Barton Fink or No Country for Old Men are probably better technically, but Raising Arizona is my favorite. It just hits all my buttons. I loved it from the opening yodel, through Nic Cage’s perpetual bed-head, to the glorious chase scene after the Huggies heist, to the Biker of the Apocalypse.
Blood Simple.
This amazes me. Short, Tight, Sculpted, Polished. Amazing structure, mood, opening and ending. (and final act).
FARGO
THE BIG LEBOWSKI a close second
I would say Fargo, A Serious Man, Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, and No Country for Old Men are my top 5 in descending order.
I love the brothers Coen because of their unique brand of humor. So even though films like No Country for Old Men and The Man Who Wasn’t There are great films, I prefer their films that are distinctly “Coen.” So…
1. The Big Lebowski
2. The Hudsucker Proxy (quite underrated)
3. Miller’s Crossing
4. Raising Arizona (Fargo may actually take this spot)
5. Fargo
…closely followed by Barton Fink, Intolerable Cruelty, and O Brother Where Art Thou
P.S. I think all 8 of those films are wonderful. The rest of em are pretty good as well.
Why choose one?
Blood Simple. A masterful chain of mistaken impressions and dark deeds.
1. A Serious Man
2. Blood Simple
3. Barton Fink
4. The Big Lebowski
5. Fargo
6. No Country for Old Men
7. O Brother, Where Art Thou
8. The Man Who Wasn’t There
9. Intolerable Cruelty
10. Miller’s Crossing
11. True Grit
12. Raising Arizona
13. The Hudsucker Proxy
14. Burn After Reading
15. The Ladykillers
Why’s Miller’s Crossing so low, Matt? Throw that one up about five or six notches, drop Blood Simple 1 or 2 and that would probably be my ranking.
RAISING ARIZONA, BLOOD SIMPLE, BIG LEBOWSKI in a three-way tie for first place.
The rest aren’t worth the space they occupy.
“Why’s Miller’s Crossing so low, Matt? Throw that one up about five or six notches, drop Blood Simple 1 or 2 and that would probably be my ranking.”
It’s all slick reflective surface to me, Ari. It’s a nice enough surface, but there’s nothing to hold onto, nothing to see into to. I wouldn’t really mind the suggestion that it belongs up more around #7, but I’d be hard-pressed to bump it any higher than that. I’m probably given Blood Simple extra credit for being first.
“It’s all slick reflective surface to me, Ari. It’s a nice enough surface, but there’s nothing to hold onto, nothing to see into to.”
Interesting, it’s one of their films that I think transcends the criticism that their films are all shallow surface/inhuman. I think that’s mainly anchored in Gabriel Byrne’s sad-eyed performance which gives the film more of an empathetic core than some of their other films.
“A Serious Man.” Continuing in the same ambiguous, philosophical vein of “No Country for Old Men,” they ramp up the humor and the symbolism to deliver what might just be the definitive epistemological film, the one that tackles the biggest and most frustrating questions of the human condition and teases them for all they’re worth. Masterful comedy, masterful script, indelible ideas and a knockout of an ending.
There are some I need to rewatch, but after seeing A Serious Man for the second time last night, I felt the need to revive a topic like this.
1) No Country for Old Men
2) A Serious Man
^ Both masterpieces and their best imo.
3) Fargo
4) The Big Lebowski
5) Barton Fink
6) Raising Arizona
7) Blood Simple
8) Miller’s Crossing
For me – the two clearly superior are Barton Fink and No Country for Old Men. The Big Lebowski following close.
i like what ari said about gabriel byrne’s eyes xD
Blood Simple. Simply diabolical, and the performances were excellent.
Top 5:
Miller’s Crossing
No Country for Old Men
The Big Lebowski
Barton Fink
Blood Simple
I think Miller’s Crossing rivals any of the great mobster movies ever made.
FARGO is their masterpiece…it combines everything they’ve done in all other films…suspense, black comedy, BRILLIANT acting, even BRILLIANTER casting. It is, IMO, one of the PERFECT films.
then….
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
BLOOD SIMPLE
RAISING ARIZONA
MILLER’S CROSSING
A SERIOUS MAN
O BROTHER WHERE ART THOUGH?
BARTON FINK
THE BIG LEBOWSKI
Buried treasures…THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
stragglers…BURN AFTER READING, TRUE GRIT
disasters…THE LADYKILLERS, THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
I’m definitely going to have to rewatch Barton Fink. I remember seeing it when I was quite a bit younger and not “getting” it.
Also, from what it seems here, I like Burn After Reading a lot more than most others. It’s slight, but a lot of fun/quite hilarious.
No Country For Old Men followed by Fargo.
I found a very good comment on youtube: “picking your favorite Coen Brothers movie is tantamount to picking your favorite Beatles album.”
However, I’d say the big three is Fargo, The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men.
Sarah Karina-Bogart
Raising Arizona is my all-time favorite just because of the general hilarity and sweetness. It has such a good heart and you can tell the Coens are sympathetic towards every character, no matter how ridiculous he/she is (which, in the case of this movie, is basically everyone).
A Serious Man is definitely a close second. It’s funny, interesting, I was very moved by it all.