In 1951 Hollywood, a studio executive acts as fixer, shielding his company's stars from controversy, including the kidnapping of a male movie star by a group of disenchanted Communist writers. Click Images to Enlarge
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
In 1951 Hollywood, a studio executive acts as fixer, shielding his company's stars from controversy, including the kidnapping of a male movie star by a group of disenchanted Communist writers. Click Images to Enlarge
Titles Comprise: Fargo:William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard a Minneapolis car salesman who is by all accounts a loser. He is desperately in debt so decides to hires two thugs (who are bigger losers than he is) to kidnap his wife in the hope that his wealthy father-in-law (who bullies him regularly) will pay the ransom. When one of the kidnappers goes off the rails and events career out of control it falls to Marge Gunderson Chief of the Brainerd Police Department to set things right. Raising Arizona:Ex-con Hi and ex-cop Ed meet marry and long for a child in the wilds of Arizona. When Ed discovers she's barren the God-given solution is presented: to snatch a baby from a set of quins. Thus begins a series of kidnappings capers and rum goings-on that revolve around the helpless yet universally-loveable child. Hi's convict friends his boss and even the Lone Biker Of The Apocalypse become involved in the ever-twisting plot in the quest to own the baby. Millers Crossing:The year is 1929. The place is an gangster-ridden American city run by Leo (Albert Finney). But the real power lies with Tom (Gabriel Byrne) the power behind the man. Their friendship is severed when they both fall in love with the same woman (Marcia Gay Harden) and a bloody gang war erupts...
Academy Award winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen bring their famously wicked sense of humour to this every day tale about a moral man who sees the world inexplicably turn against him in this darkest of comedies.
New York, 1941. Socially conscious script writer Barton Fink (John Turturro) has been a big hit on Broadway. Now Tinsel Town is taking notice. Hired by Hollywood to write a wrestling picture, Barton quits the city smog for movie stardom. L.A. has got the Barton Fink feeling. Barton Fink has got writer's block. Enlisting the help of able assistant Audrey (Judy Davis), and amiable neighbour Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), Fink finds the real-life inspiration he seeks comes from the most sinister of sources. From master movie makers the Coen Brothers (Blood Simple, No Country For Old Men), comes the unanimously acclaimed Barton Fink. The biting, offbeat story of Hollywood heartache, faceless movie moguls and headless corpses.
""Sometimes there's a man well he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude. The Dude from Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in all of Los Angeles County which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. Sometimes there's a man sometimes there's a man. Well I lost my train of thought here. But... aw hell. I've done introduced it enough."" - The Str
True Grit is a powerful story of vengeance and valour set in an unforgiving and unpredictable frontier where justice is simple and mercy is rare. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is determined to avenge her father's blood by capturing Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) the man who shot and killed him for two pieces of gold. Just fourteen she enlists the help of Rooster Cogburn Academy Award Winner Jeff Bridges) a one-eyed trigger-happy U.S. Marshall with an affinity for drinking and hardened Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Academy Award Winner Matt Damon) to track the fleeing Chaney. Despite their differences their ruthless determination leads them on a perilous adventure that can only have one outcome: retribution.
Between Heaven and Hell There's Always Hollywood! John Turturro shines in the lead role in Barton Fink the Coen Brothers' (Miller's Crossing Fargo) hilarious satire set in the 1940s Hollywood. Fink is a New York playwright who reluctantly relocates to Hollywood to write screenplays. Ordered to write a low budget screenplay about wrestling Fink manages to type one sentence and then...nothing! Although his chatty insurance salesman neighbour Charlie (John Goodman) helps out by teaching Fink about wrestling the clock ticks the temperature rises and Fink's life spins more and more out of control. Barton Fink received three 1991 Oscar nominations-(Best Supporting Actor-Michael Lerner Best Art Direction/Set Direction and Best Costume Design) and also won Best Actor (Turturro) and Best Director (Joel Coen) as well as the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes.
William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard, a Minneapolis car salesman who is, by all accounts, a loser. He is desperately in debt, so decides to hires two thugs (who are bigger losers than he is) to kidnap his wife in the hope that his wealthy father-in-law (who bullies him regularly) will pay the ransom. When one of the kidnappers goes off the rails and events career out of control, it falls to Marge Gunderson, Chief of the Brainerd Police Department, to set things right. Arguably the best of...
