anyone but themselves.
A lot of horrible things happen in Fargo, but they’re often really funny as well. This is the Coens perfecting their alchemy of combining the dark and twisted with the silly and slapstick. In short, it’s humanity writ large: we’re all capable of great depravity but can be incredibly stupid in going about it.
Recommended for you: More “Ranked” Lists from The Film Magazine
Since 2018, the brothers have perused separate projects with Joel helming The Tragedy of Macbeth and Ethan co-helming Drive-Away Dolls with his wife Trisha Cooke. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of their collaborations, but they’ve had one hell of a satisfying run even if we have.
Do you agree with our list or are we way off the mark? Are you the world’s biggest Ladykillers remake stan or are you allergic to The Big Lebowski? Let us know in the comments and find @thefilmagazine on social media – including Facebook and X (Twitter) – for many more insightful movie lists.
