Sentences with phrase «coens characters»

But Coens characters are typically childless to a remarkable degree.

Steinfeld is not helped by the fact that her hyper - articulate patter can not help but recall past Coens characters such as Nicolas Cage's H.I. McDunnough and George Clooney's Everett McGill — and unlike theirs, her role is not meant to be a comic caricature.

Not exact matches

Sometimes, as in «Fargo,» the Coens» fondness for outre regionalism verges on contempt, as if they were implicitly contrasting their own sophistication with the literal - minded dumbness of their characters.

The Coens are at their goofy best here, twisting and turning through multiple plot changes, genres, styles, and berserk characters.

One reason it's hard to believe in the Coens» characters or their surroundings is that just about everything that isn't borrowed from the original Ladykillers comes from an earlier Coen movie (except the changing expression on the painting of Munson's late husband, which can be traced back to any number of awful Hollywood haunted - house movies).

Few filmmakers can pack a screenplay with more fascinating supporting characters than the Coens, and John Goodman's had the great fortune of playing many of them.

Although they are only its executive producers, the imprimatur of the Coen brothers is all over «Bad Santa», with its grotesque characters, hilarious dialogue and barely competent heists — but nothing made by the Coens has ever been as jaw - droppingly irreverent as this.

I suppose one could put a high literary spin on this and say that the Coens, like Laurence Stern with Tristam Shandy, are arguing that character is everything and narrative technique is arbitrary.

The Coens wrote the script with actors George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, and Richard Jenkins specifically in mind; of the principal characters, only Tilda Swinton's was written first and cast later.

Mixing interviews with real life locals with a sardonic narrative that would do the Coens proud (comparisons to «Fargo» are apt), the movie is a concise, quick - moving breeze, anchored by the impressive, dialed down, yet distinctly fey, mannered and oddball pitch Black brings to the title character.

But Clooney doesn't push the aesthetics of the film quite so far into hermetic beauty as the Coens, and he presents his characters with less distance and greater affection.

The Coens» first film was this extremely well - written and well - directed neo-noir that blends violence and humor and relies on an insane amount of misunderstandings and absurdities involving its characters - something that would become their trademark narrative style.

A lot of the mechanics in the script by Benjamin and Paul China (billed as «The China Brothers» in a perhaps too - obvious nod to the Coens) are boilerplate familiar to the point of being rote, but the manner in which they're assembled and played out by sophomore director Jamie M. Dagg and his expressive cast of weathered character actors largely redeems them.

The results are remarkably hilarious, even though the Coens curtail their notoriously snarky humor while sketching these characters.

Other Notable Releases: The Coens» «Inside Llewyn Davis» has continued to grow on me the more I think about it, and Oscar Isaac is fantastic, but the film is so egregiously shitty to its female characters who are either harpies, bitches, hags, or all three that I can't in good conscience put it on my Top 10.

The Coens still have their trademark strong female character, which is admirable.

More than mimics, the Coens» genius is as interpreters and scholars, able to understand the thrust of not Preston Sturges, but of a Preston Sturges character — of not one book but, miraculously, a body of work.

In the DVD commentary track for The Man Who Wasn't There, Billy Bob Thornton makes the brilliant observation that the logical casting for the dapper, taciturn barber would be Clooney while he, himself, would have been the obvious choice for Clooney's character in O Brother, Where Art Thou; that the brothers have «corrected» themselves for this picture goes a long way towards explaining both the pleasures to be gained from Clooney's deft comic timing (and a courtroom scene that is at once a throwback and a revelation), and the problems with a film that in apparently striving to be accessible and lightweight becomes something, for the first time in the Coens» joint - career since Crimewave, disposable and undistinguished.

The Coens have put some mythical baddies in their movies, and while the sight of some of them might strike fear in the hearts of men faster (Randall «Tex» Cobb in «Raising Arizona,» for one), you better believe that no other movie they make as long as they live will feature a character as calmly badass as Anton Chigurh.

Unforgettable characters, heavy - dialogued script, palpable, haunting atmosphere and a rather unique visual style — all the ingredients are here in abundance, and Coens make the most of them with the genius assistance of the highly talented John Turturro and John Goodman.

Co-writer Raimi has a cameo, too, and frequent Coens bit player Harry Bugin, who played Pete the elevator operator in Barton Fink, reappears in a more villainous role — first seen, if I'm not mistaken, as other characters emerge from an elevator.

