Tag Archives: Coen Brothers

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Western

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) Movie Review

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You can’t watch a Coen brothers film just once. For some reason, in spite of this firm belief, I insist on reviewing their films after one viewing. Knee-jerk responses to films made by two brothers who are meticulous in everything they do. Never a smart idea.

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Hail, Caesar! is sticky with nostalgia, too caught up in it to provide a thorough and satisfying narrative. After watching it a few more times, it becomes clear that there is more to the Continue reading The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Portfolio

Hail Caesar! (2016) Movie Review

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In Hail Caesar!, the latest from the Coen Brothers, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is an actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is introduced on-screen in a meta framing—a screening within a screening—portraying a Roman leader in a historical epic a la Spartacus. During filming of this movie, Whitlock is drugged and kidnapped.

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Hail Caesar! is the Coen Brothers’ love letter to classical Hollywood cinema. The standard genres of the period are represented: Westerns, historical epics, Broadway musical adaptations, bourgeois romance, etc.

The structural issue of this love letter is that Continue reading Hail Caesar! (2016) Movie Review →