Oh Brother Where Art Thou is totally worth a rew rewatches. It grows on you over time, definitely one of my favorites but will never top Lebowski, Fargo, or No Country
after watching all 30 I can confirm it would get so emotional and so “I love all of his movies” by the end. However Jake only has one of his movies as 5 stars on Letterboxd so it would be a foregone conclusion
Wait, a film noir that uses Beethoven as its score sounds like it would be my favorite movie ever, and I’ve never heard of The Man Who Wasn’t There before! Thanks for the tip, MCT!!
A director that's worth ranking would be Satoshi Kon. It's a short 4 film filmography that is a set of anime films that seem so different from all of the others.
A ranking would be incomplete without Paranoia Agent, though. A brief one season anime that‘s honestly one of the most powerful pieces of art I‘ve ever seen!
I finally got round to True Grit recently and it was a revelation! Thoroughly brilliant. Hayley Steinfeld absolutely holds her own sharing the screen with superstars. It’s 100% her film and she nails the Cohen vibe perfectly.
The Big Lebowski is one of the funniest things I've ever watched, but where it REALLY shines for me is how emotional the ending is. I love how this entire mystery slowly reveals itself to be a meaningless joke, and in the end the only thing that really matters was The Dude and his two friends, and it feels like Donny's death is the thing that reminded them of that considering how Dude's demeanor changes in the final. Also Walter finally giving a genuine apology after being so stubborn throughout the whole movie is just the best. Makes me tear up when I watch it.
Of their films that I've seen, my own ranking would go: 1. No Country For Old Men 2. Fargo 3. The Big Lebowski 4. Barton Fink 5. Raising Arizona 6. Burn After Reading 7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 8. Hail, Caesar! Also Werner Herzog would be an interesting director to rank. His films are often riddled with production hell stories that would make for a fantastic video
Great list! The Coen Brothers are my favorite filmmakers, and I love that they have made so many masterpieces that no two people will have the same ranking. I personally don't believe they have a bad film (although The Ladykillers is close) My ranking: 1. Inside Llewyn Davis - Perfect/10 2. The Big Lebowski - Perfect /10 3. No Country For Old Men - Perfect/10 4. The Man Who Wasn't There - 9.5/10 5. Miller's Crossing - 9.5/10 6. Fargo - 9.5/10 7. Blood Simple - 9/10 8. Barton Fink - 9/10 9. Raising Arizona - 8.5/10 10. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? - 8.5/10 11. True Grit - 8.5/10 12. Burn After Reading - 8/10 13. The Tragedy of Macbeth - 8/10 14. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - 8/10 15. The Hudsucker Proxy - 7.5/10 16. A Serious Man - 7.5/10 17. Drive-Away Dolls - 7.5/10 18. Hail, Caesar! - 7/10 19. Intolerable Cruelty - 6.5/10 20. The Ladykillers - 5.5/10
I absolutely LOVE the Coen Brothers! It is so great to see The Hudsucker Proxy high on the list- it's one of my top favorite of their films & sooo many people have never heard of it!
1. Fargo 2. No Country For Old Men 3. O Brother Where Art Thou? 4. The Big Lebowski 5. Barton Fink 6. True Grit 7. Inside Llewyn Davis 8. Raising Arizona 9. A Serious Man 10. Blood Simple 11. Miller’s Crossing 12. The Man Who Wasn’t There 13. The Hudsucker Proxy 14. Burn After Reading 15. Hail Caesar! 16. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 17. The Ladykillers 18. Intolerable Cruelty
Great list. No Country is definitely my favorite of theirs too, it’s one of the very first films I’d ever seen that really got me into film as an actual art form as opposed to just a form of entertainment. I was probably way too young when I first watched it but it still really left an impression on me. Not to mention the fact that it was also my first exposure to Cormac McCarthy which is obviously a giant plus.
Before watching, I thought taking 23 minutes to rank two brothers sounded a bit thin, but after watching, I'm really happy that you did a full 11-minute dissertation on each Coen brother. They deserve it. Fiercely disagree with putting Ethan over Joel though
No Country is probably my favorite movie ever. It’s so tight and expertly put together. The Cormac McCarty brutal, matter of fact violence and morally gray motivations from the book were captured perfectly. Every shot is beautiful and oozing west Texas. Every actor nailed it 10/10 and it also has my favorite last line from a movie.
O Brother is perhaps my 2nd favourite after No Country. You need to rewatch it. It's based off Homer's Odyssey, thats why it feels like vignettes - but it all ties together at the end in a quietly brilliant way.
