This year’s Oscars saw the Coen Brothers receive their sixth screenwriting nomination for Bridge of Spies. It was a solid effort, mostly remarkable for being the first time in 30 years that someone else has directed one of their works and it not being a major letdown. But then again, Spielberg could turn just about anything into a Best Picture contender by his reputation alone.

The first attempt by the Coen Brothers handling just the screenplay credits was for Sam Raimi’s 1985 film Crimewave, which limped out on a limited release 30 years ago. Critics were not impressed. Vincent Canby of the New York Times tried to be nice, but couldn’t help noting that it was “not funny” and “dimly humorless”—and no-one went to see it. The film made just over $5,000 against its modest $2.5 million budget. (For comparison, the highest grossing film of 1986, Top Gun, made around $386 million versus a $15 million budget).

So now that Crimewave is three decades old, how does it stand up over time? I approached Crimewave aware of its reputation but hoping that it would play better now that we’re attuned to the Coen’s sense of humour. Unfortunately, it hasn’t aged well. All early Raimi movies have the same cartoony aesthetic, but Crimewave looks particularly cheesy, as if shot on left over sets from Police Squad. It has received some retrospective turd-polishing in certain circles—Slant Magazine awarded it four out of five stars, the same rating they gave The Big Lebowski.

Back in 1985, Crimewave must have sounded like a good idea at the time. Raimi was still hot after his debut (now cult classic) The Evil Dead, and Blood Simple announced the Coen’s as a remarkably precocious writing-producing-directing duo. Sometimes match-ups that look good on paper turn out to be stinkers—see the putrid chemistry vacuum of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.

Raimi’s hyperactive visual style would seem a great match for the Coen’s stylized dialogue, and some of the former’s directorial pizzazz bled over into the Coen’s earlier work. Yet the combination also failed in the Coen’s highest profile flop, The Hudsucker Proxy, where Raimi co-wrote and served as Second Unit Director. Tellingly, the Coen’s were working on the script for Hudsucker while Crimewave was in production, and both films share DNA with Raising Arizona at the zanier end of the Coen’s screenwriting spectrum. All three are postmodern spins on old Hollywood movies of the ’30s and ’40s that the Brothers love so much.

Crimewave starts well enough. Like Hudsucker, we meet our protagonist just as he is apparently about to meet his demise—Victor Ajax (Reed Birney) is a typical Coen-esque schlub dragged from his cell for a midnight date with the electric chair. Meanwhile, a carload of nuns race through the silent city streets to the rescue. Via flashback, we find out what led Victor to his perilous state. Ajax was once a regular joe installing security cameras for the Trend-Odegard security company. One partner—Mr. Trend—employs some repulsive contract killers to whack the other, Mr. Odegard. Through a series of woefully unfunny scenes Ajax falls in love with a femme fatale, butts heads with his love rival Renaldo (Bruce Campbell, a frequent Raimi associate), and ends up taking the fall for a series of murders committed by the unhinged exterminators.

Coen aficionados should enjoy some of the characters in Crimewave. The hitmen are the first in a series of big man-little man combos that would serve them so well, from John Goodman and William Forsythe in Raising Arizona to Goodman and Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski. This links in with a less appealing Coen trope, that of fat men screaming, hollering and shouting, which they like to work into any movie when they get the chance.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty juvenile and ugly exercise, and the pace of the film suffers from the studio’s intervention. Raimi was denied the final cut, and the editing is at odds with the director’s usual dynamism—even at a trim 83 minutes it plods terribly. Scenes drag on forever because the editing is so slack, exposing the weakness of the script. The screenplay is the real villain of the piece, with barely enough dialogue to get the characters from point A to B in a scene. It feels like a rough draft dashed off to set up the story’s structure, and got made into a movie by accident before the Coen’s could revise.

If it played faster they might have gotten away with the “jokes”, which are about as sophisticated as Stan and Ollie getting their hats mixed up. An example is a character walking into a broom closet instead of his apartment…that’s it, that’s the joke. These gags have whiskers on them, as someone in Hudsucker might say.

The only truly enjoyable part of the film is Bruce Campbell, making the most of slim pickings. Campbell was still a few years away from becoming a B-movie idol, but delivers the lines with his typical cult hero drollery. Raimi wanted Campbell for the lead, but the studio insisted on someone more “Hollywood”, resulting in the baffling casting of Birney as Ajax. He’s a completely insipid screen presence and the action grinds even further to a halt as he bumbles through his scenes. It’s the film equivalent of watching a stand up act die onstage.

