Joel and Ethan Coen are the brother filmmaking duo who have been hailed as some of the best America storytellers of all time. With their versatile stories of unique characters and sharply written dialogue, the Coen Brothers have been behind some true cinematic masterpieces.
Their distinct voice is as well suited for oddball comedies as it is for dark crime dramas. Their talents and reputation have attracted some of the best actors working today and received plenty of acclaim from critics. While their films might not be mainstream, their films have been embraced by audiences and become modern classics. Here are the best Coen Brothers movies, according to IMDb.
The Man Who Wasn’t There (7.5)
The Coens’ sensibilities seem well suited for period stories, such as this odd tale set in the 1940s. Billy Bob Thorton stars as a barber who is a man of few words. After finds out that his wife is having an affair with her boss, he attempts to blackmail the man. Of course, his plan quickly goes awry.
The Man Who Wasn’t There might not have the popularity of some of the Coens’ other movies, it struck a chord with audiences. Beautifully shot in black-and-white, the movie features a sharp, dark sense of humor with Thorton giving a great, understated performance backed by a great supporting cast.
Inside Llewyn Davis (7.5)
Inside Llewyn Davis is another movie looking at an interesting period on American history. Set in New York City in 1961, Oscar Isaac plays a cantankerous folk singer trying to make it as a solo act after his singer partner commits suicide.
The folk soundtrack is sensational and carries the story along wonderfully. Isaac is fantastic as an unlikeable yet entertaining protagonist. His sad-sack pursuit of fame is a series of misadventures mostly brought on by his own rotten attitude.
Blood Simple. (7.6)
The Coen Brother’s made quite an impressive debut with the modern noir tale, Blood Simple. The film follows a man who hires a seedy private eye to find evidence that his wife is having an affair. However, that sets in motion a series of deadly events.
The filmmakers immediately established themselves as masters of establishing tone, creating interesting characters and writing brilliant dialogue. The violent and dark story is the perfect debut for them. It was the film that launched their amazing career.
True Grit (7.6)
The Coen Brothers’ films have often drawn inspiration from the Western genre but True Grit was the first full-blown Western they directed. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld as a young girl who hires renowned and deadly US Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track down the man responsible for killing her father.
Though the John Wayne version of the story is famous in its own right, the Coens successfully outdid the original. Steinfeld is wonderful in a star-making while Bridges is a funny, badass and commanding lawman. The movie itself is a thrilling Western adventure with a fun sense of humor.
Barton Fink (7.7)
The Coen Brothers are never afraid of telling offbeat and strange stories, but even those films have been met with acclaim from audiences. Barton Fink stars Coen Brothers’ regular John Turturro as a playwright who is given the chance to become a Hollywood screenwriter which proves to be a miserable experience.
The smaller-scale story is no less entertaining as Turturro gives a wonderful neurotic performance while John Goodman is hilariously unsettling as an odd traveling salesman. It is a surreal, funny and inventive Hollywood tale.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (7.7)
As serious and dark as the Coen Brothers’’ movies can be, when they embrace their comedic side, the results are often laugh-out-loud funny. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a strange odyssey set in the Depression-era South about a trio of runaway convicts in search of a buried treasure.
George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson star as the outlaws and they make for a wonderfully mismatched team. Their misadventures are outrageous and entertaining as are the strange characters they meet in their journey which is inspired by Homer’s Odyssey.
Miller’s Crossing (7.8)
Once again, the Coens were able to show off their versatility and play with another beloved Hollywood genre with this excellent gangster film. As a deadly rivalry between the Irish mob and Italian mob escalates, a member of the Irish mob finds himself caught in the middle and forced to pick a side.
The movie is yet another stylish period piece and the filmmakers clearly enjoy playing with the conventions of the genre. The performances are rich and funny while there are some beautiful sequences of gangster action.
Fargo (8.1)
Fargo seemed to be the movie that proved the Coen Brothers’ weird sense of humor could catch on with mainstream audiences. The darkly funny crime saga follows a pathetic and desperate car salesman who has his own wife kidnapped for a ransom scheme.
The movie was a surprise hit and award winner with Frances McDormand’s performance as a pregnant police officer getting huge praise. The writing is brilliantly heightened yet feels so authentic. The friendly Minnesota people were perfectly contrasted with the bloody violence of the film.
The Big Lebowski (8.1)
The Big Lebowski was another oddball comedy from the Coen Brothers and has been hailed as one of the funniest movies of all time. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeffrey Lebowski aka The Dude, a lazy stoner who, after a case of mistaken identity, is pulled into a strange kidnapping conspiracy.
The movie is styled like an old detective story if the detective was a useless and uninterested pothead. Bridges is hilarious as is the strong supporting cast including John Goodman as The Dude’s rage-filled friend and John Turturro as a perverted bowler.
No Country For Old Men (8.1)
If The Big Lebowski is the Coen Brothers’ greatest comedy, No Country for Old Men is their greatest drama. Their versatility really shows with the contrast between the two films as this is a dark, violent crime story about a man who finds a suitcase filled with money which sets off a wave of violence.
The movie is beautifully and hauntingly shot with the neo-Western feel fitting perfectly for the film. The tension throughout the movie is almost unbearable with brutal and brilliant scenes of violence. Also, Javier Bardem’s unrelenting killer, Anton Chigurh, is one of the best cinematic villains of all time.