In addition to its broader themes and character types, Fargo scatters small, Easter Eggy callbacks to the Coens» picture — another hand injury in need of «unguent,» an off - screen character who may or may not suffer from leukemia, an awkward restaurant meeting with an old high - school friend.

I am not remotely in the camp that views the Coens as technically adept nihilists who feel little or no compassion for their characters.

All three share a gift for ear - pleasing dialogue, and the general wisdom of McCarthy's characters seems to have overturned the usual hint of snarkiness in the Coens» work.

Molly's character is soon circling the chaotic Lorne Malvo, played by Billy Bob Thornton, an agent of mayhem in the mould of Anton Chigurh, the malevolent murderer from the Coens» No Country For Old Men.

Fargo is often targeted as emblematic of the Coens» superiority to their characters, and that perception isn't off - base.

Known for some of the most creative and tight screenplays in contemporary film history, it's absolutely baffling to see the Coens deliver something with next to nothing at stake and zero involvement from a character perspective.

, it's baffling to see the Coens deliver something with next to nothing at stake and zero involvement from a character perspective.

Mattie is a force to be reckoned with, more so than the teacher's pet know - it - all of Henry Hathaway's 1969 version, and the Coens» casting of an unknown (Hailee Steinfeld) underlines her character's self - made independence.

Both characters are essentially caricatures, but yet the superb acting and the Coens» skill with creating mood allow the humanity of them to come out, enriching what might otherwise have been just a quaintly odd pastiche.

You mention Groundhog Day (1993) in terms of alternate reality, and if we assume that Davis, as unlikeable a character as Bill Murray's Phil, is going through some type of reality loop, then the Coens seem to suggest that however many times we loop, we will still end up screwed.

Along with the crew of Coen Brothers characters along the way (a one - eyed John Goodman, a blind Stephen Root, Michael Badalucco, and others), O Brother also features fantastic color - corrected cinematography by Roger Deakins, a killer soundtrack by T - Bone Burnett, and the wonderfully offbeat script from the Coens themselves.

The Coens» reboot is a wholly original experience, and all the hallmarks you expect are there — Deakins» immaculate vistas, a panoply of perfectly pitched characters, and, most noticeably, a veritable thesaurus full of funny, flowery talk.

Isaac, in a wonderful extended cameo, makes a meal out of the character's deceptive decorum and deliciously wry dialogue; for a few minutes, you can almost pretend you're watching some lost Coens caper, not this awkward approximation of one.

As played by an eloquently beleaguered Isaac, the man is arguably the most vivid and complex character the Coens have dreamed up since Marge Gunderson.

From the road trip on, the Coens» screenplay becomes a series of fatalistic jokes — from stepping in sloshy snow to a Catch - 22 with union dues — that shift the focus away from its astute character study.

«Inside Llewyn Davis» gets its milieu just right, from cold - water flats to the West Side digs of bohemian academics (Ethan Phillips and Robin Bartlett — the Coens repurpose familiar character actors as well as anyone this side of Charlie Kaufman or Ryan Murphy), but there's never a sense of fawning, things - were - so - much - better - then - man nostalgia that often surfaces in films like this.

The Coens meticulously select the most filmic moments of McCarthy's terse, gripping book; they trim the sheriff's nostalgic reveries and philosophising, embellish and enhance the action, and succeed overall in transforming the novel's economic descriptions into a full - blown world populated by vivid, plausible characters.

Warning: contains spoilers In Inside Llewyn Davis, the titular protagonist (Oscar Isaac) is yet another one of Coens» unlucky characters, bewildered by the cruel twists of fate.

The Coens have taken Cormac McCarthy's sparse, nihilistic study of greed and pure evil and turned it into a sparse, nihilistic cinematic study of greed and pure evil with a masterful sense of tension, pacing, location, and character.

It's been 32 years since the Coens burst onto the scene with Blood Simple., and over a career of sixteen features, their output has been marked by undeniably idiosyncratic performances from a cadre of the best character actors in the world as they careen from comedy to drama to everything in between.

The fixes for what's ailing Llewyn aren't easy ones, and the Coens once again offer us a character who behaves less like a pawn on an audience - friendly path to redemption and self - actualization and more like a complicated human being.

The main problem, I think, is that the Coens never quite decided whether they were writing a semi-serious character study or a cartoonish ensemble piece and wound up fashioning the blandest version of both.