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Post by Sanziana on Jan 27, 2016 12:40:54 GMT -5
Considering Hail Caesar! is nearly upon us with its sure majesty, I thought we should share our personal rankings of the Coen brothers' films. So here it goes, my list. I confess I haven't seen Blood Simple. 1. Fargo
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. The Big Lebowski
4. A Serious Man Just look at this:  It completely deserves to be here. 5. Barton Fink
6. No Country for Old Men
7. The Man Who Wasn't There
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
9. Raising Arizona
10. Miller's Crossing
11. True Grit
12. Burn After Reading
13. The Hudsucker Proxy
14. Intolerable Cruelty
15. The Ladykillers |
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moimoi
AV Clubber 
Posts: 5,090 
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Post by moimoi on Jan 27, 2016 23:34:02 GMT -5
This was tough, but...
1. The Big Lebowski
2. A Serious Man
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Miller's Crossing
6. Fargo
7. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
8. Blood Simple
9. True Grit
10. Barton Fink
11. Raising Arizona
12. The Hudsucker Proxy
13. Burn After Reading
14. Intolerable Cruelty
Unrated/Have not seen: The Man Who Wasn't There, The Ladykillers
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jan 28, 2016 15:00:28 GMT -5
Four years ago, my mom and I went through all the Coen movies.
1. The Big Lebowski
2. A Serious Man
3. Fargo
4. Barton Fink
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
6. No Country for Old Men
7. The Man Who Wasn't There
8. True Grit
9. Blood Simple
10. Raising Arizona
11. Inside Llewyn Davis
12. The Hudsucker Proxy
13. Miller's Crossing
14. The Ladykillers
15. Intolerable Cruelty
Incidentally, Minnie is the only person I've met that loves A Serious Man as much as I do. I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious.
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,090
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Post by moimoi on Jan 28, 2016 15:31:05 GMT -5
I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious. I'm not so much a gentile as a philistine  but I don't think it's nihilistic. I think it's anti-existentialist or a sort of parody of existentialism, much in the way Moby Dick parodies transcendentalism by imbuing a 'great white whale' with tons of symbolic meaning. |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Jan 28, 2016 15:54:55 GMT -5
1. Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Jan 28, 2016 15:58:08 GMT -5
I've only seen a handful, and my tastes are far out of the mainstream for this thread...
(loved)
1. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2. Fargo
(liked)
3. True Grit
4. The Big Lebowski
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
(did not like)
6. Barton Fink
7. A Serious Man
8. Burn After Reading
I apologize for the deep offense this list will cause.
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Paleu
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Confirmed for neo-liberal shill.
Posts: 1,258 
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Post by Paleu on Jan 28, 2016 16:25:59 GMT -5
I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious. I'm not so much a gentile as a philistine but I don't think it's nihilistic. I think it's anti-existentialist or a sort of parody of existentialism, much in the way Moby Dick parodies transcendentalism by imbuing a 'great white whale' with tons of symbolic meaning. As a fellow goy, I think it also taps into a sort of pre-existentialism that's very common in Judaism but mostly absent in non-Kierkegaardian Christianity. I definitely wouldn't call it nihilistic or anti-religious. |
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Jan 28, 2016 17:04:45 GMT -5
Incidentally, Minnie is the only person I've met that loves A Serious Man as much as I do. I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious. How can a movie that’s basically the Book of Job be anti-religious? (Ecclesiastes, maybe, but Job?) |
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Post-Lupin
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Immanentizing the Eschaton
Posts: 5,673
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jan 29, 2016 6:53:58 GMT -5
Raising Arizona>The other ones I've seen>The ones I haven't seen>No Country
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Dellarigg
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This is a public service announcement - with guitars
Posts: 7,638
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Post by Dellarigg on Jan 29, 2016 8:05:08 GMT -5
Raising Arizona>The other ones I've seen>The ones I haven't seen>No Country I've seen your distaste for No Country mentioned in a few places, but I've missed the reasons behind it. What's the problem? (Full disclosure: I'm only a moderate fan of the Coens, but No Country is one I quite like in parts. I wouldn't put up much of a fight to defend it, though. And I love McCarthy, but don't rate the book as one of his best, or anywhere near it.) |
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Post-Lupin
Prolific Poster
Immanentizing the Eschaton
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Post by Post-Lupin on Jan 29, 2016 8:50:17 GMT -5
