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Feb 05, 2016

Out of Frame: Hail, Caesar!

A sly satire of an industry and a media climate where everything is fake from the Coen brothers.

Oct 16, 2015

Out of Frame: Bridge of Spies

A rhyming companion piece to the Nazi-hunting film Labyrinth of Lies, Bridge of Spies is an old-fashioned tale of justice, served cold.

Dec 20, 2013

Out of Frame: Inside Llewyn Davis

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS’ rich central figure feels like he’s lost in a sea of phonies. If only the movie didn’t feel that way too.

Dec 22, 2010

Out of Frame: True Grit

The last time the Coen brothers attempted a remake, it was 2004’s The Ladykillers, a remake of a beloved bit of a British comedy from 1955 featuring inspired performances from the likes of Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. It was a spectacular failure, as graceless as the original was graceful, shockingly unfunny, and by far the worst film the pair had ever helmed. What followed was a three-year sabbatical during which they presumably regrouped and figured out where they’d gone wrong, since their next film was No Country for Old Men.

Sep 17, 2010

Out of Frame: A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop

The question most film remakes need to answer is whether or not they bring something new or different to the table that justifies their existence. For American remakes of foreign films, that justification is generally language accessibility. When there’s a great idea for a movie out there already done once, but there’s an untapped audience that just doesn’t enjoy reading subtitles, it’s an attractive prospect to skip all that creative development and just make the same movie in English. The results (with plenty of notable exceptions) tend towards pale and uninspired reflections of the original film.

Oct 09, 2009

Out of Frame: A Serious Man

A Seriously Small Man: Michael Stuhlbarg, as physics professor Larry Gopnik, teaches his students that there is order in the universe. The Coen Brothers aren’t convinced. “I didn’t do anything!” is the repeated mantra of Larry Gopnik, a nebbishy professor of physics at a suburban Minneapolis community college, and the central character of the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man. And if he didn’t do anything, as he keeps suggesting, then why is it that…

Nov 09, 2007

Out of Frame: No Country for Old Men

I was beginning to wonder if the Coen Brothers had lost it. About halfway through their ill-advised remake of the Ealing classic The Ladykillers, I was gripped by the same sort of sadness that comes with the childhood realization that your parents aren’t infallible, nor do they have all the answers. For the first time in their filmmaking career, they seemed not just human, but deeply flawed. Redemption is a world away from directing Tom…

Nov 08, 2007

Popcorn & Candy: Men of Constant Sorrow

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Major Release: No Country for Old Men We’ll be covering the latest release from the Coen Brothers in more depth tomorrow, but in the time being, we’ll tell you this: not only have the filmmakers recovered from the mediocre doldrums of their last couple of outings, but they have returned with a bloody vengeance with a…

 
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