Apologies for the awful title; I’m not feeling all that clever right now. I just feel the need to point out that the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan have wrapped shooting on their upcoming movie Burn After Reading. Who’s got two thumbs and is really excited for this movie? This guy, right here.

Take a peek at the trailer on Youtube:

or if you’ve got iTunes, a beefy internet connection and a little patience, grab a hi-def version from the apple site.

So now that you’ve watched, you’re pretty excited, right?

Okay, I could see that after watching the trailer you might think it’s a movie that could collapse under its own combined weight of acting talent and quirk (I’m looking at you, I ❤ Huckabees, and casting a glance in your direction also, The Darjeeling Limited). I don’t think we need to be worried here; take a look at the people making the film.

Can you think of any filmmaker(s) that are as consistently good as the Coens Brothers are? From their debut in 1984 (Blood Simple) to last year’s best picture (No Country For Old Men they have very few misses. There are a couple I haven’t yet seen (Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers) which also haven’t fared the highest on IMDB, but even assuming those are awful wrecks (which I doubt), take a look at what the Coens have done throughout their career (if you don’t feel like reading through this all, you can watch this compilation of all their movies).

1984: Blood Simple, a genuinely suspenseful movie with very little of the quirkiness you’ll find in some of their later (but certainly not all) movies. They also start their longtime collaboration with Frances McDormand here, who is fantastic. Update: I just learned that Frances and Joel have been married since ‘84. Awesome.

1987: Raising Arizona, which I love. Have you seen a really good Nicholas Cage movie? If you haven’t seen this one, I suspect you haven’t. Frances McDormand is back, and they bring John Goodman into the fold. You’ll see both of them again several more times.

1990: Miller’s Crossing. A classic period crime drama, again bereft of some of the quirk you’ll see in other movies. Here we see John Turturro and Steve Buscemi introduced to the Coens’ growing cast of feature players.

1991: Barton Fink, which is forever intertwined in my mind with one of my favorite Simpsons episodes of all time. Bar-ton Fink! Bar-ton Fink! I’ll admit the movie itself is a bit hazy in my mind, but I do remember liking it quite a bit. Also, John Goodman, John Turturro, and Steve Buscemi are all back (Goodman especially in a really fantastic/scary role).

1994: The Hudsucker Proxy is a movie I’ve recommended to forced upon many friends and coworkers. Tim Robbins is wonderful, Jennifer Jason Leigh channels Rosalind Russell, and the world they inhabit is some alternative 1940s world with impossibly high skyscrapers and improbably busy offices. Steve Buscemi has a bit part, as does Bruce Campbell (do you need any further reason to see the movie?), and Charles Durning shows up for the first of a few movies with the Coens.

By the way: watch this movie.

1996: Fargo is the one that (I believe) brought the Coens to a wider audience. I don’t think there’s a better example of the elusive “dark comedy” genre out there, and William H. Macy and Frances McDormand are each absolutely perfect. Buscemi has his largest role yet in this one. This one is set apart from other attempts at the genre in nearly all aspects including but not limited to cinematography, acting, writing, and music. The Coens won’t have a better movie until 2007, though that doesn’t mean their later ones aren’t any good.

1998: The Big Lebowski. If you’re like me, you watched this one, thought “meh”, and from that point on the movie grew and grew on you until you became convinced it’s one of the greatest movies ever. Okay, maybe not quite like that, but how good is Jeff Bridges in this movie? Answer: very. You’ve got your nihilists, John Turturro as The Jesus (maybe put headphones on for that one if you’re at work), John Goodman back in the saddle, and a lovely supporting role from Philip Seymour Hoffman, who deserves a post of his own (because he is one of the greatest actors ever).

2000: Oh Brother Where Art Thou? gets George Clooney into the mix (he’ll show up again), brings back Turturro, Goodman, Holly Hunter (Raising Arizona) and Charles Durning (Hudsucker Proxy). Stephen Root has a small part; he’ll have a bigger one in No Country For Old Men. So what about the movie itself? It’s just your typical retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, set in Depression-era America with an escaped chain gang, hidden treasure, and the KKK. Oh, and it’s a musical also.

2001: The Man Who Wasn’t There. We’re now delving into the era where my Coen familiarity is lacking. I saw this one, remember enjoying it, but I wasn’t blown away. It’s yet another departure; the film is devoid of color, and Billy Bob Thornton is devoid of most emotion. Frances McDormand is back again, as is—Tony Soprano- James Gandolfini. Not that my commentary on the others has been particularly insightful, but I don’t have a ton to say about this one either.

As I mentioned, I haven’t seen either 2003’s Intolerable Cruelty or 2004’s The Ladykillers, but I’d like to remedy that at some point in the near feature, despite their lackluster reception.

And finally, 2007 brought us No Country For Old Men. Spoiler alert! It’s amazing. It won Best Picture last year against four worthy opponents (okay, I wasn’t a huge fan of Atonement), with even more deserving-but-not-nominated movies in the wings. In one of the best years for movies that I can remember, this one still managed to stand out. Sometimes slow and brooding, sometimes very frenetic in its action, and never formulaic, it was a pretty intense watch.

In addition to Burn After Reading, we’ve also got three more movies to look forward to that are currently in production. I’m not sure how these guys manage to have been so good for over 20 years, but I’m not complaining.

UPDATES: First, I realized that I misspelled “Coen” as “Cohen” throughout this whole post. So that has been fixed. Second, the whole reason I got inspired to write about them was that I’d heard that they were going to be making a movie based upon a book I just finished reading, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, which was excellent. I couldn’t find any info. on IMDB, so I figured it was just a rumor, but Wikipedia seems to think it’s true also, and it has never been wrong. So, that’s awesome.