Every Coen Brothers Movie Ranked

Every Coen Brothers Movie Ranked from Worst to Best

      As anyone who has listened to the podcast can tell you, I am a longtime fan of the directing duo Joel and Ethan Coen. It is the opinion of this reviewer that the Coens have released some of the finest motion pictures ever committed to the silver screen. Because I've been too busy with moving this week to watch a movie for the blog and recently closed out their filmography, then, I've decided to instead give you what you've all been waiting for(?) and rank their each and every film from worst to best for your reading pleasure! 



#18) Barton Fink

     We begin with the only Coen brothers movie about which I truly have nothing positive to say. While their dramas tend to be relatively straightforward in their execution, Coen brothers movies that lean more comedic tend to navigate an exceedingly delicate balance among sometimes contradictory forces of drama, pathos, and surrealism or what you might call quirk, and it's primarily that last category that is the undoing of Barton Fink for me. Although nominally about a playwright struggling to produce a script for a wrestling movie, the movie's bizarre, borderline incoherent plot quickly unfurls (or perhaps unravels) to include serial killers, hints of the supernatural, and a relentless onslaught of non sequiturs, unexplained/inexplicable moments of surreality, and ludicrous characters.
     The problem with movies like I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Under the Skin, and Barton Fink is that the possibility of anything happening at any time without the slightest explanation means, for me, that there is simply no reason to care about anything that happens. All these movies batter the viewer into a kind of dazed stupor with a cavalcade of seemingly unrelated and nonsensical scenes with nary a single reason to get invested in the madness. What will end up happening to Barton Fink, the movie asks? Could be literally anything, given the movie's tenuous relationship with reality, and for my money that's a reason to disengage, not lean in. 



#17) The Ladykillers

     If I can't think of a single positive thing to say about Barton Fink then The Ladykillers is the Coen brothers movie about which I struggle to think of anything to say period. Remaking a film from the 1950s, The Ladykillers follows a disparate group of characters, each apportioned a double helping of Coen Brothers Quirk, as they attempt to pull off a casino heist from the cellar of a God-fearing elderly woman oblivious to the true intentions of her boarder and his companions.
     The Ladykillers has a few laughs, and some undeniable glimmers of the Coens' charm, but it's all too often obscured by an unfocused script and Tom Hanks in a role that, I'm sorry to say, he was tragically miscast for. We're already leagues above the subterranean level of quality bringing up the rear, but almost equally at a distance from the heights of greatness our list will reach.  

#16) Blood Simple

     Now I'm well aware that Blood Simple being this low on the list is not the usual placement the Coens' first film enjoys. This noir-ish movie about murder, attempted and completed, is often considered one of the better directorial debuts of modern cinema, but to me it's always felt a bit like an uneven test run of the Coens' style.
     The characters are more strange than quirky, and that especially applies to the decisions they make. I can't go into details without spoiling things, but a huge portion of the movie's plot is based on a single, wild leap of logic that has been the foil of my enjoyment of this movie ever since I first saw it.
     That doesn't mean there's nothing to like in Blood Simple; there's an early performance by the always enjoyable Frances McDormand, the first of many Coen brothers' aloof, mysterious hitmen, and some undeniably fantastic camerawork (including the film's most famous shot, pictured above). Still, though we continue to breeze upwards in quality, I probably wouldn't give this movie higher than a C+. 



#15) Burn After Reading

     Ah, Burn After Reading, I've tried to love you, but the truth is you're just pretty decent and that's it. This genre smoothie of spy thrillers, comedies, dramas, and romances introduces to our list the first pure example of one of the Coens' most enduring and enduringly potent conceits: that of normal, 9-5 Joe Nobody characters trying to get out of a slump in their lives by making a single bad decision that rapidly escalates out of their control, leading to an ending almost reminiscent of late 1700s American literature where the consequences of sinful actions inevitably extract their terrible price (Blood Simple is, again, a rough draft of this kind of premise, but it's not as clean cut an example as Burn After Reading). 
     There's something undeniably impactful about this formula, which is what lends Burn After Reading most of its staying power, in my mind. Misplaced CIA intelligence leads to bungling attempted blackmail, international intrigue, and, of course, murder, and it all has an ironic tragedy to it thanks to the Coens' aforementioned everyman characters, but I'd be lying if I said this was the most impactful rendition of that formula. 
     Burn After Reading suffers chiefly from a surfeit of characters that the script often struggles to balance and integrate. Very often their respective storylines and arcs seem to be progressing independently of each other, with only occasional detours to awkwardly stitch the disparate threads together. It's funny, affecting at times, and lovely to look at, but it fails to coalesce into something more than just . . . pretty decent.