DOG you need to go back and watch o’ Brother after reading as I lay dying. Film in general feels very bathed in Faulkner. Owe it to yourself to rewatch
I haven't done a full re-watch, but based on my memories of these films, I think my ranking would be very different. No Country for Old Men is probably the best, but after that, for me it would be Fargo, A Serious Man, Burn After Reading, and Blood Simple. I think Burn After Reading deserves a lot more praise. As far as I'm concerned it's pretty much a perfect comedy. And the decision not to show the conclusion, but instead to have JK Simmons and David Rasche holding an absurd conversation about what happened, is genius and totally hilarious. Edit: I admit I probably need to reassess Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, and The Big Lebowski.
you should absolutely watch Macbeth, it’s one of the best looking films I’ve ever seen! Really leans into the theatricality of the material whilst still taking full advantage of the cinematic medium, I’d absolutely go as far as to call it my favourite film adaptation of Shakespeare
My favourite films of the Coen Brothers are as follows: 1. A Serious Man 2. A toss between which one among the following out-of-context dialogue from their corresponding movies I find funnier: 'We Thought You Was A Toad!' and 'Where's its scrotum, Llewyn?'
Fargo is my favorite. And then all the others can be in number two. You could do De Palma or Friedkin next, they've got really interesting filmographies.
My ranking from what I watched: 1. Inside Llewyn Davis 2. No Country for old Men 3. True Grit 4. Hail, Caesar 5. O Brother Where Art Thou? 6. Fargo 7. Burn After Reading 8. The Big Lebowski 9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 10. A Serious Man
A Serious Man sticks with you in a haunting sort of way. It's such a shame that Stuhlbarg doesn't get more leading roles. EDIT: I love older Cohen stuff, but I never cared much for Raising Arisona for some reason. Maybe I should revisit it. My top 5 off the cuff: 1. No Country, 2. Fargo, 3. Serious Man, 4. Blood Simple, 5. Lebowski
I love Burn After Reading and I could agree that the themes aren’t as deep as their other films but I just love watching it. I’m happy you have it higher than O, Brother
My ranking (of ones I’ve seen) 1. Inside Llewyn Davis 2. The Big Lebowski 3. Barton Fink 4. Raising Arizona 5. Fargo 6. No Country For Old Men 7. True Grit 8. O Brother Where Art Thou 9. Burn After Reading 10. A Serious Man 11. Hail, Ceasar 12. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs All are at least good, some could benefit from a rewatch. Got a few more to see still
At the beginning of my own journey into a real love of cinema, the Coens were the first filmmakers I dove deep into. They were the first of the great directors whose filmography I went all the way through. And my god, will they always have that special place in my heart. I can agree also that their films just get better with time and age.
I’m gonna go off topic and suggest a review of movies written by a specific writer. Taylor Sheridan. I got interested in him after watching Hell Or High Water. He’s written for TV as well but I’ve come to really like almost all his movies. And he directs some of them as well
Great list! I really enjoy these directors ranking videos. A Spielberg ranking would be really fun to watch. Also I know James Wan isn’t everyone’s favorite director but I really like all his films, so I’d enjoy a James wan filmography ranking also.
My Ranking: 13. Miller's Crossing 12. Intolerable Cruelty 11. Raising Arizona 10. True Grit 9. Burn After Reading 8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 7.Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? 6. Fargo 5. Blood Simple 4. Inside Llewyn Davis 3. The Big Lebowski 2. A Serious Man 1. No Country for Old Men Haven't seen Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Lady Killers, or Hail, Caesar! yet.
My list: S: No Country, Fargo, Lebowski A: True Grit, Oh Brother B: Burn After, Raising Arizona, Llewen Davis C: Buster Scruggs, Hail Caesar D: Intolerable Cruelty You've convinced me to watch the others (instead of just rewatching my top 5).... but maybe not The Ladykillers
1. Burn after Reading 2. O Brother where art thou? 3. No Country for Old Men 4. Fargo 5. Inside Llewyn Davis 6. Blood Simple 7. Millers Crossing 8. The Big Lebowski 9. A Serious Man 10. True Grit
In my late teens to early twenties, Coen Brothers were my favorite directors. "Miller's Crossing" still my favorite of theirs (Barry Sonnenfeld is possible my favorite Cinematographer), "Blood Simple" my second, third "No Country for Old Men", fourth "the Big Lebowski" and then "Barton Fink". The others were OK for me will good bits here or there. I'd love to see Joel's McBeth some time though. Right now, my favorite director is Ingmar Bergman. You should rank his movies, there are only around 39 full length movies of his.