After Crimewave flopped, Raimi retreated to his cabin in the woods to create Evil Dead II, one of the greatest sequels of all time. He would pare back his Loony Toon instincts to make his best film to date, A Simple Plan, and also helm one of the most emotionally satisfying superhero adaptations, Spiderman 2. Of course, the Coen’s career as filmmakers grew immensely over time, though it’s fascinating how they stuck to their guns with the same vein of wackiness in their next feature, Raising Arizona.

Crimewave is perhaps best remembered as a cautionary tale, carrying the whiff of hubris from three young filmmakers who perhaps felt they were too cool to fail. Careers have been ruined by less, and we can be thankful that Raimi and the Coen’s managed to survive after the unwatchable mess of this collaboration.

Universal Studios announced that the next Coen Brothers project, Hail, Caesar! has been slotted for February 5, 2016, according the EW.

The film looks to be a return to pure comedy for the Coens, their first since 2009’s A Serious Man, and stars George Clooney as a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s. The overall cast is very strong, including Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

On first thought, the February date is a bit surprising and disappointing, considering the month is typically reserved for films that studios decide to dump while people are still focused on the upcoming Oscars. Also considering the film was initially thought to be released in 2015, this may be a bit of a bad sign. However, since the Coen Brothers are behind the project I wouldn’t be too concerned yet.

Angelina Jolie launches herself into the Oscar race with her latest directorial entree Unbroken. As if perfecting Disney villainess status wasn’t impressive enough, Angie’s efforts behind the camera have been wholly ambitious as she continuously tackles stories of war and inhumane situations.

Unlike her first directorial project, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which was a smaller-scaled war drama set in the Bosnian War, Unbroken is the true story of Olympian runner Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell), who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II. The drama was co-written by the Coen Brothers and co-stars Domhnall Gleeson and Garrett Hedlund. With a Christmas Day release, the film is ripe for hanky-grabbing and Oscar-nabbing.

As the Coen Brothers continue to put together their follow-up to last year’s Inside Llewyn Davis, the enticing details about Hail, Caesar! have begun to stack up. Now set to join George Clooney in the film’s main cast is semi-frequent Coen collaborator Josh Brolin. Brolin, who last worked with the Coens on 2010’s True Grit also lead their last Oscar-winning effort No Country for Old Men.

Hail, Caesar! tells the story of Eddie Mannix, a “fixer” for the Hollywood studios in the 1950s, through the uniquely comedic perspective of Joel and Ethan Coen. During this era of Old Hollywood, it was common practice for studios to hire detectives and others to help maintain the squeaky clean image of its stars.

Universal Picture announced earlier this week that they had acquired worldwide distribution rights to Hail, Caesar! which is expected to be released in 2015.

The latest creation from masterminds Joel and Ethan Coen is about a folk musician named Llewyn Davis; a couch surfing cat-lover with a full beard who rarely is without his guitar, and is more concerned with being an artist than being a traditional careerist. Nowadays Davis would likely be considered a hipster, but the film is set back during in the early days of folk music. The most effective moments of Inside Llewyn Davis are when Davis is behind the mic with his guitar, unfortunately that happens less than you would expect. And while there is some great deadpan humor sporadically placed throughout, the overall tone of the film is a bit darker, focusing on his struggles to make it in life.

Inside Llewyn Davis opens with a two and a half minute solo of Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) strumming his guitar and belting out a downer folk song comprised of catchy hooks that you will not soon forget. At first it hard to tell if the hazy picture is due to the smoky interior of a small New York City pub circa 1961, but as soon as he steps outside the soft focus look remains observable. If you could not tell from the lyrics of his songs, Davis is a down on his luck musician who lives on other people’s couches without a penny to his name. Also, he may or may not have gotten a fellow folk singer (Carey Mulligan) pregnant.

When the subject of the story is someone who drifts from couch to couch with a career that is practically nonexistent, the film is going to have a natural aimless wander to it. This is fine at the beginning because Inside Llewyn Davis is frontloaded, containing its best scenes within the first hour of its runtime. Watching him trying to take care of a run-away cat is easily the highlight of the film; followed by a silly recording session with some of his friends (Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver) about being sent into outer space by President Kennedy. Unfortunately, the film spends too much time on autopilot after the midway point that it begins to grow tiresome and very unfocused.

The Coen brothers are known to create remarkably unique characters, just take a look at most of the characters in The Big Lebowski or Fargo. But all of the characters we are introduced to in Inside Llewyn Davis are abandoned before they can make a lasting impression. A prime example of this is when John Goodman leaves the picture as quickly as he appears—not even making it through an entire road trip. To top it off, the character we do spend the most time with, Llewyn Davis, happens to be the least interesting character of the film, despite it being easy to sympathize with his situation.