#14) Intolerable Cruelty

     
     Intolerable Cruelty tells the story of a cynical divorce lawyer who finds love in one of his clients' estranged wives. This is a pretty straightforward romantic comedy, which is probably why the relatively few moments where the script leans into that curiously Coens-y surrealism feel so out of place and ultimately land the movie on the Southern half of the list. 
     There's actually a quite sweet, lovely movie here about characters overcoming pessimism and callousness that's genuinely moving when it shines through, some jokes that really landed for me, and a predictably charismatic performance from leading man George Clooney. Honestly, the fact that a solid B- movie is this low on the list is testament to the Coens' talents, and it really is that pesky minus that trips the movie up. 
     That minus represents a rushed conclusion, the aforementioned imbalance of peculiarity and sincere romance, and some broader pacing issues in the second half of the movie, but these issues are, if not canceled out, at least mitigated by the things Intolerable Cruelty gets right. 



#13) The Man Who Wasn't There

     The Man Who Wasn't There is another classic Coens genre blend of dark comedy, crime, and film noir about a normal but frustrated person who makes (and pays for) a poorly thought out poor choice. It's shot beautifully by longtime Coens collaborator and best cinematographer of all time Roger Deakins.
     This quiet, melancholy film is more of an intellectually satisfying movie than a deeply moving one. Billy Bob Thornton ably plays a dissatisfied barber going through the motions in a life he no longer recognizes. The movie deftly plays on themes of alienation, from one's work, from one's family, even from oneself. This makes for a powerful first-watch experience and plenty to think about afterwards, but it has the side effect of making the movie lose some of its potency on rewatch. 
     Still, the technical accomplishments, great performances, and thematic richness can't be denied, and I'd encourage any casual Coens fan who hasn't gotten around to this lesser known piece of their filmography to give it a try.



#12) The Hudsucker Proxy

     The Hudsucker Proxy is a screwball comedy with a delightfully exaggerated sensibility. It didn't exactly hit with critics, but when I watched it for the first time recently I found it an undemanding, breezy good time with some genuine laughs and a sweet heart.
     For those who don't know, The Hudsucker Proxy tells a fictional story about the creation of the hula-hoop. Tim Robbins is a low level employee at Hudsucker Industries when the company's duplicitous board of directors elevates him to company president as part of a scheme to depress Hudsucker stock price, allowing him to enact his crazy plan for a new children's toy. Along the way there's romance, gags, and zany misadventures aplenty, of course, as well as some narrative non sequiturs that proved to unbalance the tone of our previous entries, but fit well in a patently quirky, distorted reality like the one Hudsucker Proxy inhabits. 
     This is a great example of a movie that's just fun from its set design to its fast paced, quip-heavy dialogue. It's clearly meant to evoke comedies of yesteryear, and it does so with the added benefit of the Coens' inimitable style, making this an excellent choice to fulfill the doctor's prescription for easygoing laughs on those rainy Monday evenings. 



#11) Hail, Caesar!

     At number eleven we have another underappreciated (or maybe I just over appreciate it) movie usually not found to exceed the bottom five spots on your average Coen brothers ranking. The first time I watched this, I was probably in a similar place. My first experience with Hail, Caesar! came when I was pretty young, and I wrote it off as a weird movie about weird characters without much of a conclusion. When I came back to it I was in college and was more into movies specifically as an art form, which may explain my newfound fondness for the movie.
     Hail, Caesar is about a populous cast of actors, directors, and one hassled producer dealing with a variety of crises and musical numbers. Eventually communists and kidnappings get thrown into the mix, and the movie reveals itself as (in my opinion) an actually quite funny illumination of the ultimate mendacity of movies. All these self important characters monologuing about freedoms, spirituality, and revolution are inevitably revealed as frauds in one way or another. Their causes, their crusades, their self-righteous soliloquies all nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Just like movies. 



#10) O Brother, Where Art Thou?