Nobody packs more intelligence, more wit, more detail, more nuance, more visual poetry into every single frame of film than the Coen Brothers. Next to them, most other motion pictures look like amateur 8mm home movies that have been deteriorating in the attic for the last half a century. I'm always invigorated by their work because there's SO MUCH going on, second by second -- and all the elements work in concert, from the writing to the performances to the sound design (!!!) to the framing and cutting... Think of the scuff marks on the floor in "No Country," the hat blowing through the woods in "Miller's Crossing," the unopened box in "Barton Fink," the final "Schrödinger's Cat" seconds of "A Serious Man"... (I'd put those four masterpieces at the top of my ranking -- though I couldn't live without "Fargo," "Big Lebowski," "Llewyn Davis," "Buster Scruggs," "True Grit"...) P.S. Malkovich's pronunciation of "mem-wah" in "Burn After Reading" is so delicious I will cherish it to my dying day. P.P.S. Roman Polanski was head of the jury at Cannes when "Barton Fink" won the Palme d'Or. It has such a twisted, Polanski sense of humor. Compare to "The Tenant." They wrote "BF" about writer's block when they got stuck working through the narrative complexities of "Miller's Crossing" (which, by the way, are spelled out for you -- though you don't know it yet -- in Steve Buscemi's brief appearance at the top of the film).
I'd recommend you look into the films of Carroll Ballard. It probably wouldn't be that great for a UA-cam ranking since he only directed five films, but Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf, and Fly Away Home are some of the best films ever made. Other than that, I'd say Tarantino, Carpenter, and Lynch would be the obvious choices, but I'd also recommend looking into John Huston, Hal Ashby, Tom McCarthy, Jim Jarmusch, Philip Kaufman, Curtis Hanson, Gus van Sant, John Cassavetes, and FF and Sofia Coppola. Maybe you could even dive into the rest of Altman's movies. There were some real gems you left out of the last one (Images, The Delinquents). Thanks for the great content!
I'm a huge Coen Brothers fan and I disagree with some of this list, but I like how you're able to articulate why you're ranking them where you're ranking them. A Serious Man is probably the only one I disagree with in a big way. A Serious Man is one of their best for me, it's very dark and pretty funny, and balances both of those tones perfectly. It's about examining things too closely in a time of crisis and losing your faith in the process, and questioning what is and isn't certain -- even the things you thought you already knew were certain. The main character argues with a student about how he's doing poorly in class, the student tells him "I understand the math, I understand (Schrodingers Cat)". He explains that the math he's teaching is the real thing, the cat is just a fable to understand the math, but admits that even he (the math expert) doesn't understand the cat. And then the entire movie he's losing his faith and doing poorly in life, and the rabbis (the faith experts) he consults are telling him nothing but fables to try to restore his faith. Plus the Uncertainty Principle which ties into that, along with Jefferson Airplane's refrain of "when the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies", everything is tied together really neatly. Give it another watch, it's a phenomenal movie. Also, definitely don't bother watching The Ladykillers, it doesn't even feel like a Coen Brothers movie, which at least Intolerable Cruelty does even if it doesn't work at all.
The fact that No Country closes with two children arguing over money that just fell into their lap after Anton’s crash, is such a perfectly thematic, sad statement about greed. A microcosm of the themes and plot of the whole movie.
I always think about that moment too but more about how Chigurh, who represents all that crime that can’t be measured (to paraphrase the sheriff), immediately offers the one kid money for the shirt, and the kid is immediately like, “You can have my shirt.” I always took that as a small glimmer of hope that there is some altruism and goodness in the future. Such a rich, rich movie.
I find it hard to disagree with your ranking, with one exception. My choice for their best film is Miller's Crossing, for no other reason than it is the one that I want to return to again and again. I just love that film.
I know his filmography is far too prolific to rank all of his movies; but, perhaps you could do a top ten from one of my favorite directors, the great John Ford.
No Country for Old Men and Fargo are my top two, I read the novel first and the language was very different, like McCarthy was framing a shot instead of telling us how it would be to exist there, like a lot of descriptions in Suttree (very good book.) Seeing my version of the characters portrayed so accurate in the way they spoke and their expression on screen is something I want to experience again, and I hope I will do with The Road Do you have any suggestions for me? I’ve only ever read McCarthy because my time in school was very short. Anything at all.
Directors who deserve your attention and study: Alfred Hitchcock Stanley Kubrick David Lynch Terrence Malick Francis Ford Coppola Roman Polanski David Fincher Steven Soderbergh Sam Peckinpah Dario Argento Lucio Fulci Pier Paolo Pasolini John Carpenter Sam Raimi Quentin Tarantino William Friedkin Clint Eastwood Sergio Leone Akira Kurosawa Ingmar Bergman Woody Allen Paul Thomas Anderson Sidney Lumet Lars Von Trier Brian De Palma S. Craig Zahler Too many more to list!
Our lists skewed similar! Except for A Serious Man and Barton Fink. Each took me multiple re-watches, years apart, to fully enjoy. They're now in my top 5* *along with Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and No Country...
There seemed to be a period in the early 2000s where George Clooney had a lot of clout and tried to boost more subversive filmmakers but then would try to make them more ‘Hollywood’ and mess up what they had. Charlie Kaufman and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is another example, like Intolerable Cruelty. Soderbergh and Solaris too
I have a soft spot for The Ladykillers. it's not at all my favorite, but I love the over the top black humor of it and it's something of a go to movie for background noise comfort watches.