Inside Llewyn Davis is about as close as you get to be a musical without being one—a shame because the musical breaks are one of the strongest components of the film. Watching our protagonist wander through his journey becomes less interesting with each passing act of the film. There are some great moments in Inside Llewyn Davis, just not as many as you come to expect from a Coen brothers production.

Inside Llewyn Davis trailer

When you first watch this story of trickery and deceit, you may perceive it quite differently as you would following a second viewing. After seeing Burn After Reading for the first time in 2008, I was compelled to hate everything about it. I found it hard to enjoy the events that occurred, I was unhappy with the character arcs that Joel and Ethan chose and I was dissatisfied with the ending. Having recently watched it again, however, I was willing to retract my previous judgement and declare that I was quite taken with the quirky, deceitful scenarios that rolled out.

Burn After Reading is a story based upon the idea that when people want something badly enough, they can sometimes go to extreme measures in achieving it; and the Coen Brothers once again demonstrate different ridiculous outcomes to the everyday circumstances these characters endure.

Academy Award Winner, Frances McDormand (Fargo) – a Coen Brothers/Amy favourite, plays as Linda Litzke, a woman who is absolutely determined to undergo plastic surgery to reshape her body and uplift her life. The whole film is molded around Litzke’s unwavering focus on her desire to reinvent herself, and mishap after mishap ensues as her schemes become increasingly reckless (and as a result a lot more dangerous). Initially disheartened by her insurance company refusing to cover the surgery; Chad (Brad Pitt), discovers a disc containing what he believes to be “high quality information” that he presumes will help her money issues. What unfolds thereafter is a series of events that leads up to you finally thinking “so what did we just watch?” It is not a bad movie as a result of this, I enjoyed the fact it gave me time to reflect on what I had just sat through: a story full of real feelings, real emotions and a narrative that never leaves you wanting to drift off face first into your popcorn.

McDormand’s character portrayal is not the only one I wish to comment on, as Brad Pitt’s character Chad, was one of his most versatile performances to date. Playing an energetic yet comically naive personal trainer for a fitness centre, it gave Pitt a chance to step back from his alter ego Rusty Ryan/Tyler Durden persona. Chad’s simplicity gets him in a lot of trouble during the course of the film, but his optimism for life never falters.

Each scene leaves you thinking “what is actually happening” as the story continues to take us in many different directions. Subplots divide and multiply as the film unfolds, yet all are interwoven. You’re not necessarily confused with what the characters are up to, but more so why they’re perhaps building a reclining sex chair or chasing fitness instructors with an axe. There are characters that you’ll come to love or hate, but on some level you’ll secretly empathize with each and every one of them.

Joel and Ethan Coen have such a rich history in filming excellent and unforgettable movies, such as Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998) and more recently No Country for Old Men (2007) and True Grit (2010), that anything they make is classed as unique and creative; and Burn After Reading ticks both those boxes. Because of how interesting the storylines for each character are and how entertainingly painful they are to watch, after every scene you’re constantly questioning yourself as to whether or not you love or hate the film.

The quote that the movie went for, “Intelligence is Relative”, fits perfectly to the references to the CIA, where “Intelligence” is paramount, every character, including those government officials, are clueless as to what is happening within their own lives let alone anyone else’s. It’s a great quote to summarize the plot and the characters alike – that there can be no stupid questions, only stupid answers; cue Burn after Reading.

The 2011 Oscar nominations were announced this morning with The King’s Speech leading the way for the 83rd Academy Awards. The film, which also led the Golden Globes nominations (but only took home 1 award), took 12 nominations which include; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Surprisingly, The Social Network only took 8 which tied Christopher Nolan’s Inception and behind Joel and Ethan Coen’s True Grit which had 10 nominations.

Another surprise was Christopher Nolan’s absence from the Best Director’s category. But another person’s snub is another person’s gain as Darren Aronofsky earns his first ever Oscar nomination for Black Swan in the Best Director category. Some say he was snubbed two years ago in that category for The Wrestler.

Even though there were a few surprises, most of the nominations were fairly predictable, especially if you paid attention to the Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations. Most of the leading nominations were mostly expected.

See who I predict will win Oscars

It was a very solid year for cinema making the award shows very interesting to watch as there was a lot of strong competition all around. The 2011 Oscar winners will be announced on February 27th (a day after the Independent Spirit Awards).

