Top Five: Coen Brothers Films (Part I)

In the landscape of modern American cinema, nowhere can we find a voice more unique and more stubbornly resistant to conformity than that of the Coen Brothers. Joel and Ethan Coen, who share writing, directing, and editing duties, bring their signature storytelling style to every movie and fill their worlds with quirky characters, eccentric villains, and layer upon layer of subtext. And although they've flirted with mainstream success at times, their films have always been a niche commodity that range in description from slapstick satire to violent and deeply existential. In spite of this varied range however, all their films share certain sensibilities, and as we shall soon see, recurring themes quickly begin to emerge (besides their propensity to cast John Goodman). And thus begins the countdown to end all countdowns:

5. A Serious Man

In what may be their most personal and autobiographical film to date, the Coens, in their own inimitable way, manage to meld together a satire of their upbringing in a small Jewish community in 1960s Minnesota with an existential quest to find the meaning of life. Inspired by the biblical story of the all-suffering Job and his trials and tribulations, "A Serious Man" focuses on piling endless misery on Larry Gopnik, a physics professor whose life inexplicably unravels before his very eyes. He faces a wife leaving him for an obnoxious man who may or may not be mailing damning letters that are endangering his chances at attaining tenure, self-involved children who couldn't care less about anyone else, an eccentric oddball of a cousin wanted by police for committing "sodomy", a disgruntled student blackmailing him for a better grade, and last but not least, a bill collector harassing him about an unpaid subscription to Santana's Abraxas album.

Ambiguous and full of potential meaning and interpretations, we journey with Gopnik as he desperately attempts to figure out how to live his life the right way. We've all been there before; misfortune hits us and we begin to question how much our actions influence our fate and how much of it is just blind chance and meaningless coincidence. And it's through Gopnik's eyes that we wonder if we should even bother thinking about the big picture at all or just go with the flow. Unanswerable questions all, but damn if it's not entertaining to watch Gopnik struggle to find the answers. Full of dreams, folk stories, and lurid fantasies, it is an absorbing film that delves into the machinations of who we are and how we keep going in our day-to-day life when we are so ignorant of the meaning behind it all.

4. No Country For Old Men

With what may ironically be one of their most oblique (second only to the confounding "The Man Who Wasn't There") and unconventional films, the Coen Brothers achieved unprecedented commercial and critical success with "No Country For Old Men". Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, the story is Coen-esque to the core. When a hunter by the name of Llewellyn Moss stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and proceeds to take an unclaimed briefcase full of money, he unwittingly brings the devil to his door, personified by Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem in an Oscar-winning performance). What ensues is a battle of wits and as close to high tension action and suspense as one can expect to find in a Coen brothers movie. One of the most cryptic and unique movie villains of all time, Chigurh relies on a coin toss to pass judgement on many who cross his path, and it soon becomes clear that his hell-bent pursuit of Moss is about something more elemental than mere dollar bills. 

Unapologetic in its presentation and structure, "No Country For Old Men" doesn't make anything easy for the audience and leaves a lot open to interpretation. Continuing a theme touched upon in "A Serious Man" and other Coen movies, this film considers the role fate and chance has on our simple mortal lives, and as is always the case with the Coens, it leaves the answer up in the air: we have the power to call the coin toss, but we're completely helpless in determining which side the coin lands on. One of the biggest misconceptions about "No Country for Old Men" is that Moss is the main character when in fact, it is Sheriff Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) who is the chief protagonist. Always arriving at a crime scene when it's too late and constantly trailing behind the other players in this story, Bell is an old man who just doesn't understand the world anymore and struggles to make sense of the violence and carnage he encounters. And it is Bell's sad realization of this and his desire to keep soldiering on anyway that is the one ray of light in what is by far the darkest film in the Coen brothers' ouevre. 

To Be Continued....