CANNES, France — Diamonds, schmiamonds—all it takes to dazzle the luxe black-tie Cannes crowd are simple harmonies, acoustic guitars and a wayward tabby cat. Greenwich Village rocked the Riviera over the weekend, as Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1961-set folk drama Inside Llewyn Davis charmed festgoers with a beguilingly buoyant tale of a talented musician Read More
In last month’s New York Times story on the Coen brothers’ first film since True Grit, Joel Coen said that Inside Llewyn Davis–their movie about a folk singer in the ’60s (Oscar Isaaac, Drive)–shares something with the Broadway-cum-cinematic hit Les Misérables. Sure, there will be singing (No “I Dreamed a Dream,” though, fortunately), a love triangle and even a cretinous villain, but what does New York’s burgeoning folk-rock scene have in common with the French Student Rebellion? Read More
Not to start the new year off on a dour note, but do you want to know why so many people have become hopeless about changing the political and economic mechanisms that rule our lives? Watch the 1969 True Grit and then go see the Coen brothers’ recent remake, which has just about all the Read More
A Serious Man
Running time 105 minutes
Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Michael Stuhlbarg
Growing up going to Hebrew school every day and synagogue every Saturday may not be a prerequisite to overcome the bleak confusion of A Serious Man, but my guess is that it sure would help. This is Read More
It’s 2 a.m. and you awake with a jerk, alone in your fully lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you’ve already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we’re just like you: single.
Need a Read More
Monday: Midnight Run
Of all the actors that have starred opposite Robert De Niro—from Al Pacino to Phillip Seymour Hoffman—no one brought out the best in him the way Charles Grodin did in Midnight Run. Crazy, we know. But true! Spurred on by the neurotic Mr. Grodin, Mr. De Niro is at Read More
Burn After Reading
Running time 96 minutes
Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton
Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading, from their own screenplay, strikes me as one of the most willfully awful movies I’ve ever seen. What Read More
OMG could George Clooney and Brad Pitt please stop being so charming/funny/arch whatever they are? At a Venice Film Festival press conference today promoting the new Coen brothers movie Burn After Reading, the irrepressible duo found themselves answering the same questions we swear they did last year, or at some other press thing.
Reporter Read More
In the new issue of Rolling Stone—the one that features Sean Wilentz’s "How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party" on its cover—Andy Greene writes about the enduring appeal of the Coen Brothers’ 1998 film, The Big Lebowski.
That the movie was a flop and yet has grown into an enormously successful cult Read More
The Coen brothers’ follow-up to No Country for Old Men is headed to the City of Water this summer, according to the Associated Press. Their film, the spy comedy Burn After Reading starring George Clooney, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt, will open this year’s Venice Film Festival on Aug. 27. Not ready to Read More
