The Hollywood machine is responsible for churning out not just the commercial gems of Madea Goes to Jail and Confessions of a Shopaholic, but also the perceived intellectual offerings of the overrated, self-aggrandizing cabal of current directors, among which the Coen brothers possess a strong foothold.
The Coen brothers got a fucking Oscar and not Alfred Hitchcock, proving Hollywood's hard-on for trash
For as perplexingly revered as the Coen brothers are, it is difficult to deny that they have displayed genuine artistic progression, both scriptorially and directorially. The Hudsucker Proxy, one of the few films that isn’t constantly mentioned in reference to the directing team, is a chief example of their climb from extremely lackluster to just plain lackluster.
The Hudsucker Proxy is an homage to screwball comedy that falls short of a just imitation
Admittedly, the early to mid-nineties were a strange time for everyone, but the Coen brothers really got away with releasing a stockpile of banal shit (see Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, and The Hudsucker Proxy for the trilogy of evidence).
Portrait of the artists as old men
With the exception of The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers have done nothing that has truly added to the extremely scant list of decent films in the world, save for proving that an arsenal of Hebrew friends and lovers of indie bull shit that seems profound because it’s so esoteric and nonsensical will pave the way for commercial and artistic success.
Naturally, the Coen brothers are not alone in their elevated mediocrity. Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Michel Gondry, and Baz Luhrmann, to name a few, are all current directors who share the same benefit of being lauded for creating work that is on par with a USC senior, only with a higher budget to mask the inanity of the content.
What is so maddening about this ever pervasive existence of run of the mill “talent” is that it is all based on luck and whose backside you decide to forcibly stick your head up. The Coen brothers are a demonstration in the importance of never overstepping one’s bounds creatively, of how breaking barriers cannot occur unless the studio executive okays it first. Is it anything novel to point out that H’wood is fond of stifling innovation? Absolutely not. But one has to wonder how long it needs to be mentioned before something actually changes.
Based on the Coen brothers’ recent Oscar win, it seems there will be no sign of slowing down the omnipresent nurturing of the hack director’s sizable ego. And maybe this whole diatribe is just the bitter ranting of a failed screenwriter, but I still have to believe that I know when exaltation is deserved and when it is not. Federico Fellini: Deserved exaltation. Billy Wilder: Deserved exaltation. Stanley Kubrick: Deserved exaltation. The aforementioned directors are some of the last vestiges to give hope of there ever being another time when Hollywood could overlook its monetary voracity and instead consider what they are choosing to put out into the world and leave behind as an indication of humanity.
Comments
Throwing any Coen Brothers film in with the likes of “Madea Goes to Jail” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is so disgustingly ridiculous it hardly warrants comment. I guess that I’m the only one in the 26 days since you published to comment says something about your readers. Either they are mad too and agree with you, they do not exist, or they failed to fall for your obvious attempt at link baiting.
The Coen’s make entertaining films. They aren’t always perfect, they can sometimes be about form than substance, they might not always care about their characters, but they make entertaining, funny and sometimes profound films. Fellini, Wilder, and Kubrick? Are you suggesting that absolutely no living person is making movies that meet your stringent criteria of exaltation? I pity you if that’s the case.
Brent, I promise you Miss Barrel did not write this for link baiting. Aside from that, I’ll let her put up her dukes, if you will.
Enjoy!
Sorry mate, I stand by what I’ve said. And yes, I pity myself too because that troika of aforementioned directors is no longer in existence to set T-town straight. The Coen brothers are merely a brush stroke in the current canvas of insipidity.
That was the most ludicrous article I have read in a while. I understand that you don’t like their films but could you please tell me what’s actually wrong with them. You claim that their films are inane and specifically mentioned Barton Fink as one of their worst. That’s a massive contradiction in my book. Anyways, please tell me why they are inane?
