5 Coen Films That Feel New in Summer 2020

I like Fargo as much as the next guy, but…

For better or for worse, I’ve rewatched most of the Coen Brothers’ filmography during this pandemic. Some flicks have aged better than others. These are the 5 Coen movies that seem like they could’ve come out in 2020 — and a little trivia about each.

5. No Country for Old Men (2007). I think the mark of a great thriller is whether, after multiple viewings, it’s still… well, thrilling. No Country for Old Men passes that test with flying colors. It’s slick, suspenseful, and satisfying to no end.

Even knowing how the plot will unfold, I am on the edge of my seat every single time I watch it.

It’s a cat-and-mouse saga that pits an ordinary lawman (Josh Brolin) against an extraordinary psychopath (Javier Bardem).

No Country for Old Men accounts for three of the Coens’ four Oscars.

At the 80th Academy Awards, it won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director — not to mention Best Picture, which was even more competitive than usual that year: other nominees that season included Atonement, Michael Clayton, Juno, and There Will Be Blood. Javier Bardem, for his part, won at least two dozen awards for his unnerving portrayal of the cold-blooded antagonist (“Anton Chigurh”). And I challenge you to find any award for “Best Villain” or “Best Supporting Actor” for which Bardem wasn’t nominated in the 2007–08 season.

4. The Big Lebowski (1998). Quite possibly the cultiest cult film in the entire Coen canon, The Big Lebowski has almost certainly touched your life in one of three ways: when you were a kid, your dad was obsessed with it; when you were in college, your boyfriend was obsessed with it; or — at some point — you’ve been obsessed with it.

If you have somehow evaded these three avenues of exposure, perhaps you’ll recognize one of these quotes:

Well, sir, it’s this rug I had. It really tied the room together.

Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

Well, you know, the Dude abides.

Forget it, Donny, you’re out of your element!

Quotes aside, the movie is great. It’s the kind of layered masterpiece that always has a new gem to find. Watch, rewatch, or recommend that bad boy before the Second Wave comes for us.

3. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). In high school, did you ever wonder if The Odyssey might be more fun if it were a musical set in Depression-era Mississippi?

It is — in part because it’s unencumbered by the actual plot of Homer’s epic poem.

According to The Guardian, no one on set had actually read The Odyssey, with one exception: supporting actor Timothy Blake Nelson, who might be better known for his more recent role in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is hysterically funny, and it has one of the best soundtracks of all time. If you can’t get a hold of the movie, just bump that score while you work from home. For me, George Clooney’s rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow” will always rank among the greatest on-screen performances of a folk song.

2. A Serious Man (2009). There is an unwritten rule — so unwritten that I can’t find it on the Internet — that the Oscar for Best Picture is meant to function like a hall pass. If you win Best Picture, then you have the film community’s permission to make the movie you’ve always dreamt of making (even if you don’t think the masses will want to see it).

After The Hurt Locker (2008), Kathryn Bigelow gave us Zero Dark Thirty (2012). After The Departed (2006), Scorsese gave us Shutter Island (2010). Both directors spent their Best Picture coupons on dark, mind-bending thrillers that confront audiences with hard philosophical questions. Both films leave you asking yourself, Is any of this real? Am I living in a dream?

The Coens took a similar approach… kinda.

They followed No Country for Old Men with A Serious Man, which I can only describe as a Jewish-American black comedy folktale…?

How about this: it’s a semi-autobiographical drama about one Midwesterner’s struggle to live an honorable, pious life.

It’s more polarizing than their other work. On IMDb, only three of the Coens’ eighteen films have lower ratings than A Serious Man.

I still recommend it. It’s loaded with surreal dream sequences, and the snappy dialogue rolls out in a style that you can’t really find beyond Planet Coen. It’s not the kind of flick you throw on to entertain your conservative grandparents, but it’s great for a shelter-in-place date night.

1. Miller’s Crossing (1990) has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Coen fans especially love it. Nevertheless, I think it is the most underrated masterpiece of their career.

It has roughly 124,000 votes on IMDb, which tells me that not enough people have seen it.

Consider:

• The Last Airbender (2010) has almost 149,000 votes;
• Scary Movie 2 (2001) has almost 147,000 votes; and,
• Batman & Robin (1997) has almost 230,000 votes (!).

Critics and audiences hated those movies, as evidenced by their low IMDb ratings (the most acclaimed of the three is rated 5.3/10.0) — but at least they watched them. By some terrible accident of history, Miller’s Crossing is more obscure than those flops, even though it marks such an important inflection point in their storied career(s):

It’s the first crime thriller they made in the mold that they would later use for No Country For Old Men, with the possible exception of Blood Simple (1984).

It features some of the best acting I’ve ever seen, and the setting is a great fit for the Coen Brothers’ talents: set in Prohibition-era New York, it beautifully depicts merciless gangster violence without succumbing to the most nauseating tropes of cheesy crime dramas.

In my opinion, Miller’s Crossing is the best Coen Brothers movie. Moreover, I think it’s just as good as any of the ultra-acclaimed period pieces about organized crime (The Godfather, Goodfellas, Oceans 11, The Usual Suspects, etc).