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 hours

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David Fincher, The Social Network
The Coens, True Grit

Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Mike Leigh, Another Year
David Seidler, The King’s Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, The Fighter

Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy, 127 hours
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3
The Coens, True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini, Winter’s Bone

Biutiful
Dogtooth
In A Better World
Incendies
Outside The Law

How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

“Coming Home”, Country Strong
“I See the Light”, Tangled
“If I Rise”, 127 Hours
“We Belong Together”, Toy Story 3

How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Comes Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)

The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

The Coen Brothers’ set themselves up for a challenge by deciding to do a re-make of a classic Western film, True Grit, that starred John Wayne. The Coens work again with Jeff Bridges from his role as The Dude in The Big Lebowski and give him the tough role of replacing John Wayne from the original True Grit (1969). But do not let the movie poster fool you, while Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin all do exceptional jobs, the true stand out is the young, less-known Hailee Steinfeld.

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fearless 14 year old farm girl whose father was recently murdered by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She sets out to capture the killer with help from a U.S. Marshal who is notorious for being ruthless. Considered a man with “true grit” she hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Cogburn was recently on trial for being so careless with the amount of killings from his trigger-happy finger. She deems this a perfect candidate to help her seek redemption.

A Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) explains he would like to join Mattie and Cogburn in their effort to capture Chaney. Both LaBoeuf and Cogburn decide to try ditching the young girl to catch the killer and split the reward money between them. However, Mattie is forceful and stubborn, thus not easy to get rid of. The three set out on a journey filled with danger and unexpected circumstances.

It was not blatantly evident that True Grit was done by the Coen brothers. Typically, Ethan and Joel Coen put a quirky and irony touch to their films, however, they normally do original films that produce massive cult followings. This is time they decided to do a re-make of a classic John Wayne Western film. So do not go into it assuming they are picking up where they left off from No Country for Old Men, it has a lesser “Coen brothers” feel to it.

The cinematography in this film is phenomenal. True Grit looks like an authentic Western shot from the time period thanks to Roger Deakins. The buildings, clothing and even their language felt very true and accurate. The shots around the campfire were pleasantly done and the landscape is majestic.

The thing I enjoyed the most about True Grit was the acting performances. Jeff Bridges was born to play Westerns, he has the lazy, raspy voice that perfectly fits the role. This is something that proved true in the last film he did, Crazy Heart. The two roles were not all that different. Matt Damon did not seem too out of place as I expected he might. Hailee Steinfeld had the right amount of passion required for her role as a determined and stubborn lead character.

True Grit has a straightforward storyline that showcases beautiful landscapes and talented actors while proving that re-makes of classic Western’s are still possible. While I am not a huge fan of the Western genre, I feel like the Coen brothers paid some homage to the genre and did nothing over-the-top, probably for the better. However, I could see an even split between Coen lovers loving it or hating it, since it does not scream Coen. But if you like Western’s or just want to see a well-made one, you do not have to look further than True Grit.

A Serious Man is a dark comedy that comes off being; profound, pretentious, uncomfortable, simple and serious. It’s about actions and coincidences. It’s also about trying to find answers to life’s problems. Nominated for two Oscars this film written, directed and produced by the Coen brothers is worth watching. But be warned, it’s slow.

As the title suggests, it’s about a serious man named Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) who has some serious life issues and begins to self-destruct. He desperately seeks for help and answers to his problems. A Serious Man opens with a meaningful quote “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” This is essentially what the entire film is all about.

Larry is an ordinary Midwestern physics professor. His life begins to slowly unravel when his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) tells him she wants a divorce. At the same time, a student who desperately wants a passing grade tries to bribe Larry with money. He looks for answers from everywhere he can including religion and lawyers.

A Serious Man is domestically simple. It has a small town feeling with plenty of routine and uneventful way of living. Overall it is slow moving but it also has sudden changes of events, makes for sort of paradoxal fast paced slow moving dialog heavy film.

The cinematography was stunning and each scene was beautifully shot. It’s no surprise it won Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards, it rightfully deserved it.

What I didn’t like about the film was how many things they could have went into more detail on. It’s like they present you all these sudden incidents but don’t go into full detail about them. Specifically, Uncle Arthur’s Mentaculus book. His book filled with equations and formulas, other than it broadly shows that both Larry and Arthur are trying to find rationality in life. It really doesn’t have major relevance to the story. I wanted to know more about it.

Due to its slow moving pace and somewhat uncomfortable dialog, I don’t believe A Serious Man will win over the majority of people’s hearts. While it certainly is no masterpiece, it is definitely a quality piece of work that shouldn’t be completely overlooked.