Top 5 Coen Brothers Comedies

3. Fargo

One of the Coen brothers’ most well-known movies, it follows a cop named Marge Gunderson as she investigates a murder. What’s noticeable right of the bat with Fargo, and it’s part of its charm, is the setting — Fargo, North Dakota — which penetrates into all the characters’ performances. Marge is a cop, but she’s also a pregnant, loving wife with a doting husband and a polite, don’t-cha-know Minnesota accent. The crime is the result of William H. Macy engineering a kidnapping of his own wife to try to extort a ransom from his wealthy father. Like always happens in these kinds of movies, everything goes horribly wrong and the whole thing goes off the rails almost immediately. The criminals, Steve Buscemi being the main one, blunder their way through the chaotic kidnapping, all the while being slowly tracked down by the extremely lovable Marge.

2. O Brother Where Art Thou

If this was a list of my personal favorite Coen brothers comedies, O Brother Where Art Thou would easily come out on top. Not only is it funny, but it has an enormously compelling story about Everett, played by George Clooney, as he escapes prison and proceeds to go through a sort of modernized retelling of the Odyssey in an effort to return to his wife, who is set to be marrying another man. The film features a number sight gags — I think I’ll always remember George Clooney’s ‘fighting stance’ — and everything from sirens to Tammany Hall style politicians, to even a cyclops, all tied up in the tropes of the 1930s south. It’s one part Mark Twain on screen and one part Cool Hand Luke. The soundtrack is amazing and remains one of the only movie soundtracks I’ve ever purchased. There are a few reasons it doesn’t make #1 on this list: first, it may be a little too artsy for a general audience and it’s slow in parts; second, there’s one movie the Coen brothers made which sets a bar they may not ever be able to surpass, and O Brother Where Art Thou just doesn’t quite get there…