To be honest this is sub par Coens but even then there still hitting above what most other filmmakers do at their worst. It’s much better than either Intolerable Cruelty or the pointless Ladykillers remake and it maintains an credible amount of amusement. Its well made like all their other films with Emmanuel Lubezki’s skewered phototgraphy and Carter Burwell’s paranoid score underlying the comedic elements wonderfully. While Clooney and McDormand feel like there trying to hard (and Tilda Swinton utterly wasted) its a film carried by some superb supporting roles such as Pitt, Malkovich, Richard Jenkins, David Rasche and JK Simmons. The comedy works best at a dark and subversive level like all the Coens best but gets a little lost when they get too farcical such as the basement chair. Again this is below Coen standards but if only all their lesser works were this much brezzy fun