Please create a playlist with this director's rankings videos! You can add it to the descriptions and let people look for more. Did you do Cronenberg? Will love that!
Haven't seen all of them but Fargo's definitely the one that blew me away the most. For some reason No Country didn't really affect me the way I expected it to (maybe because I hyped it up too much), and I remember not liking Hail Caesar much either. But all the half dozen or so others I've seen are phenomenal. Burn After Reading's also definitely super underrated, it really does the In the Loop/The Thick of It sort of satire but with stakes so low it makes the whole thing patently ridiculous. Genuinely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life.
Your discussion of Barton Fink made me curious about your writing process. Have you ever thought of making a video about your process and what you have written?
Hi Jake - I just discovered the channel and will be back! Thanks for a great Coens retrospective. I'll let go your low ranking of O Brother, Where Art Thou? as I get it - horses for courses. (It's one of my firm favourites, though.) Delighted to see you give The Hudsucker Proxy its due! Such a funny, witty film. And you're right to avoid their Ladykillers remake - stick with the Ealing original. Later!
My ranking of the Coen Brothers
1-Joel
2-Ethan
Agreed
Ethan directed Drive Away Dolls and I lost all faith in him
@@smittyjjensin558I was shocked at how bad it was
@@smittyjjensin558 It played like a Coen Bros rip off movie
My ranking of the Coen Brothers
1-Coen
2-Brothers
Garfield is my favourite Cohen movie
HAHA! That's Joel Cohen.
He's my favourite Coen brother
Roy Cohn?
You should do David Lynch. That man’s filmography is so diverse in genre and themes that no two rankings will be the same.
He has like 3 films worth mentioning though.
That'd be fun - still need to see Inland Empire, and maybe another.
@@jamesevans2507 nah man eraserhead, elephant man, blue velvet, fire walk with me, lost highway, and Mulholland drive are all classics
@@jamesevans2507All of his films except for maybe Dune are worth mentioning
@@aidanlastname0187Dune was interfered with by the studio, which is why Lynch always worked independently after that
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t let themselves go to the gleeful silliness of The Hudsucker Proxy
Beautiful movie
I liked Proxy more when I realized it’s just a Rami movie.
For fucking real!!!
exactly - im so mad at myself for not seeing it until now!
Nerd! ❤
Oh Brother Where Art Thou is totally worth a rew rewatches. It grows on you over time, definitely one of my favorites but will never top Lebowski, Fargo, or No Country
O Brother is one of the great rewatchables of all time.
"We thought you was a toad!"
Can't get into no country for men
Buster Scrugs Fun fact: they just stumbled across Tom Waits when scouting location and just filmed him living his life
Akira Kurosawa ranked would be insane
after watching all 30 I can confirm it would get so emotional and so “I love all of his movies” by the end. However Jake only has one of his movies as 5 stars on Letterboxd so it would be a foregone conclusion
will take a while haha. So many i still need to see and i dont want to rush
@womancarryingman Don't skip Dersu Uzala, it's a meditative masterpiece about man and the wilderness.
Wait, a film noir that uses Beethoven as its score sounds like it would be my favorite movie ever, and I’ve never heard of The Man Who Wasn’t There before! Thanks for the tip, MCT!!
I recently rewatched The big lebowski for like the 100th time. Every time, there is something new, jokes are funnier and so on. Thanks for the video!
The repeating jokes through that movie are so hilarious. I’ve seen it many times and still notice subtle new jokes
A director that's worth ranking would be Satoshi Kon. It's a short 4 film filmography that is a set of anime films that seem so different from all of the others.
Also his show Paranoia Agent. Honestly speaking better than most of his films
A ranking would be incomplete without Paranoia Agent, though. A brief one season anime that‘s honestly one of the most powerful pieces of art I‘ve ever seen!
Glad to see people still bring him up. I met him at a con once. Seemed like a really nice guy. RIP
I finally got round to True Grit recently and it was a revelation! Thoroughly brilliant. Hayley Steinfeld absolutely holds her own sharing the screen with superstars. It’s 100% her film and she nails the Cohen vibe perfectly.
Ranking O Brother that low is criminal. It is their best film behind No Country.
@@dukeroyal1218 yeah well that’s just like uhhhh your opinion man……
that movie is really good tho
Too true
The Big Lebowski is one of the funniest things I've ever watched, but where it REALLY shines for me is how emotional the ending is. I love how this entire mystery slowly reveals itself to be a meaningless joke, and in the end the only thing that really matters was The Dude and his two friends, and it feels like Donny's death is the thing that reminded them of that considering how Dude's demeanor changes in the final. Also Walter finally giving a genuine apology after being so stubborn throughout the whole movie is just the best. Makes me tear up when I watch it.