Monsieur Jed, I know it’s real ballsy to say what I have said, especially with the phanlanx of Coen brothers worshippers out to kill me, but I genuinely feel that their films say nothing about life. As far as I’m concerned, they’re two white boys just living out their childhood fantasy. And I have to suffer for them to live this dream. As for Barton Fink, I’ll admit it had potential with the whole Hollywood as soul-sucking black abyss thing, but still, NOT MY BAG. And if it makes you feel better, I did give them credit for The Big Lebowski. Any who, I do hope this answers your question and consoles you a bit.
Wow, your comments are even stupider than the post itself. If you think the big lewbowski is the best coen brothers movie it is a sad statement about your intellect. If you think hudsucker proxy is a bad movie, at least in the terms you stated (everyone has preferences, but you are simply dead wrong), you shouldn’t be critiquing films. You also either have no idea what the word banal means, or you are an amazingly dense viewer. I too, hate those quirky yet banal movies like hudsucker and raising arizona. (that’s sarcasm).
Perhaps a few training montages and a catchy theme like eye of the tiger would spice up their movies?
That said, I am hardly the biggest coen brothers fan and most of their movies leave me slightly underwhelmed, with a few terrible ones thrown in recently. I don’t hold them holy in the least and they have some very bad movies but your problem seems to be you just don’t understand what you are watching.
For someone telling me I don’t understand what I’m watching, you really don’t seem to know what you’re reading. As tired as I am of defending this review, let me start again. First, I never even mentioned Raising Arizona and I never called anything the Coen brothers have done “quirky” because nothing they’ve done is, at least not in a way that hasn’t been preapproved and tailored to the demographic that the men with the money think will go see a movie that is “offbeat” (resulting in 500 Days of Summer, Whip It, and Paper Heart). If you want to nitpick at the word banal, I use it because the Coen brothers’ career is “boringly commonplace and predictable,” to use one definition. And I really can’t get too upset about liking The Big Lebowski most out of the Coen brothers’ work being a “sad statement on my intellect” when you’ve listed your name as “Oh Boy.” So, this is the last time I can wield the energy to field comments/outrage about this post. From now on, just consider this my Sean Bateman response to all, “Rock n’ roll. Deal with it.”
Sounds like a plan, 2 user accounts with different VPN configuration profile for each. I take it you both do not need to telecommute for the whole work day, but just intermittently?
I wish to say something in favor of The Hudsucker Proxy, but I do not wish to be argumentative. However, in response to the thought that …”I genuinely feel that their films say nothing about life”, I will first just quote from another of my favorite movies:
“Gilbert: Every theatrical performance is a contrivance by its very nature.
Sullivan: Yes, but this piece consists entirely of an artificial and implausible situation.
Gilbert: If you wish to write a Grand Opera about a prostitute, dying of consumption in a garret, I suggest you contact Mr Ibsen in Oslo. I am sure he will be able to furnish you with something suitably dull.”
I am not a Coen Brother fan. But I love this movie. To be succinct: the visuals are stunning, the music is unbelievably perfect (thank you, Aram Khachaturian), and the characters and plot are unbelievably apt caricatures of their ’50s era counterparts. If I had to pick one element that really works, it would be the visuals. And the music. OK, that’s two. So I can’t count…sue me.
Anyway, if anyone has read this far, I suggest you watch this movie. Again and again. Because every time you watch it, you will get another subtle joke.
Not perhaps the best idea for movie-theater fare, but well-suited to the ‘Age of the DVD’.
Smoking Barrel, maybe you’ve seen too many bad movies, and/or just too many movies period, and that’s why you’re burnt out. (That’s why I ration my intake of movies.) Or maybe you’re just like my friend Dan who thinks Primer is the greatest movie ever.
As far as your screenwriter ambitions, I wish you the best of luck! I’d love to write a great movie myself, but I doubt that I have a fraction of the talent necessary. But maybe you should try something different (different for you that is), and think less like an idealist and more like a business person.
Regards.
I feel bad for you.