With The Man Who Wasn't There the Coen brothers--those ironic geniuses of left-field bizarre--have pulled off another side-swerve into the unexpected. A movie "about a hairdresser who wants to become a dry-cleaner" as the brothers gleefully claim to have pitched it, it's set in 1949 in the small Northern California town of Santa Rosa (venue for Hitchcock's 1943 classic Shadow of a Doubt) and filmed in lustrous, deep-shadowy black-and-white--an affectionate, though never slavish, tribute to the great era of film noir. Not only in its austere monochrome but in its tone, it comes as a total contrast to the Coens' previous film, the cheerfully picaresque O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Though they toss in plenty of surreal gags, including a whole running thread about flying saucers (this is Roswell-era America, after all), the overall mood is quiet, reflective and even--something quite new for the Coens--compassionate. Their protagonist, barber Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton, proving himself one of the great chameleon actors of our time), is a man trapped by his own impassivity--inside him, a seething mass of emotion that he's utterly unable to express. In true Coen style, his frustration leads him into a fatal move that spirals disastrously out of control. Thornton is ably supported by a whole gallery of Coen regulars--Frances McDormand, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub--plus James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and an amazingly assured turn from Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World). The dialogue, as you'd expect, is masterly, while the brothers' regular collaborators Director of Photography Roger Deakins and production designer Dennis Gassner work wonders of period evocation, and Carter Burwell contributes a haunting score. On the DVD: The Man Who Wasn't There comes to DVD in a sharp, clean 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that captures all the depth and subtlety of Deakins' superb photography, impeccably matched by the crystal-clear Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. A lavish helping of extras includes a trailer and two TV spots, stills photo gallery, filmographies, a 16-minute "making of" featurette, an overlong (47 minutes) interview with Deakins, a batch of deleted scenes, and best of all, the voice-over commentary. This gives us not just Joel and Ethan, but Billy Bob as well, chatting and chortling and clearly enjoying every second of the movie they've made. Their enthusiasm is irresistible. -Philip Kemp
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates New York City's folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac Drive) is at a crossroads. Guitar in tow he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles - some of them of his own making. Living at the mercy of both friends (Justin Timberlake The Social Network; Carey Mulligan The Great Gatsby) and strangers Llewyn scares up what work he can find. His misadventures take him from the basket houses of the Greenwich Village to an empty Chicago club - on an odyssey to audition for music mogul Bud Grossman - and back again. Written and Directed by Academy Award -winners Joel and Ethan Coen (O Brother Where Art Thou? No Country for Old Men) and brimming with music performed by Oscar Isaac Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan Marcus Mumford and Punch Brothers Inside Llewyn Davis is infused with the transportive sound of another time and place.
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client, and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare.) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. --Tom Keogh
Fabulously successful LA divorce attorney Miles Massey is missing something from life when he meets much-divorced Marilyn Rexroth. Cue the mother of all battles of the sexes as the two square off, personally and professionally.
Titles Comprise:A Serious Man: An original and darkly humorous story about one ordinary man's quest to become a serious man. Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) can't believe his life: His wife is leaving him for his best friend. His unemployed brother won't move off the couch. Someone is threatening his career. His kids are a mystery, and his neighbour is tormenting him by sunbathing nude.Struggling to make sense of it all, Larry consults three different rabbis and their answers lead him on a twisted journey of faith, family, delinquent behaviour and mortality.The Big Lebowski: The Big Lebowski is a hilariously quirky comedy about bowling, a severed toe, White Russians and a guy named...The Dude. Jeff The Dude Lebowski doesn't want any drama in his life... heck, he can't even be bothered with a job. But, he must embark on a quest with his bowling buddies after his rug is destroyed in a twisted case of mistaken identity. Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Turturro, experience the cultural phenomenon of The Dude.Barton Fink: New York 1941: Socially Concious scriptwriter Barton Fink (John Turturro) has made it big on Broadway, now Tinsel Town is taking notice. Hired by Hollywood to write a wrestling picture, Barton quits the city smog for movie stardom.L.A. has got the Barton Fink feeling - Barton Fink has got writer's block. Enlisting the help of able assistant Audrey (Judy Davis) and amiable neighbour Charlie Meadows (John Goodman), Fink finds the real-life inspiration he seeks comes from the most sinister of sources.Burn After Reading: An all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich come together in this outrageous spy comedy about murder, blackmail, sex addiction and physical fitness!When a disc filled with some of the CIA's most irrelevant secrets gets in the hands of two determined, but dim-witted, gym employees, the duo are intent on exploiting their find, but since blackmail is a trade better left to the experts events soon spiral out of everyone and anyone's control, resulting in a non-stop series of hilarious encounters!Intolerable Cruelty: Top divorce attorney Miles Massey (George Clooney) has got it all. Serial gold-digger Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) wants it all. When Miles falls for the unattainable Marilyn, a hilarious battle of deceit and cunning ensues. Underhanded tactics, deceptions and an undeniable attraction escalate as Marilyn and Miles square off in this classic battle of the sexes.
Hudsucker Industries is flourishing. Profits are stupendous and stock is at an all-time high. So when their founder Waring Hudsucker leaps to his death from the 44th floor his board of directors is thrown into panic. Hudsucker has not left a will and his majority shareholding in the company must therefore soon be offered for sale to the public. But scheming Vice President Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) has a plan. He'll install a complete imbecile as Chairman and devalue the stock to a level where the rest of the board can acquire controlling interests for themselves. Enter inexperienced college leaver Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) a modest mail-room worker who suddenly finds himself elevated to Company Chairman. Not surprisingly such a tale of rags-to-riches soon attracts considerable interest from the press in the form of gorgeous star reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh). As stock values plummet everything appears to be going according to plan - until Norville actually does the unimaginable and invents a brilliant company-saving idea... something that captures the imagination of an entire nation.
Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter and John Goodman lead an all-star cast in Ethan and Joel Coen's celebrated comedy. Once he decides to give up crime, a small-time robber (Cage) proposes to a pretty cop (Hunter). But when the newlyweds learn they can't conceive a baby, they decide to steal one from a couple who seem to have one to spare - since they just had quintuplets! With its outrageous plot, fast-paced action and even some wild pyrotechnics, Raising Arizona will forever have a place in the hearts of lovers - and film lovers - everywhere.
An all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich, come together in this outrageous spy comedy about murder, blackmail, sex addiction and physical fitness!
In this film nominated for seven OSCARS things go terribly awry when small-time Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so he can collect the ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. Once people start dying the very chipper and very pregnant Police Chief Marge (Frances McDormand) takes the case. Will she stop at nothing until she gets her man? You betcha.
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