The ending is both so funny yet sincere which I love
Lol don't exaggerate, that's not even the point
@@arthureich9075 What part of what I said was wrong? Is it not a sincere ending?
@@R15Sammy it's not suppose to make anyone cry lmao, watch more movies
I am the walrus
Of their films that I've seen, my own ranking would go:
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Fargo
3. The Big Lebowski
4. Barton Fink
5. Raising Arizona
6. Burn After Reading
7. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
8. Hail, Caesar!
Also Werner Herzog would be an interesting director to rank. His films are often riddled with production hell stories that would make for a fantastic video
Watch True Grit it's great
you gotta watch o brother
@@astrotrek3534 I've been eyeing up the Blu-ray
@@chashubokchoy8999 It's on my watchlist on D+, just haven't got around to it yet
Big Lebowski will always be my favorite one. It’s my favorite movie of all time. I can half explain why, half can’t.
Same thing for me
Ok nobody cares
My favorite Cohen brothers film is obviously their 2014 masterpiece “Blood Meridian” from a parallel dimension.
Great list! The Coen Brothers are my favorite filmmakers, and I love that they have made so many masterpieces that no two people will have the same ranking. I personally don't believe they have a bad film (although The Ladykillers is close)
My ranking:
1. Inside Llewyn Davis - Perfect/10
2. The Big Lebowski - Perfect /10
3. No Country For Old Men - Perfect/10
4. The Man Who Wasn't There - 9.5/10
5. Miller's Crossing - 9.5/10
6. Fargo - 9.5/10
7. Blood Simple - 9/10
8. Barton Fink - 9/10
9. Raising Arizona - 8.5/10
10. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? - 8.5/10
11. True Grit - 8.5/10
12. Burn After Reading - 8/10
13. The Tragedy of Macbeth - 8/10
14. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - 8/10
15. The Hudsucker Proxy - 7.5/10
16. A Serious Man - 7.5/10
17. Drive-Away Dolls - 7.5/10
18. Hail, Caesar! - 7/10
19. Intolerable Cruelty - 6.5/10
20. The Ladykillers - 5.5/10
I love that you put Raising Arizona so high. I feel like its the most underappreciated Coen movie.
That film cannot be underappriciated. Its praised on every level and on most 'best comedy' lists
The chase scene after he steals the diapers is comedy gold
I liked it the first time I watched it but after learning it was only their second film and Blood Simple was their first, I fell completely in love.
I absolutely LOVE the Coen Brothers! It is so great to see The Hudsucker Proxy high on the list- it's one of my top favorite of their films & sooo many people have never heard of it!
Oh brother where art thou low? You will be hearing from my representatives.
I didn't know that I needed this list
P.T Anderson would the logical follow-on for ranking.
He already did that. Check out the director rankings playlist on his channel.
@@jamesfurfaro4950 Many thanks, will check that out for sure!
1. Fargo
2. No Country For Old Men
3. O Brother Where Art Thou?
4. The Big Lebowski
5. Barton Fink
6. True Grit
7. Inside Llewyn Davis
8. Raising Arizona
9. A Serious Man
10. Blood Simple
11. Miller’s Crossing
12. The Man Who Wasn’t There
13. The Hudsucker Proxy
14. Burn After Reading
15. Hail Caesar!
16. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
17. The Ladykillers
18. Intolerable Cruelty
I have a similar ranking, but Buster Scruggs would be higher. Damn, they make great films!
Great list
Great list. No Country is definitely my favorite of theirs too, it’s one of the very first films I’d ever seen that really got me into film as an actual art form as opposed to just a form of entertainment. I was probably way too young when I first watched it but it still really left an impression on me. Not to mention the fact that it was also my first exposure to Cormac McCarthy which is obviously a giant plus.
There are so many that I would love to see.... Wong Kar Wai, David Lynch, Edward Yang, Antonioni,Satyajit Ray and Mike Leigh especially.
Love for giving love for "The Hudsucker Proxy"!
Before watching, I thought taking 23 minutes to rank two brothers sounded a bit thin, but after watching, I'm really happy that you did a full 11-minute dissertation on each Coen brother. They deserve it. Fiercely disagree with putting Ethan over Joel though
No Country is probably my favorite movie ever. It’s so tight and expertly put together. The Cormac McCarty brutal, matter of fact violence and morally gray motivations from the book were captured perfectly. Every shot is beautiful and oozing west Texas. Every actor nailed it 10/10 and it also has my favorite last line from a movie.
David Cronenberg and Brian De Palma. And Michael Mann…I’d especially like to hear your thoughts on Thief. And Kurosawa
all three of them I have a LOT to watch, would be fun.
Are there any directors you and Nadia could do together? It would be interesting to see how your lists compare. Love the video as usual!
