As Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth releases, revisiting five best Coen brothers’ films, from Fargo to Inside Llewyn Davis-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Joel and Ethan Coen | Shutterstock

Joel and Ethan Coen — known to most movie fans simply as “the Coen brothers” — are a team of directors with very few equals in the wider film industry today.

The Big Lebowski

This Chandler-inspired dark comedy was put into bizarre and random box upon its release, however, has achieved a cult-classic status quo over the years. It turned Jeff Bridge’s hairy, bathrobe-clad, White Russian-loving The Dude into the ultimate stoner icon. He’s your typical hippie slacker: someone who’s lost his passion to change the world, so he would rather spark one up and bowl. After a case of mistaken identities, The Dude and his bowling buddies — John Goodman’s howling, raging Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak and Steve Buscemi’s less talkative Donny Kerabatsos — are drawn into a convoluted kidnapping plot.

Fargo 

Fargo is a 1996 neo-noir black comedy crime film starring Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating roadside homicides that take place after a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from her wealthy father (Harve Presnell).

The movie’s success would take the Coens all the way to their first Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, along with a Best Actress statuette for Frances McDormand, who made police chief Marge Gunderson a cinematic icon. The film eventually spawned a popular spinoff TV series set within the same fictional universe.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Set in rural Mississippi, the title of the film is a reference to the Preston Sturges 1941 film Sullivan’s Travels, in which the protagonist is a director who wants to film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a fictitious book about the Great Depression. The film stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Chris Thomas King, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning in supporting roles.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

An anthology comprising of six tales of life and violence in the Old West, following a singing gunslinger, a bank robber, a travelling impresario, an elderly prospector, a wagon train, and a perverse pair of bounty hunters. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, where it won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay. It also earned three nominations at the 91st Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Original Song (“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings”).

Inside Llewyn Davis

Focused on burgeoning American folk music in the early 1960s, Inside Llewyn Davis follows the titular singer through a series of trials and tribulations to test his dedication to the art. With stunning performances from the entire ensemble and memorable music to help ease the relatable creative struggles of the main characters, it’s no wonder why critics ranked the film so highly.