     If you didn't know (which, if all you heard was the movie's premise, you would never be able to deduce), O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a very loose adaptation of The Odyssey. Don't be put off if you haven't read that book, are only vaguely familiar with it, or have literally never heard of it because really all it would do is clue you in to a few of the movie's jokes. 
     For the rest of us uncultured slobs, O Brother, Where Art Thou? still has plenty to enjoy. A pseudo adaptation of ancient Greek literature set in 1930s America is the perfect kind of setting for the Coens' oddball comedy stylings, which makes the movie's double helping of said stylings all the more endearing.
     A lot of the humor comes from the back and forth of the main characters played by George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro, and they have more than enough chemistry to ensure the jokes nearly always land. Add in the Coens' distinctive directing style and you've got a truly special product that I always enjoy revisiting.



#9) Inside Llewyn Davis

     The first thing you'll notice about Inside Llewyn Davis is the fact that it is a looker. Cinematographer, set designer, and costume designer all paint with muted hues and dim lighting to create something somehow vibrant and magnificent. 
     That melancholy beauty extends to the story as well. Llewyn Davis is probably the most grounded of the Coens' many normal people ruining their own lives, and that makes him sympathetic where he could otherwise have been obnoxious. The titular Davis is selfish, lazy, and a total bum, yet none of his most unattractive traits are so exaggerated that they overwhelm the damaged, wistful humanity that the script (and Oscar Isaac's performance), bring to the character. 
     Llewyn Davis is a man imprisoned in the cyclical consequences of his own bad choices. Often times his desire to better himself peeks through in quiet moments of regret and dejection, but like St. Augustine praying for chastity, his demons prevent him from ever fully committing to the task of self-improvement. This makes watching his life crumble into pieces both cathartic for the sense of cosmic justice being served, but also tragic for the recognition of the struggles we all go through reflected in him, a razor thin balance that is just another entry in the Coens' long catalogue of doing the impossible.



#8) Miller's Crossing

      As you may have been able to tell already, we have officially crossed into the realm of Coen brothers movies that I would rate as excellent or better by now. Speaking of excellence, we now come to Miller's Crossing, which serves as both an ode to classic gangster flicks and the Coens' own contribution to the canon. 
     Miller's Crossing has everything you want from your crime drama: cool hats, attempted hits, street shootouts, and hard-edged thugs cranking out 50s slang like they're writing an urban dictionary. It's classic Chicago, Al Capone style organized crime, but don't let the fact that Miller's Crossing employs recognizable archetypes fool you into thinking it has nothing else to offer. 
     In addition to all its classical stylings, Miller's Crossing also has a shockingly effective character study buttressing its more spectacular moments. Main character Tom Reagan is a somewhat troubled soul, struggling with his loyalty and conscience as he attempts to navigate an intricate web of alliances and grievances. The movie is well aware of the bald faced hypocrisy of its main characters' insistence on rules, reason, and "ethics" as they lie, steal, and murder their way to power, and this is all perfectly realized in Reagan's arc into ruthlessness and brutality. 
     When I first watched this movie, like Hail, Caesar!, I wasn't too impressed, but after being thoroughly impressed for rewatching it for this list, it rose more than few spots on the ranking.



#7) A Serious Man

     You might know that A Serious Man is the movie that Joel and Ethan Coen made after No Country for Old Men. That was always going to be a hard act to follow, and not everyone is convinced of their follow up, but for my money this is one of their most interesting, thematically rich movies to date. 
     A Serious Man riffs on the Bible story of Job, a man who loses everything and falls into despair as he begs God for meaning. That's really what this movie is about at its core: meaning. Meaning in suffering, meaning in doing right, even meaning in living. For a movie that markets itself as a surreal comedy, it has a lot to say about faith, chance, and catastrophe, and it's all wrapped up in that delightful quirkiness that makes the comedic bits land even better for being set right alongside a series of Rabbis pontificating about God and His movements. It probably isn't for everyone, but it's definitely for me.



#6) True Grit

     True Grit is a straight shooting (pun intended) western whose relative lack of eccentricity shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given that it's a remake of an older straight shooting western. As a fan of westerns, I have no real problem with this, and True Grit is one of my favorites of the whole genre. 
     That's thanks partly to a wonderful cast of main characters played by Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jeff Bridges, whose chemistry makes the screen light up every time they converse with each other, and partly due to the film's deft handling of all the western things: shootouts, chases, and sumptuous landscape shots. 
     The central, paternal relationship between Rooster Cogburn and his initially unwelcome ward Mattie Ross is one of those enduring dynamics that have stood the test of time because they're so reliably effective. This is a popcorn movie through and through, with plenty of laughs and thrills for the average viewer, but the discerning audience member will find themselves satisfied as well by the craft of the filmmaking and the emotional impact of the writing.