I really enjoyed this one. Would Love to see a Wong Kar Wai ranking.
O Brother is perhaps my 2nd favourite after No Country. You need to rewatch it. It's based off Homer's Odyssey, thats why it feels like vignettes - but it all ties together at the end in a quietly brilliant way.
amazing video, man
I absolutely love Miller’s Crossing and Hudsucker Proxy. They are my favourites
DOG you need to go back and watch o’ Brother after reading as I lay dying. Film in general feels very bathed in Faulkner. Owe it to yourself to rewatch
dang you convinced me now
I haven't done a full re-watch, but based on my memories of these films, I think my ranking would be very different. No Country for Old Men is probably the best, but after that, for me it would be Fargo, A Serious Man, Burn After Reading, and Blood Simple. I think Burn After Reading deserves a lot more praise. As far as I'm concerned it's pretty much a perfect comedy. And the decision not to show the conclusion, but instead to have JK Simmons and David Rasche holding an absurd conversation about what happened, is genius and totally hilarious.
Edit: I admit I probably need to reassess Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, and The Big Lebowski.
I love these ranking videos!!
you should absolutely watch Macbeth, it’s one of the best looking films I’ve ever seen! Really leans into the theatricality of the material whilst still taking full advantage of the cinematic medium, I’d absolutely go as far as to call it my favourite film adaptation of Shakespeare
Would be interested in you discussing Fincher, Villenueve, Carpenter and Tarantino.
My favourite films of the Coen Brothers are as follows:
1. A Serious Man
2. A toss between which one among the following out-of-context dialogue from their corresponding movies I find funnier:
'We Thought You Was A Toad!' and 'Where's its scrotum, Llewyn?'
DUDE! I was so waiting for this
Fargo is my favorite. And then all the others can be in number two.
You could do De Palma or Friedkin next, they've got really interesting filmographies.
My ranking from what I watched:
1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. No Country for old Men
3. True Grit
4. Hail, Caesar
5. O Brother Where Art Thou?
6. Fargo
7. Burn After Reading
8. The Big Lebowski
9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
10. A Serious Man
If you haven’t already, ranking Wes Anderson would be fun!
Was thinking ladykillers was gonna be numero uno
A Serious Man sticks with you in a haunting sort of way. It's such a shame that Stuhlbarg doesn't get more leading roles.
EDIT: I love older Cohen stuff, but I never cared much for Raising Arisona for some reason. Maybe I should revisit it. My top 5 off the cuff: 1. No Country, 2. Fargo, 3. Serious Man, 4. Blood Simple, 5. Lebowski
I love Burn After Reading and I could agree that the themes aren’t as deep as their other films but I just love watching it. I’m happy you have it higher than O, Brother
my top 5:
1 A Simple Man
2 Burn After Reading
3 Fargo
4 Inside Llewelyn Davis
5 O Brother Where Art Thou?
no one writes comedy the way Coens do. They're so unique in that particular satire, that what makes them so great
My ranking (of ones I’ve seen)
1. Inside Llewyn Davis
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Barton Fink
4. Raising Arizona
5. Fargo
6. No Country For Old Men
7. True Grit
8. O Brother Where Art Thou
9. Burn After Reading
10. A Serious Man
11. Hail, Ceasar
12. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
All are at least good, some could benefit from a rewatch. Got a few more to see still
At the beginning of my own journey into a real love of cinema, the Coens were the first filmmakers I dove deep into. They were the first of the great directors whose filmography I went all the way through.
And my god, will they always have that special place in my heart. I can agree also that their films just get better with time and age.
One thing that Siskel said about Jeff Bridges was that whatever movie he's in, he makes it more interesting. High praise
Kelly Reichardt or Jim Jarmusch!
The Ladykillers is soooo good and misunderstood. Give it a try!
A Serious Man is one of my favourite movies of all time. That film, emotionally, hit close to home when I first saw it.
I’m gonna go off topic and suggest a review of movies written by a specific writer. Taylor Sheridan. I got interested in him after watching Hell Or High Water. He’s written for TV as well but I’ve come to really like almost all his movies. And he directs some of them as well
Ranking movies from great directors is a cool format but it'd be fun to also rank the ones from lesser liked ones like Bay and Shyamalan
Great list! I really enjoy these directors ranking videos. A Spielberg ranking would be really fun to watch. Also I know James Wan isn’t everyone’s favorite director but I really like all his films, so I’d enjoy a James wan filmography ranking also.
LOL
My Ranking:
13. Miller's Crossing
12. Intolerable Cruelty
11. Raising Arizona
10. True Grit
9. Burn After Reading
8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
7.Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
6. Fargo
5. Blood Simple
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. The Big Lebowski
2. A Serious Man
1. No Country for Old Men
Haven't seen Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Lady Killers, or Hail, Caesar! yet.
