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Miller's Crossing, one of the greatest gangster movies ever made, is an extremely underrated movie created by The Coen Brothers. As one of the best directing duos of all time, The Coen Brothers have directed classic films such as The Big Lebowski, Inside Llewyn Davis, Fargo, and No Country for Old Men. Joel and Ethan Coen have directed a total of 20 films together beginning with the 1984 neo-noir crime film Blood Simple.

Following their feature film debut, the Coen Brothers' sophomore effort was the 1987 crime comedy Raising Arizona, which remains one of Nicolas Cage's most iconic roles. They then went on to direct the showbiz comedy Barton Fink, the satirical comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the black comedy Burn After Reading, and the instant classic Western True Grit. The Coen Brothers' last joint effort was 2018's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

The Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing Is One Of...

One of our great character actors, John Turturro, is equally adept at at drama, comedy and tough-guy roles. A New York stage veteran, he made his way to Hollywood following a character actor’s path, but thanks to several influential mentors, his career soared as he appeared in film after film that would prove to become classics.

Although he continues to have a successful career in television — he is an Emmy winner from two nominations and has earned a Golden Globe nod and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his TV work — I suspect that it will be for his work in film for which he will be most remembered, from small indelible roles in “Do the Right Thing” and “The Big Lebowski” to great leading parts, such as in the Coens’ “Barton Fink,” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

So let’s raise a glass to Turturro by...

I apologized in the title, and I apologize again here, for propagating the deluge of Christmas themed romantic and family slop on the various streaming services. Recently this is providing much needed work for Lindsay Lohan, albeit Lohan does not appear the one below, there are apparently Mean Girls references contained therein. It being a slow week in key art, and this poster caught my eye not from utter incompetence, but rather peak banality. Design studio Concept Arts has done work in the past for Dennis Villeneuve's Dune movies and Blade Runner: 2049, Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, and if you go back far enough, The Coen's Brother's iconic poster for Miller's Crossing. They know what they are doing here with this generic poster for Hot...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Across the River and Into the Trees (Paula Ortiz)

Hemingway’s work across novels and short stories has been adapted for film countless times over, yet Across the River and Into the Trees has never properly been rendered onscreen. Until now. Written by Peter Flannery and directed by Paula Ortiz, here is a handsome film that is decidedly modest in its endeavor. The best thing going for it is Liev Schreiber as Colonel Richard Cantwell, the lead of the picture. Schreiber is one of those actors who has somehow always been underrated, despite being capable of playing nearly any kind of part. A kind boyfriend thrust into an impossible familial situation (The Daytrippers)? Check. Tough-but-fractured fixer living on the edge (Ray Donovan)? Check.

Not only is Halloween thankfully upon us, but the next major holiday, Thanksgiving, at least in America, is next. That can only mean one thing: it’s time for a re-watch of Addams Family Values! Our friends at Paramount Home Entertainment sent me a copy of their newest release of the 1993 Barry Sonnenfeld film, which comes out tomorrow, October 29th. You may have heard of Sonnenfeld, who not only directed the previous film, The Addams Family, as well as Men in Black and Get Shorty. Previously, he was the director of photography on a litany of Hollywood films, such as Misery, Miller’s Crossing, Big, Blood Simple, and many more. The official synopsis: Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) welcome a new addition to the...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Could Fargo Dive Deeper into the Coen Brothers’ Cinematic Universe? Here’s What We Know! ( Photo Credit – YouTube; Wikimedia )

Fargo fans, buckle up! With the Coen brothers’ knack for twisted tales and oddball characters, it’s no wonder people are wondering if the Fargo TV universe could start pulling in even more quirky nods to the Coens’ iconic films. Could we see a Big Lebowski crossover? Or maybe a sneaky Raising Arizona Easter egg? The Coen-verse is full of wild possibilities, and with Fargo already dipping into their signature dark humor and crime-ridden storytelling, there’s a lot of potential to unpack.

Marge Gunderson: The Heart of the Madness

It all started with Fargo (1996), a dark comedy that had critics (and audiences) buzzing. Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson was an instant classic. A quirky, pregnant cop chasing after one of the most absurd crime sprees ever, all while keeping her Minnesota-nice demeanor intact?...

“Do you stick it out, or do you run away?” John Turturro asks.

When it came to his brother Ralph, Turturro remained by his side through his struggles with mental illness and his battle with cancer. Every time Ralph underwent another round of radiation, Turturro outfitted him in sunglasses and a hat. “It was important to him to look good,” he says.

And he’d get on a microphone and talk to his brother throughout the treatment, assuming different voices and characters to keep Ralph distracted. “I would pretend I was Arnold Schwarzenegger, because he was my brother’s favorite,” says Turturro, who is 67. “After 12 sessions, I’d start to run out of material, but I made myself keep going to help him.”

Ralph died in 2022 at 70, and the experience of nursing him through that final act stayed with Turturro as he took on his latest role in Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door.

November 2024, Criterion Channel is set to deliver an exceptional lineup of films that will excite cinephiles and casual viewers alike. The month promises a rich exploration of genres, featuring a strong selection of Coen Brothers classics such as Blood Simple (1984) and The Big Lebowski (1998), along with their more recent works like A Serious Man (2009) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). Noir and crime enthusiasts will revel in an array of titles, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Gilda (1946), and The Big Heat (1953), showcasing the genre’s iconic narratives and stylistic depth. International cinema also shines through with compelling French dramas like Fat Girl (2001) and Dheepan (2015), highlighting diverse storytelling from around the globe.

