Tag Archive: Coen brothers


The Coen Brothers’ cesarian cut and paste job

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March 12, 2016

HAIL CAESAR! directed by Joel & Ethan Coen (USA,2016)

large_large_ux5y8qjkszufab5vsaqxhndmyt3Friends, Romans,countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Hail Caesar!, not to praise it.

We all love the Coen Brothers, and not without cause, yet I am sad to report that this is one mess of a movie.

It’s as if the siblings decided to do a cut and paste job based on ideas left over from earlier films, then phoned round all their favorite actors to see who was available for a two hour love in.

There are some clever and amusing scenes but none of them lead anywhere because there is no coherent storyline to tie them together.

Along with the equally dire Burn After Reading from 2008, it is plain that what we have here is an ensemble cast that had more fun making a movie than the audience have watching it. Continue reading →

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The pre-modernist propaganda cinema of Steven Spielberg

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March 6, 2016

BRIDGE OF SPIES directed by Steven Spielberg (USA; 2015)

220px-bridge_of_spies_posterAs a self-confessed movie nerd I can’t get enough of the ironic post-modernism to be found in directors like David Lynch, Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch. I identify strongly with the cynical and often surreal gaze they direct towards the modern world.

In my book, The Coen Brothers fit squarely into this category so it comes as something of shock to find Ethan and Joel’s names (alongside British playwright Matt Charman) on the screenwriting credits for Spielberg’s very conventional drama. Apparently, their remit was to add some zip to a story which, with shades of Fargo, is “inspired by real events”.

Lawyer James B. Donovan played by Tom Hanks is the decent, upstanding all American family man appointed to defend the devious Russian spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in what is initially conceived as little more than a show trial.

I suspect it is the Coens who came up with the best line in the movie when, in response to Donovan’s comment that Abel never seems to worry, the spy asks “Would it help?” This is funny the first time around, but when he poses the same question on two further occasions, it loses its novelty value. Otherwise, the script is tight and workmanlike although has none of the wisecracks or lively verbal exchanges you come to expect in Coen Brothers movies. Continue reading →

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MOVIES ARE STILL BIG, IT’S THE CRITICS THAT GOT SMALL

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August 15, 2015
What a surprise! Citizen Kane is again voted all-time best American movie.

What a surprise! Citizen Kane is again voted all-time best American movie.

Another day, another list.

This one seeks to itemise the 100 best American movies ever made (stifled yawns!)

Film critics from around the world were polled by the BBC with each being allowed to pick their 10 faves.

No matter how many ‘experts’ contributed, these lists remain highly subjective and are mostly more interesting for what is excluded. Continue reading →

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FARGO ON TV

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April 25, 2014
Fargo2

Lester meets Lorne (Martin Freeman & Billy Bob Thornton)

I had mixed feelings when it was first announced that the movie Fargo was to be turned into a ten-part TV series.

On the one hand, I was pleased that one of my all-time favourite films was being given a new lease of life via the small screen but, at the same time, I was worried the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece would somehow be tarnished in the process.

I was intrigued to see how this self-contained story would be adapted. Was it going to be a sequel or was it going to be the same story told in greater depth? As it turns out, it is neither of these.

Noah Hawley’s take on this “homespun murder story” begins with the bogus ‘This Is A True Story’ caption and it is quickly apparent that this is a respectful homage to the original, faithfully recreating the look and mood of the movie without sticking slavishly to the plot.

Fargo-Molly

Alison Tolman as Deputy Molly Solverson

The Minneapolis based characters are recognisable but different. The henpecked and hapless car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H.Macey) is now Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) who is equally inept at selling life insurance.

Freeman has the same verbal mannerisms as Macey (“Oh Heck!”) and it takes some adjustment to hear the star of The Office, Sherlock and The Hobbit speaking American. Once you get used to the idea, he looks like a good choice for the role.

The star of the first episode though is without doubt Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo. He is as detached as his role as Ed Crane, the barber with a secret in The Man Who Wasn’t There and as cold blooded, cruel and methodical as Jarvin Bardem’s killer in No Country For Old Men. “The mistake you make is in thinking there are rules in life”, he tells Lester.

Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson was central to the movie and Alison Tolman as Deputy Molly Solverson seems to have been groomed to play a similar role in the TV version.

With four deaths in the first episode, I wonder how the series will keep up the pace but now my fears have been mollified I  can’t wait to see how the story unfolds.

Fargo can be seen on Channel 4 in the UK and on FX in the U.S.A.
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INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS – FAME, FAILURE AND FOLK MUSIC

Filed under: Movies, Music — 4 Comments
February 10, 2014

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS directed by Ethan & Joel Coen (USA, 2013)

Dave Van Ronk is to Bob Dylan what Antonio Salieri was to Mozart. Salieri was popular during his lifetime but his music is rarely performed now.

Van Ronk was a prominent performer in the Greenwich Village during the 1960s but is not so widely known now. Mozart’s genius is now taken for granted and despite having “a voice like sand and glue” (to borrow David Bowie’s words) Dylan is the most influential singer songwriter of all time.

Van Ronk had a pretty good voice, some decent songs but, until now, has been confined to a footnote in the folk history books; a nearly man popular only among purists. Ironically, his standing may now be reassessed following the Coen Brothers movie even though this is not billed as a bio-pic and the depiction of a struggling artist is far from glamorous. Continue reading →

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