Joel Coen

News, Reviews & Features
  • Top 10 films of our lifetime #1: No Country For Old Men

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 26th September 2014

    There were many factors that went into deciding the Top 10 Films Of Our Lifetime, but really, I pulled rank as Editor and decided pretty early doors that there was only ever going to be one #1 film. No Country For Old Men is a film that, from the first moment I saw it, made me appreciate film on a level higher than just 'good performances' and 'good story'. It made me want to investigate cinematographers, composers and screenwriters. It made me want to make movies and tell stories myself. But most of all, it made me want to watch it again. I hope you've enjoyed this countdown, because we've enjoyed putting it together. Normal service will resume shortly, I've got a pretty good Nicolas Cage Photoshop planned for next week - Ali.

  • The Transformers/Coen Bros Venn diagram

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 4th July 2014

    It's one of the weirdest phenomenons in modern movie history: how is it that so many Coen regulars wind up in Transformers movies? See the culprits as we attempt to figure out what possible motives the guilty parties could have.

  • #LFF2013: Inside Llewyn Davis

    Movie Review | Neil Alcock | 16th October 2013

    "If it was never new and it never gets old, then it's a folk song," mutters Inside Llewyn Davis' titular muso between performances from a dimly-lit Greenwich Village stage. Those might just be the folkiest words ever uttered, but while they're perfectly accurate, they could just as easily be applied to the Coen brothers' best work. The reassuring familiarity of the Coenverse's unique characters, patois and situations, which sit at ninety degrees to reality, is one of modern cinema's greatest pleasures, and the knowledge that they could take you anywhere is never less than tantalising. Inside Llewyn Davis delivers that old magic in spades, and includes an award-worthy performance from a cat to boot. What's not to love?

  • Intolerable Cruelty

    Movie Review | Ali | 2nd January 2005

    The Coen brothers are part of that rare breed in Hollywood - a duo who are unafraid to take risks, who refuse to be pigeonholed into any particular genre and who maintain a wholly credible track record. Strange then, that they should choose to focus their attention on what appears to be a straight-laced romantic comedy, the kin...