Right, I like both of the movies (despite the bad things happening to animal characters), but books are almost always better.
I only remember the original Ernie Borgnine version.
I watched The Big Lebowski today. I thought I saw it in a theater back when it came out in 1998; I knew there was bowling, White Russians, and a rug that really tied the room together. And I know most of the quotable lines, possibly by pop-culture osmosis.
But I’ll be damned if a single frame of this film triggered any memories of having seen it before. I had absolutely no idea what the plot was going to be or any of the supporting characters other than Walter and Donny.
In any case, now I know for sure that I’ve seen it, and I didn’t hate it. I did think it was a bit too long, too convoluted - in the end, they had to have the characters explain what had happened with dialogue to wrap it all up - and maybe even a little too quirky at times. But that’s the Coen brothers for you, I guess.
Still, good fun and great performances. It’s easy to see why it’s such a cult classic.
In the spirit of Halloween we watched Your Monster on HBO, an Indie film that bills itself as a goofy rom-com but is in fact a lot more. A stage actress whose boyfriend abandoned her in the middle of her cancer treatment returns, bereft, to her empty childhood home, where she meets a handsome monster in her closet. It’s not a rom-com at all, actually (though it is humorous), but a deeply interior exploration of a woman’s slow return to empowerment after she’s kicked to the curb. This is an art flick using a rom-com as a framing device. I think it would give the film short shrift to say it’s about a woman getting over her ex. There’s something about this film that makes it more than what it is. Something that makes me think, “I need to keep an eye on this director.” (Who based it loosely on her own experience.)
That said, it is kinda slow in parts. Some parts are really good and some are just okay. But the parts that are really good made me think, “Hey. This is something different and important.”
Notably, over half the crew of the film were women, which hardly ever happens. So that was cool.
I can’t grade this one. I am glad I saw it. I think people who love stage acting and musicals would find it interesting.
Rewatched Longlegs, after first seeing it when it came out in the theater. I still enjoyed it quite a bit and picked up on a few more things. That Nicolas Cage is something.
I’ve never really ‘got’ The Big Lebowski. It’s entertaining, of course, but the Coens’ best? Not even close for me. Fargo and No Country For Old Men are much better in my opinion.
Miller’s Crossing is my favorite. A perfect movie.
No love for Barton Fink?
Minority opinion, I think Hudsucker proxy is my favorite. It’s just so beautiful to look at.
I think Raising Arizona was the first Coen film I ever saw, and it remains my favorite, whether or not it’s objectively their best work.
I believe of what I’ve seen, that is my favorite of theirs. I’ve seen:
- Blood Simple
- Raising Arizona
- Hudsucker Proxy
- Fargo
- Big Lewbowski
- Barton Fink
- O Brother
- Ladykillers <–hated
- No Country for Old Men
- True Grit
Second would be Big Lebowski, though.
The problem with Ladykillers isn’t that it’s a bad movie- it’s actually pretty great- it’s that the rest of the oeuvre is so good that it can’t compete. At the very least, Tom Hanks is having a ball playing against type, and I love the way that every character seems to be from a different genre.
There’s a fan theory that ever character in The Big Lebowski thinks they’re in a different genre of movie. (The Dude thinks he’s in a stoner comedy, the Stranger thinks he’s in a Western, Bunny thinks she’s in a porno…)
Of the Coen brothers films, mostly I like the comedies, like O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona and the Hudsucker Proxy. And of course Miller’s Crossing is great. I didn’t like A Serious Man. I was hopeful for Hail, Caesar! but it didn’t quite work.
Barton Fink is a bit of a tough watch, about the closest the Coen Brothers have come to making a straight horror movie. Hudsucker Proxy is great but my vote for the most underrated of their oeuvre is The Man Who Wasn’t There. I would watch it just for Tony Shalhoub’s few scenes alone, but it is probably the best cast of character actors out of any Coen Bros movie, and it’s a perfect homage to and satire of classic film noir, with just enough prurience and weirdness to make it modern.
I also really like their adaptation of True Grit much better than the Henry Hathaway/John Wayne version. Not so much for The Ladykillers but you can’t nail them all, I guess.
But if there is one Coen Bros movie (other than The Big Lebowski) that I’ll always sit and watch if I catch it anywhere it is Burn After Reading. J.K. Simmons and David Rasche as a kind of clueless Rosencrantz and Guildenstern commenting on events from the outside and trying to make sense of what these idiots are doing is priceless.
“Osborne Cox?..I thought you might be worried…about the security…of your shit.” That line delivery kills me every time.
Stranger
The Lost Bus on NFLX. A very tense film that is based on the Camp Fire in California that killed 85 people and destroyed over 18,000 structures. The story is based on a real life bus driver who rescued 22 school children. The production is very realistic and the actions of the fire and rescue crews ring authentic.
You saw The Lost Bus on Netflix instead of Apple TV?
You saw The Lost Bus on Netflix instead of Apple TV?
Oops, my bad.
I friggin’ love The Ladykillers. It’s probably my second favorite Coen brothers film … maybe third. It watches like a stage play. It sort of reminds of that old movie Cannery Row (Debra Winger, Nick Nolte … I think, without actually looking it up).
Oh, absolutely. This one makes me LOL every time I’ve seen (maybe four times? five?).
I’ve never bothered to watch it because it had such a bad reception and the original Ealing film is a stone cold classic.