Collaborators across nearly twenty features, the fraternal filmmaking duo that is Ethan and Joel Coen have refined a darkly comic sensibility that thrills as much as it challenges. Following wearied souls and bumbling fools in near-mythical stories of struggle, their shared creative voice is among the most immediately identifiable in modern American cinema. You can always recognize a Coen Brothers film—idiosyncratic characters, symphonic dialogue—but their work is unpredictable all the same. In Blood Simple (1984), their exhilarating fusion of horror and neo-noir, the lead abruptly changes from one character to another. For the runaway convicts in the pair’s inspired musical-comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), it’s divine intervention which serves to save or spoil their lives. In the Coens’ universe, the most carefully laid plans never work out as expected. Existence has a way of becoming farce, no matter what you do.

Collaborators across nearly twenty features, the fraternal filmmaking duo that is Ethan and Joel Coen have refined a darkly comic sensibility that thrills as much as it challenges. Following wearied souls and bumbling fools in near-mythical stories of struggle, their shared creative voice is among the most immediately identifiable in modern American cinema. You can always recognize a Coen Brothers film&#8212;idiosyncratic characters, symphonic dialogue&#8212;but their work is unpredictable all the same. In Blood Simple (1984), their exhilarating fusion of horror and neo-noir, the lead abruptly changes from one character to another. For the runaway convicts in the pair&#8217;s inspired musical-comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), it&#8217;s divine intervention which serves to save or spoil their lives. In the Coens&#8217; universe, the most carefully laid plans never work out as expected. Existence has a way of becoming farce, no matter what you do.

Domino Effect: Two by the Coen Brothers

DOMINO EFFECT: TWO BY THE COEN BROTHERS

Ethan and Joel Coen boast a shared creative voice that is one of the most distinctive in modern American cinema—it thrills as much as it challenges with its dark comic touch. Existential farces beset by unpredictable chaos, these eccentric films see even the best-laid plans go wildly awry.

Ethan and Joel Coen boast a shared creative voice that is one of the most distinctive in modern American cinema&#8212;it thrills as much as it challenges with its dark comic touch. Existential farces beset by unpredictable chaos, these eccentric films see even the best-laid plans go wildly awry.