Raising Arizona>The other ones I've seen>The ones I haven't seen>No Country I've seen your distaste for No Country mentioned in a few places, but I've missed the reasons behind it. What's the problem? (Full disclosure: I'm only a moderate fan of the Coens, but No Country is one I quite like in parts. I wouldn't put up much of a fight to defend it, though. And I love McCarthy, but don't rate the book as one of his best, or anywhere near it.) Hated every character, found the dialogue pretentious and I contend that Bardem is the least frightening assassin in the history of cinema. |
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Post by ganews on Jan 29, 2016 11:09:19 GMT -5
I've only seen a handful, and my tastes are far out of the mainstream for this thread... (loved) 1. O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2. Fargo (liked) 3. True Grit 4. The Big Lebowski 5. Inside Llewyn Davis (did not like) 6. Barton Fink 7. A Serious Man 8. Burn After Reading I apologize for the deep offense this list will cause. (loved) The Big Lebowski O Brother, Where Art Thou? (liked quite a bit) No Country for Old Men Fargo True Grit Blood Simple Raising Arizona (watched on TV while doing other stuff, the correct choice I think) Intolerable Cruelty The Ladykillers |
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jan 29, 2016 15:22:53 GMT -5
Incidentally, Minnie is the only person I've met that loves A Serious Man as much as I do. I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious. How can a movie that’s basically the Book of Job be anti-religious? (Ecclesiastes, maybe, but Job?) People who are only passingly familiar with the Bible and, if so, the NT, don't seem to realize that the Eldritch Abomination OT G-d is. Albeit one that occasionally makes mistakes and, on rare occasion, apologizes. But definitely not a humanoid or any other kind of -oid. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Feb 1, 2016 11:00:28 GMT -5
It's been at least 20 years since I've seen Blood Simple and 25 since I've seen Raising Arizona. Since I don't remember much about either (except that teenage me thought Arizona was awfully strange), I'm leaving them out. I've also never seen Miller's Crossing, The Ladykillers and Inside Llewyn Davis (I know--the latter makes me a bad cinephile). Of the rest:
1. Fargo
2. The Big Lebowski
3. A Serious Man
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
5. No Country For Old Men
6. The Hudsucker Proxy
7. True Grit
8. The Man Who Wasn't There
9. Barton Fink (Barton Fink! Barton Fink!)
10. Burn After Reading
11. Intolerable Cruelty
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Post by Lady Bones on Feb 1, 2016 12:22:44 GMT -5
Haven't seen Ladykillers, Cruelty or Wasn't There.
Great
Inside Llewyn Davis
No Country for Old Men
Miller's Crossing
Barton Fink
A Serious Man
True Grit
Fargo
Big Lebowski
Burn After Reading
O Brother Where Art Thou
Hudsucker Proxy
Raising Arizona
Good
Blood Simple
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Feb 1, 2016 13:01:36 GMT -5
I can't rank them, honestly. This said, Raising Arizona, Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, A Serious Man, Hudsucker Proxy*, these movies are all important with me and stick with me for various reasons. I consider The Man Who Wasn't There and Intolerable Cruelty somewhat underrated (the first more than the second) and I've never actually seen The Ladykillers (may finally bite that bullet before Hail, Caesar! premieres here in March.) True Grit, Miller's Crossing, Fargo are also up there; and I like or love the rest to varying degrees ( Blood Simple perhaps the least.) Looking over my own list, Hail, Caesar! seems primed to be up there on the top, as it's exactly the end of Coen Brothers films I love the most. Incidentally, Minnie is the only person I've met that loves A Serious Man as much as I do. I have yet to meet a gentile who didn't think it was nihilistic and anti-religious. Loved it, but this view surprises me - it's not exactly, say, Calvary (and even Calvary is really about a guy trying to do the Thomas a Kempis thing in a world that despises the very idea.) *No, seriously. I love Hudsucker Proxy. Jennifer Jason Leigh is spectacular in it, Paul Newman feels like a definitive cigar-chomping cartoon villain, and the Art Deco design and kookily optimistic plot is to die for - it's Frank Capra distorted through a Coen lens. Also, John Mahoney. He's in two of my top picks. It's not a coincidence. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 1, 2016 13:28:49 GMT -5
Well, I thought Intolerable Cruelty was great, and in fact it's probably the Coen flick I'm most likely to stop and watch if I stumble across it on TV. Such fun, absurd characters, brilliantly paced dialogue, and as charming a lead performance from Clooney as I could possibly ask for. I would say all its best moments are in the front half: the introductory court scene with Myles Massey, the negotiation with Massey and Zeta-Jone's lawyer, the big court scene. Once the movie gets to Las Vegas it slows down considerably, though there is one big laugh a little later on.
I've always been surprised by the cool reception on this one. I find it endlessly watchable for the performances alone.
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but I don't think it's nihilistic. I think it's anti-existentialist or a sort of parody of existentialism, much in the way Moby Dick parodies transcendentalism by imbuing a 'great white whale' with tons of symbolic meaning. 
