The Best Coen Brothers Films: From Fargo to the Dude Abides

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 crime thriller film adapted for the screen and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, No Country for Old Men tells the story of a botched drug deal and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo.

No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers...have ever made."Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times, November 8, 2007. Guardian journalist John Patterson said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors." The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering three British Academy of Film awards, two Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem).

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 adventure film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 Mississippi during the Great Depression, the film's story is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey. The film displays a sly reference to another type of mythmaking: filmmaking, specifically the 1941 satire Sullivans Travels by Preston Sturges, in which the title character sets out to make a grim, socially conscious film to be called O Brother, Where Art Thou? After the privileged director experiences hardships of his own, he decides that comedic films are of more value than self-important dramas. Similarly, the Coen brothers movie also has the tone and imagery of Depression-era realism interlaced with a comedic element.

The American roots soundtrack won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2001.

Fargo is a American neo-noir film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. The film is about a car salesman who hires two men to kidnap his wife for $80,000. Small-town police chief Marge Gunderson investigates the crime, which sets off a chain of murders. The film stars Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare and Harve Presnell.

Fargo earned seven Academy Award nominations, winning two for Best Original Screenplay for the Coens and Best Actress in a Leading Role for McDormand.http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1232207703515 The film also won the British BAFTA Award and the Award for Best Director for Joel Coen at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. For more than twenty years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to hardboiled thrillers (Millers Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to movies where genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink and Burn After Reading''). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share a similar vision of their films. Actors can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.