My list:
S: No Country, Fargo, Lebowski
A: True Grit, Oh Brother
B: Burn After, Raising Arizona, Llewen Davis
C: Buster Scruggs, Hail Caesar
D: Intolerable Cruelty
You've convinced me to watch the others (instead of just rewatching my top 5).... but maybe not The Ladykillers
I will say that I wish more people went to see Macbeth when it was on the big screen, the cinematography was excellent!
i’d love to see a Michael Mann ranking :)
1. Burn after Reading
2. O Brother where art thou?
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Fargo
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Blood Simple
7. Millers Crossing
8. The Big Lebowski
9. A Serious Man
10. True Grit
By far the best brother duo directors working right now
In my late teens to early twenties, Coen Brothers were my favorite directors. "Miller's Crossing" still my favorite of theirs (Barry Sonnenfeld is possible my favorite Cinematographer), "Blood Simple" my second, third "No Country for Old Men", fourth "the Big Lebowski" and then "Barton Fink". The others were OK for me will good bits here or there. I'd love to see Joel's McBeth some time though.
Right now, my favorite director is Ingmar Bergman. You should rank his movies, there are only around 39 full length movies of his.
Nobody packs more intelligence, more wit, more detail, more nuance, more visual poetry into every single frame of film than the Coen Brothers. Next to them, most other motion pictures look like amateur 8mm home movies that have been deteriorating in the attic for the last half a century. I'm always invigorated by their work because there's SO MUCH going on, second by second -- and all the elements work in concert, from the writing to the performances to the sound design (!!!) to the framing and cutting... Think of the scuff marks on the floor in "No Country," the hat blowing through the woods in "Miller's Crossing," the unopened box in "Barton Fink," the final "Schrödinger's Cat" seconds of "A Serious Man"... (I'd put those four masterpieces at the top of my ranking -- though I couldn't live without "Fargo," "Big Lebowski," "Llewyn Davis," "Buster Scruggs," "True Grit"...)
P.S. Malkovich's pronunciation of "mem-wah" in "Burn After Reading" is so delicious I will cherish it to my dying day.
P.P.S. Roman Polanski was head of the jury at Cannes when "Barton Fink" won the Palme d'Or. It has such a twisted, Polanski sense of humor. Compare to "The Tenant." They wrote "BF" about writer's block when they got stuck working through the narrative complexities of "Miller's Crossing" (which, by the way, are spelled out for you -- though you don't know it yet -- in Steve Buscemi's brief appearance at the top of the film).
I'd recommend you look into the films of Carroll Ballard. It probably wouldn't be that great for a UA-cam ranking since he only directed five films, but Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf, and Fly Away Home are some of the best films ever made. Other than that, I'd say Tarantino, Carpenter, and Lynch would be the obvious choices, but I'd also recommend looking into John Huston, Hal Ashby, Tom McCarthy, Jim Jarmusch, Philip Kaufman, Curtis Hanson, Gus van Sant, John Cassavetes, and FF and Sofia Coppola. Maybe you could even dive into the rest of Altman's movies. There were some real gems you left out of the last one (Images, The Delinquents).
Thanks for the great content!
I'm a huge Coen Brothers fan and I disagree with some of this list, but I like how you're able to articulate why you're ranking them where you're ranking them. A Serious Man is probably the only one I disagree with in a big way.
A Serious Man is one of their best for me, it's very dark and pretty funny, and balances both of those tones perfectly. It's about examining things too closely in a time of crisis and losing your faith in the process, and questioning what is and isn't certain -- even the things you thought you already knew were certain. The main character argues with a student about how he's doing poorly in class, the student tells him "I understand the math, I understand (Schrodingers Cat)". He explains that the math he's teaching is the real thing, the cat is just a fable to understand the math, but admits that even he (the math expert) doesn't understand the cat. And then the entire movie he's losing his faith and doing poorly in life, and the rabbis (the faith experts) he consults are telling him nothing but fables to try to restore his faith. Plus the Uncertainty Principle which ties into that, along with Jefferson Airplane's refrain of "when the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies", everything is tied together really neatly. Give it another watch, it's a phenomenal movie.
Also, definitely don't bother watching The Ladykillers, it doesn't even feel like a Coen Brothers movie, which at least Intolerable Cruelty does even if it doesn't work at all.
The fact that No Country closes with two children arguing over money that just fell into their lap after Anton’s crash, is such a perfectly thematic, sad statement about greed. A microcosm of the themes and plot of the whole movie.
I always think about that moment too but more about how Chigurh, who represents all that crime that can’t be measured (to paraphrase the sheriff), immediately offers the one kid money for the shirt, and the kid is immediately like, “You can have my shirt.” I always took that as a small glimmer of hope that there is some altruism and goodness in the future. Such a rich, rich movie.
