Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture
  3. Evergreens

The 9 best Coen brothers movies, ranked

Westerns, offbeat comedies, and crime galore!

best movies of the 2000s no country for old men
Image used with permission by copyright holder

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!

Recommended Videos

9. The Big Lebowski (1998)

9. The Big Lebowski
117m
Genre
Comedy, Crime
Stars
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
Directed by
Joel Coen
Watch on Amazon

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)

8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
132m
Genre
Western, Comedy, Drama
Stars
Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson, Clancy Brown
Directed by
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Watch on Netflix

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)

7. A Serious Man
106m
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Stars
Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed
Directed by
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Watch on max

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)

6. True Grit
110m
Genre
Drama, Adventure, Western
Stars
Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon
Directed by
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Watch on Amazon

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)

5. The Man Who Wasn't There
116m
Genre
Crime, Drama
Stars
Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco
Directed by
Joel Coen
Watch on Amazon

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)

4. Raising Arizona
94m
Genre
Comedy, Crime
Stars
Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson
Directed by
Joel Coen
Watch on Hulu

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)

3. Blood Simple
97m
Genre
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Stars
John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya
Directed by
Joel Coen
Watch on max

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)

2. Fargo
98m
Genre
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Stars
Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi
Directed by
Joel Coen
Watch on Amazon

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)

1. No Country for Old Men
122m
Genre
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Stars
Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin
Directed by
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Watch on Amazon

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.

Movie images and data from:
Shawn Laib is a freelance writer with publications such as Den of Geek, Quote.com, Edge Media Network, diaTribe, SUPERJUMP… Read Full Bio
Saturday Packs a Punch With Anthony Joshua vs. Kristian Prenga and Errol Spence Jr. vs. Tim Tszyu
Adult, Male, Man

Your Saturday is pretty much booked if you’re a big boxing fan. But if not for Tyson Fury, the action would have actually started Friday morning with his heavyweight bout against Poland’s Mariusz Wach, which was NOT televised because the so-called Gypsy King opted to save the footage for the upcoming season of his Netflix series, At Home With the Furys. According to reports, Fury squared off against Wach at Max Muay Thai Stadium in Thailand, where Fury secured a seventh-round TKO. Fury’s dominant win sets up a once-in-a-generation heavyweight showdown against Anthony Joshua, provided the British boxing star keeps his end of the bargain on Saturday.

Joshua’s long-awaited return to the ring comes against Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of Riyadh Season. It’s Joshua’s first fight since he brutally knocked out Jake Paul at Kaseya Center in Miami in December 2025. While his fight against Paul was a sanctioned contest, Joshua’s last fight against a legitimate boxer came against Daniel Dubois in September 2024. Joshua, who was a passenger in a deadly car crash that killed one of his best friends in Nigeria days after the Paul fight, lost to Dubois via a fifth-round knockout.

Read more
What I Learned From John Daly About Smoking Cigars
Body Part, Finger, Hand

I’ve been smoking cigars for two decades. I fell in love with the aroma when I walked into my first cigar lounge, Fair Oaks Cigars, in South Pasadena, California, when I was 21 years old. I remember my first stogie — Flor de las Antillas from My Father Cigars. During my early 20s and 30s, I smoked cigars religiously, at least five per week. I puffed alone in the living room, hours before getting ready to hit the town with friends. On my patio on a lazy Saturday afternoon. In the car during heavy traffic. On the rooftop lounge at the mid-high-rise building I lived in for a few years in downtown Los Angeles. Inside my loft — decked with concrete floors and walls, and exposed pipes — while watching pay-per-view boxing or a Dodgers game.

No matter the setting, smoking a cigar, to me, was the occasion. I never needed, nor do I need now, a reason to light up. It doesn’t matter if I smoke alone at a lounge or with friends on my patio; I love that, for an hour-plus, time slows down for me. Because smoking cigars can’t and shouldn’t be rushed. It’s not a cigarette. From the moment you light up to when you set down the final stub of a cigar, at least 45 minutes to an hour has passed, during which, if you’re like me, you made new friends, formed stronger bonds, and/or reflected on all that is great in your life.

Read more
What’s the deal with Bryson DeChambeau? The Open Championship controversy explained
Baseball Cap, Cap, Clothing

It was Ryan Fox who birdied the 18th hole on Sunday to win The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Despite the electric finish, all anyone’s talking about is Bryson DeChambeau, who was given a two-stroke penalty following Friday’s second round. The penalty has apparently divided the golf community, but the fact remains that DeChambeau’s response to the penalty over the weekend took away from Fox’s triumphant moment. And now, word is that DeChambeau reportedly tried and failed to rope President Donald Trump into said controversy.

The drama unfolded after Friday’s second round, when it seemed DeChambeau finished the day in sole possession of second place with a -7 under score heading into the third round. At least it appeared that way — until the leaderboard was updated to reflect a two-stroke penalty against DeChambeau, after officials claimed he stomped on the grass behind his ball to improve the line of his swing at No. 5. That, officials say, violates Rule 8.1, which states that, in order “to support the principle of ‘play the course as you find it,’ this Rule restricts what a player may do to improve any of these protected ‘conditions affecting the stroke’ (anywhere on or off the course).”

Read more