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The Coen Brothers

What are we to make of these two? Their movies are at once interesting, clever, stylish, weird and sometimes a bit frustrating. It's as though a good story isn't enough; they have to pack in some side trips and meandering subplots to say as much as possible in two hours. But I just want to be entertained! And for the most part, the coen brothers entertain. With joel directing and ethan producing (although they both write the scripts), this tandem has been making movies since 1984.

Who could forget such a colorful collection of characters as the conniving private eye loren visser (m. emmet walsh) in blood simple, the simpleton ex-con h.i. (nicolas cage) in raising arizona, or "the dude" (jeff bridges) in the big lebowski? Or how about the bumbling jerry lundegaard (william h. macy) in fargo? Or crazy john goodman (he's always plays a crazy guy) as the escaped con in raising arizona, or the traveling salesman in barton fink or the vietnam vet bowler in the big lebowski?

In fact, the characters are usually more important than the stories in these movies, and sometimes that's the problem. And of course they overdo the weird camera angles and even weirder dream sequences and other distractions. But when they get it right, their movies are some of the more inventive films being produced today.

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Books about the coen brothers and their movies
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