The films of Joel and Ethan Coen can be deliriously funny, wickedly macabre, and downright bizarre, often in the span of a single scene. Leading up to the release of their newest effort, Inside Llewyn Davis—a look at the folk scene in ’60s-era Greenwich Village, opening in Toronto on December 20—TIFF is offering audiences a chance to catch up on the duo’s uniformly excellent back catalogue. The ten-film retrospective is called Joel and Ethan Coen: Tall Tales.
With their unmistakable dialogue and knack for creating memorably kooky characters and outlandish scenarios, the Coens’ heightened reality is one you never want to leave. Here’s a guide to some of the selections screening as part of TIFF’s series.
Blood Simple (1984)
When It’s Playing: Sunday, December 1, 4:30 p.m.
Quick Take: The Coens made an initial splash with this debut feature, which introduced audiences to the brothers’ recurring fascination with seedy criminal activities. Blood Simple is a film noir about the owner of a bar (Dan Hedaya) who enlists the help of a private investigator (M. Emmett Walsh) to find out if his wife (Frances McDormand) is cheating on him with a bartender (John Getz). Laced with a palpable sense of dread and propelled by misinterpretation of motive and the constant fear of overlooking some key piece of evidence, this pitch-black debut still retains the ideal balance of style and substance.
Typically “Coen” Character: Walsh is the sort of character actor the Coens have always gravitated to (like Jon Polito or Stephen Root), and here he brings the film’s amoral detective to life with a startling blend of black humour and menace.
Choice Dialogue: From Walsh’s detective: “Gimme a call whenever you wanna cut off my head. I can always crawl around without it.”
Signature Moment: A tense climax that sees a wounded character firing bullets through a wall. The holes cast shards of light that establish just the right atmosphere for a noir film.
Fun Fact: Joel Coen married Frances McDormand shortly after filming.
Fargo (1996)
Screening: Thursday, November 28, 6:30 p.m.
Quick Take: An unlikely mainstream success, Fargo is about a Minneapolis car salesman (William H. Macy) who enlists a couple of less-than-competent hoods (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) in the titular North Dakota city to kidnap his own wife so he can collect a share of the ransom to be paid by her father (Harve Presnell). It’s a little like a darkly comic take on In Cold Blood, in the sense that it juxtaposes horrific violence with the quaint rhythms and funny accents of the area. Even so, it never condescends to pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (McDormand, again), who is doggedly on the trail.
Typically “Coen” Character: The hapless Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), an old friend of the police chief, who makes a desperate and misguided pass at her (“You’re such a super lady!”), but inadvertently helps her make a break in the case in the process.
Choice Dialogue: Gunderson’s naively optimistic words to Stormare: “There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well, I just don’t understand it.”
Signature Moment: Let’s just say it involves the use of a wood chipper for purposes not outlined in any manual.
Fun Fact: Opening titles that claim the film is based on a true story were later revealed to be nothing more than a joke by the brothers. Fargo is fictional.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Screening: Friday, December 13, 8:45 p.m.
Quick Take: After garnering accolades for Fargo, the brothers followed it up with a meandering yarn about a laid-back stoner and bowling enthusiast (Jeff Bridges) known as “The Dude” (or “El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing”), whose life is turned upside-down when he’s mistaken for an elderly tycoon with the same name. Perplexing many upon its initial release, the film has since steadily developed a devout cult following. Fans gather regularly for Big Lebowski conventions.
Typically “Coen” Character: Where to begin? Between nihilists and feminists and pedophiles named Jesus, seemingly every character bears the Coens’ trademark.
Choice Dialogue: Lebowski to his perpetually overbearing best friend and Vietnam vet, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman): “You’re not wrong, Walter. You’re just an asshole.”
Signature Moment: The wonderfully insane fantasy sequence, featuring Saddam Hussein handing out bowling shoes and Kenny Rogers’s trippy rendition of “I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).”
Fun Fact: The character of “The Dude” is said to be based on producer Jeff Dowd, and Walter is supposedly based on Apocalypse Now screenwriter John Milius.
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Screening: Saturday, November 30, 7 p.m.
Quick Take: In adapting Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the Coen brothers had arguably their biggest success to date, earning them Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. Texan trailer inhabitant Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes across a drug deal gone wrong while hunting and attempts to make off with the cash, only to be pursued by over-the-hill sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) and a vicious killer named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who has been hired to get the money back. It’s a bleak reflection on mortality dressed up as a white-knuckle thriller, with the implacable Chigurh standing in for the grim reaper that’s coming for everyone.
Typically “Coen” Character: Although he sprang from McCarthy’s mind, the oddball Chigurh seems perfectly at home in the Coen universe.
Choice Dialogue: Sheriff Bell, talking to his uncle Ellis: “I always figured when I got older, God would sort of come into my life somehow. And he didn’t. I don’t blame him. If I was him, I would have the same opinion of me that he does.”
Signature Moment: The scene where Chigurh coerces a gas station attendant into calling a coin flip that the poor old guy doesn’t understand will determine whether he lives or dies.
Fun Fact: Javier Bardem appeared earlier this year in Cormac McCarthy’s first produced screenplay, the universally reviled The Counselor.