#5) The Big Lebowski

     If you've listened to the podcast for a while, then you'll know that Nathan does not favor this movie. To be honest, I can see where he's coming from. The Big Lebowski has a plot, but it's moment to moment action is mostly a series of vignettes of stoner bum The Dude having his car destroyed or stolen, losing his rug, and generally getting hassled by a series of bizarre and usually one-scene characters. 
     If you're not up for that, then yeah, The Big Lebowski isn't gonna do it for you, but I am, and it does it for me. I've always maintained that this movie is meant to be the kind of story you might tell a friend over lunch or regale a few visiting family members with at a campfire. It's the kind of wild, too-strange-to-be-made-up story of which we all have at least one or two we like to whip out when we have an audience, and I love it for that. It really is a crazy story that I have a lot of fun hearing every time I rewatch it, and it has some of my all time favorite Coen brothers' patented weirdos. 
     If you've already seen this movie, then you almost certainly have a strong opinion about it; I certainly do, and it's strongly in favor of The Big Lebowski's quirky but endearing charms.



#4) Raising Arizona

     Raising Arizona is Joel and Ethan Coen's second ever movie, and for my money their best and funniest comedy. Lots of Coen brothers movies have comedic elements in them, but Raising Arizona is one of the few movies of theirs that (like the Hudsucker Proxy or The Ladykillers) I would say is meant to be a comedy through and through.
     Don't get me wrong, it's positively drenched in their trademark style, but the raison d'etre of this fable of bungling criminals and possibly demonic hit men is to get you laughing, and laugh I do whenever I watch it. 
     A lot of the comedy is within the Coens' typical sensibilities, i.e. derived from strange characters saying and doing strange things, and that works here, but it also has a lot of legitimately clever and surprising gags that I quote at least once a week. The movie's main characters play well off of each other, the antagonist is delightfully over the top, and it has a simple premise that conforms easily to joking. If you like the Coens' style of humor and haven't seen this one, then I can't recommend it highly enough.



#3) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

     If you've listened to our podcast review of this movie, you may be surprised to see it earn a bronze medal. This movie's elevation in my eyes can only be explained by the simple fact that when I rewatched it to make this list, I just couldn't help but love it. 
     This movie is basically a Coen brothers playground, a series of six short stories set in the west that run the gamut from the directing duo's darkest to their most playful sides. Is each and every story a 10/10 winner? No, of course not, but they're all enjoyable in their own way, and short enough that if one doesn't work for you, you won't have to endure it for too long before the die are rolled again.
     For me though, each one works in its own way, and whatever else may be true about the Coens, they know how to shoot westerns. I find this anthology to be hilarious, moving, and thrilling in different parts, and if it does end up being the last movie they make together, I think they sent us off on a strong note.



#2) Fargo

     Of all their many films, Fargo is undoubtedly the Coen brothers flick that is most responsible for mainstreaming their peculiar brand of filmmaking. Their quirky characters and low stakes tragedy are a perfect fit for the "aw, shucks" charm of the American northern midwest. 
     The movie is definitely funny and there's plenty of fun to be had with William H. Macy's uncertain everyman-turned-criminal and Frances MacDormand's innocent but wise police chief, but the thing that makes the movie for me and earns it the number two honors is that sense of quiet tragedy I keep coming back to. 
     Jerry (William H. Macy) isn't a terrible person, in fact he's far too much of a sad sack for the viewer to feel anything but a kind of horrified pity for him as gets in way, WAY over his head with the pair of inept thugs he hired to kidnap his wife. Once again, Jerry is just a normal, frustrated person who has to face the consequences of his actions. 
     There's other examples of this kind of conceit in the Coens' filmography, as I've said many times in this list, but for my money, this is the best rendition.



#1) No Country for Old Men

     It couldn't have been anything else. If you've listened to our podcast review of this film, then you'll know it's my favorite movie of all time, so it should come as no surprise that it tops the list. No Country for Old Men is gorgeous in its construction, haunting in its themes, and infinitely compelling in its characters and their conflicts. 
     There is quite literally nothing about this movie I don't like. It's horrifying, funny at times, tragic, and gripping from start to finish, and if you like movies you owe it to yourself to watch it. I'll try to preserve the experience for you here, so I won't go into greater detail, but please listen to our review if you want the whole story. For now, let it suffice to say that the Coen brothers represent one of the greatest forces in directing, and No Country for Old Men is their masterpiece of all masterpieces.