Combining critical text—biography, close film analysis, and enlightening interviews with key Coen collaborators—with a visual aesthetic that honors the Coens’ singular mix of darkness and levity, The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is film critic Adam Nayman's carefully crafted effort to plot, as he puts it, “some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness.”
Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly comical, instantly recognizable voice in modern American cinema. They have given movie fans classics of all types—comedy, history, drama, romance. Their movies have a distinctive style and point of view: hilarious, sad, thoughtful, musical, sometimes all at once. When someone says a movie is Coen Brothers–like, every serious movie lover knows exactly what they mean.
Adam Nayman carefully sifts through their complex cinematic universe and covers their popular, award-winning, and unforgettable creations:
The Big Lebowski
Raising Arizona
Fargo
Inside Llewyn Davis
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Barton Fink
Miller’s Crossing
Blood Simple
The Hudsucker Proxy
And more!
Featuring film stills, beautiful and evocative illustrations, punchy infographics, and hard insight, this is the definitive exploration of the Coen brothers’ oeuvre.
