What’s better than having one brilliant director? Two brilliant directors! And when they’re brothers, everyone’s on the same page, or at least the Coen brothers are. Joel and Ethan Coen have been making movies together for decades with an immense amount of success. They have an obscure sense of humor and a clear vision of the genres they operate within (usually crime fiction, Westerns, and black comedies).
Although both men have made movies separately that are also worth a watch, we want to focus on just the filmography of the Coen brothers as a team. Much like the Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) and the Duffer brothers (the creators of Stranger Things), the Coen brothers have found movie magic most often when they put their heads together. These are the best Coen brothers movies for you to enjoy!
9. The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Big Lebowski moves within the strangest confines of the Coen brothers’ creative soul. It stars Jeff Bridges as a loser with a knack for bowling. When he gets involved in criminal activity against his will after a case of stolen identity, Lebowski must find his value outside of the bowling alley to save himself. The film hits all of the typical Coen crime movie notes while leaning further into satire and cult than ever before.
8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
One of the most recent entries in the Coen brothers’ canon, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is somewhat of an evolution on Fargo, but with more concrete sections and periods between stories. The Netflix film is a literary take on the Western film, with six stories coming together to form a bigger picture idea about the genre as it stands right now. James Franco and Liam Neeson are a couple of the big names seen here.
7. A Serious Man (2009)
A Serious Man is the simultaneously the Coen brothers’ most down-to-earth and complex film. Michael Stuhlbarg (who is always incredible in everything) gets the starring role as a man who tries to understand the misfortune that continues to come his way. Despite trying to make a change for the better, the world doesn’t seem to want him to succeed. Themes surrounding religion, freedom of choice, fate, human purpose, and more are central to this thoughtful drama. Richard King gives outstanding support to Stuhlbarg.
6. True Grit (2010)
True Grit is a story that has been retold before, but the Coens’ adaptation of the cowboy tale is star-studded and potentially the most popular. Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon team up to protect a teenage girl and exact revenge for her against a nasty antagonist played by Josh Brolin. Bridges and Brolin get to serve as two muses of the Coen brothers yet again here and the movie was a darling at the Academy Awards.
5. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
The Man Who Wasn’t There is more about aesthetics than plot. A pretty basic story of a man seeking to get financial payback against his wife and her paramour relies on strong acting from Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand along with some nostalgic yearnings for the classical era of Hollywood filmmaking. A black-and-white exterior eases viewers into the time period. You also get to see James Gandolfini of The Sopranos fame in a different setting than you might be used to!
4. Raising Arizona (1987)
The Coens love making serious situations into something funny and lighthearted. Raising Arizona is the best example of this genre twist in their catalog. Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter play a couple who steal someone else’s baby without thinking about the consequences of their actions. The parent of the child is more dangerous than anticipated, and that’s when everything gets chaotic, to say the least. One of the oldest films the Coen brothers have made is still a gem.
3. Blood Simple (1985)
Blood Simple is one of the best debut directoral efforts in film history. A barkeep who decides he wants to take out his wife and her lover has more than one wrench thrown into his plans as the movie progresses. Many of the brothers’ techniques were originally defined in this film, but a lot of critics and fans still hold this movie in the highest regard.
2. Fargo (1996)
Fargo might be the Coen brothers’ most famous film, or at least the one that most people cite as their favorite. Its combination of violence, humor, and mismatched personalities coalesce into a vat of brilliance that encompasses so many of cinema’s most important themes and devices. The movie was famously remade for TV in what is now one of the best anthology series streaming today.
1. No Country for Old Men (2007)
No Country for Old Men idealizes and demonizes the thrill of the American Western as different parties fight to the death for a big pile of cash. Javier Bardem steals the movie as Anton Chigurh, a steely-eyed assassin with no conscience and calculated killing potential. The movie doesn’t really have a plot, instead meandering around the gorgeous setting and working within the confines of darkly comedic daily interactions between characters. Who can ever forget when Anton goes to the gas station? Exactly.
