Fargo (1996)

11/03/09 "After hearing that the Coen brothers intended to adapt To The White Sea as a movie—a project they've since put on indefinite hold—I was curious to imagine how this deep cut in Dickey's bibliography (he's most often noted for writing the novel Deliverance ) would look through the Coens' lens. What struck me immediately about the book, in light of the Coens, was how purely visual it is, a survivalist tale with virtually no dialogue. As an American soldier, downed in Tokyo before the World War II fire-bombings, evades capture and makes his way to the mountains—calling upon instincts picked up from his youth in Alaska—the books grows ever more abstract and beautiful. Imagine this book in Fargo white, and enjoy the adventure."  |  The A.V. Club

11/02/09 Since it was introduced 70 years ago, the Academy Awards' original screenplay category has been a breeding ground for fresh new voices, launching careers and solidifying the legacy of writers as diverse as Orson Welles, Billy Wilder and Paddy Chayefsky.  |  The Hollywood Reporter

10/16/09 Joel and Ethan Coen are responsible for some of the more unusual and intelligent movies of the past 25 years.  |  JAM! Showbiz

10/15/09 Joel and Ethan Coen say their upbringing in suburban Minneapolis feels more "exotic" as the years pass, but add that more than a little artistic licence was at play in recreating those times in "A Serious Man." The new film from the siblings behind "Fargo" centres on a Jewish physics professor whose life, both at home and work, is falling apart.  |  JAM! Showbiz

10/08/09 Joel and Ethan have made what might be my favorite of their films.  |  Ain't It Cool News

10/01/09 Slant 's Fernando F. Croce is ambitious in his praise, "Are the Coens jokers who tread on despair, or tragedians with a penchant for death's-head humor? Either way, 'Serious Man' is their bleakest comedy. Its spiraling slapstick cruelty encompasses elements from both the lugubrious 'No Country for Old Men' and the antic 'Burn After Reading,' yet it easily outclasses both by endowing the put-upon puppet with a human dimension so that laughter is caught in our throats."  |  indieWIRE

09/30/09 We all have a mental rolodex of flicks that may not be terribly popular but, for one reason or another, they resonate in a very special way.  |  MTV Movies Blog

09/30/09 By rights, Ethan and Joel Coen should not be the massively successful filmmakers they are.  |  MTV Movies Blog

09/30/09 Some might be tempted to view A SERIOUS MAN as an uncommonly personal film for Joel and Ethan Coen. But while they've carefully recreated the suburban Minneapolis of their 1960s youth, and settled on a professor as their protagonist (both of their parents were college educators), the brothers claim that the similarities end there.  |  Ain't It Cool News

09/21/09 "Barton Fink" is a difficult movie to classify.  |  MTV Movies Blog