I love your ranking videos
Millers Crossing is a masterpiece, it was kind of looked over as it cane out the same year as Goodfellas and Godfather 3, 1990.
I find it hard to disagree with your ranking, with one exception. My choice for their best film is Miller's Crossing, for no other reason than it is the one that I want to return to again and again. I just love that film.
Would love an Orson Welles ranking
I know his filmography is far too prolific to rank all of his movies; but, perhaps you could do a top ten from one of my favorite directors, the great John Ford.
This ranking really ties the room together.
No Country for Old Men and Fargo are my top two, I read the novel first and the language was very different, like McCarthy was framing a shot instead of telling us how it would be to exist there, like a lot of descriptions in Suttree (very good book.)
Seeing my version of the characters portrayed so accurate in the way they spoke and their expression on screen is something I want to experience again, and I hope I will do with The Road
Do you have any suggestions for me? I’ve only ever read McCarthy because my time in school was very short. Anything at all.
Directors who deserve your attention and study:
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
David Lynch
Terrence Malick
Francis Ford Coppola
Roman Polanski
David Fincher
Steven Soderbergh
Sam Peckinpah
Dario Argento
Lucio Fulci
Pier Paolo Pasolini
John Carpenter
Sam Raimi
Quentin Tarantino
William Friedkin
Clint Eastwood
Sergio Leone
Akira Kurosawa
Ingmar Bergman
Woody Allen
Paul Thomas Anderson
Sidney Lumet
Lars Von Trier
Brian De Palma
S. Craig Zahler
Too many more to list!
Our lists skewed similar! Except for A Serious Man and Barton Fink. Each took me multiple re-watches, years apart, to fully enjoy. They're now in my top 5*
*along with Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and No Country...
A Serious Man is so hilariously underrated
I love these director(s) ranked videos
There seemed to be a period in the early 2000s where George Clooney had a lot of clout and tried to boost more subversive filmmakers but then would try to make them more ‘Hollywood’ and mess up what they had. Charlie Kaufman and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is another example, like Intolerable Cruelty. Soderbergh and Solaris too
I have a soft spot for The Ladykillers. it's not at all my favorite, but I love the over the top black humor of it and it's something of a go to movie for background noise comfort watches.
Great video bro
I would love to see you talk about Denis Villeneuve, especially his lesser known movies, like Enemy or Incendies.
Billy Wilder would be great! He's sort of underrated in the film world
🗣️ WERNER HERZOG NEXT 🗣️ (probably just his movies, not documentaries? idk you're the boss)
haha that'd be a ton of work, because I feel like the docs and fictions are one and the same with him. would be fun though
O Brother, Where Art Thou? that low is crazy talk. Eewatch it for sure, I saw it for the first time last month and absolutely adored it.
Hudsucker Proxy filmed in my hometown of Wilmington NC. It’s a circle!
A serious man is a comedy. Life can be messed up and it can always get worse
‘My love for crime fiction and pulp fiction’ freeze frame and fade in the poster for Pulp Fiction. Tarantino ranking confirmed?
You do know what pulp fiction is, right? I'm not talking about the movie.
@@Largentina. Of course I do.. it was a joke
Please create a playlist with this director's rankings videos! You can add it to the descriptions and let people look for more. Did you do Cronenberg? Will love that!
Hey Pssssssst!
For the next ranking, U should totally do a John Carpenter ranking, in time for Halloween 🎃 🤞
The very best Cohens tend to be the ones about suitcases full of money. I see that two of those were your top two!
Haven't seen all of them but Fargo's definitely the one that blew me away the most. For some reason No Country didn't really affect me the way I expected it to (maybe because I hyped it up too much), and I remember not liking Hail Caesar much either. But all the half dozen or so others I've seen are phenomenal. Burn After Reading's also definitely super underrated, it really does the In the Loop/The Thick of It sort of satire but with stakes so low it makes the whole thing patently ridiculous. Genuinely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life.
My Favorite Coen Brothers Movie Is "Hail, Caesar!" (2016), And What's Yours, Man?
Your discussion of Barton Fink made me curious about your writing process. Have you ever thought of making a video about your process and what you have written?
There are still a lot of Cohen brothers movies I haven’t seen but Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading and No Country for Old Men would be my top 3 so far
My friends and I just went bowling and rewatched the Big Lebowski last night lol
Hi Jake - I just discovered the channel and will be back! Thanks for a great Coens retrospective. I'll let go your low ranking of O Brother, Where Art Thou? as I get it - horses for courses. (It's one of my firm favourites, though.) Delighted to see you give The Hudsucker Proxy its due! Such a funny, witty film. And you're right to avoid their Ladykillers remake - stick with the Ealing original. Later!
The Ladykillers is WILDLY underrated; doesn't deserve anywhere near the hate that it gets.