The lineup doesn’t shy away from classic drama, featuring timeless films like On the Waterfront (1954) and Seven Samurai (1954), which continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. Additionally, viewers can look forward to a variety of documentary and experimental films, including Wild Wheels...

With Janus possessing the much-needed restorations, Catherine Breillat is getting her biggest-ever spotlight in November’s Criterion Channel series spanning 1976’s A Real Young Girl to 2004’s Anatomy of Hell––just one of numerous retrospectives arriving next month. They’re also spotlighting Ida Lupino, directorial efforts of John Turturro (who also gets an “Adventures In Moviegoing”), the Coen brothers, and Jacques Audiard.

In a slightly more macroscopic view, Columbia Noir and a new edition of “Queersighting” ring in Noirvember. Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy and Miller’s Crossing get Criterion Editions, while restorations of David Bowie-starrer The Linguini Incident, Med Hondo’s West Indies, and Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue make streaming debuts; and Kevin Jerome Everson’s Tonsler Park arrives just in time for another grim election day.

See the full list of titles arriving in November below:

36 fillette, Catherine Breillat, 1988

Anatomy of Hell, Catherine Breillat,...

Audiences love going to the theater and watching a loud, exciting action movie on the big screen, but not all action movies that come with great reviews perform well. Because of how enjoyable it is to see this kind of film in theaters, action movies tend to be big hits at the box office. However, a film being packed with action does not by any means guarantee that it will be a financial success. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, even great action films, whether in the '80s, or gritty action movies from the '90s, fail to make much money.

Just because a movie fails to make a ton of money, though, does not prove that it's a bad film by any means. Plenty of well-respected action films have failed to make back the money that was put into making them. Some of these movies have even gone on to win major awards,...

After sharing a tease yesterday, Lionsgate has shared the first official trailer for their upcoming John Wick spinoff Ballerina, which stars Academy Award-nominee Ana de Armas in the lead role as a young assassin named Eve Macarro, who, after a tragedy, begins training in the ways of the Ruska Roma and plots her vengeance against those that wronged her family.

The film's official synopsis reads, "Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma."

While the trailer does give us plenty of footage of the fan-favorite Cuban actress kicking all kinds of ass across the world, it wraps up with the most epic of cameos as the one-and-only Keanu Reeves reprises his iconic role as John Wick, a.k.a. Baba Yaga, and it looks like he'll...

To announce tomorrow's trailer launch, Lionsgate has shared the first teaser for Ballerina, their upcoming John Wick spinoff that will star Academy Award-nominee Ana de Armas in the leading role as a young assassin named Eve Macarro, who is training in the ways of the Ruska Roma, a group that was first introduced in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum.

The film's official synopsis reveals the new film's place in the larger John Wick universe and how Keanu Reeves' Baba Yaga, who has been confirmed to appear, may factor into the film's proceedings. It reads, "Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma."

At the moment, we're not entirely sure whether or not we'll see Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves team-up or square off, but either way,...

Call it…The Criterion Collection will add yet another Coen Bros. film to their catalog, as 2007’s No Country for Old Men is arriving on December 10th as spine #1243. This will be the fourth from the fellas after Inside Llewyn Davis, Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing. Now if we can just get Raising Arizona…

Here are the special features for Criterion’s forthcoming 4K release of No Country for Old Men:

New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director of photography Roger Deakins, with 5.1 surround DTS-hd Master Audio soundtrack

One 4K Uhd disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision Hdr and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

New conversation between filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen and author Megan Abbott

New conversation between Deakins and associate producer David Diliberto, also featuring Abbott

Archival interviews with actors Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly Macdonald...

Marvel Studios has made some major missteps during the Multiverse Saga; however, with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars fast approaching, we're seeing a major course correction and a shift back to quality over quantity.

Daredevil: Born Again underwent a major creative overhaul mid-shoot and Captain America: Brave New World has also undergone extensive reshoots meant to fix what wasn't working.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, The Leader actor Tim Blake Nelson shared some insights into just how much those have changed what we'll see in theaters next February.

"Well, we’re done. I’ve shot it," he started. "I’ve actually shot it twice because I did it originally a year ago, and then we came back and redid a lot of it at the beginning of it this summer. Every single movie I do hopefully makes me better."

"I’ve probably done about 60 movies in between Hulk and Captain America: Brave New World,...

Veteran character actor and filmmaker John Turturro delighted an audience at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Wednesday with a masterclass about his extensive and eclectic career spanning film, television and theatre. Speaking to a packed theater at the Bosnian Cultural Center, the Brooklyn native gave insights into his most reputable acting work ranging from Do the Right Thing to The Big Lebowski to Barton Fink to the Transformers franchise as well has his directorial work for films such as Romance and Cigarettes and Mac.

After the iconic Jesus Quintana bowling scene in The Big Lebowski was played to the audience (which was met with rapturous applause), Turturro said that Joel and Ethan Coen had seen him in the play La Puta Vida by Reinaldo Povod, where Turturro plays a homosexual pedophile. It was that role that would inspire them to cast him in The Big Lebowski as Jesus, a bowling...

The next addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Brave New World, is set to reach theatres on February 14, 2025 – and this Captain America adventure, which sees Anthony Mackie’s character Sam Wilson, formerly known as Falcon, carrying the shield now that his pal Steve Rogers is retired, has some strong connections to the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Not only does it feature the Incredible Hulk character Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (with Harrison Ford taking over for the late William Hurt), but Liv Tyler is reprising the role of Ross’s daughter Betty and Tim Blake Nelson is back as Samuel Sterns, also known as The Leader. During a chat with Variety, Nelson confirmed that he was pleased to have the opportunity to play Sterns again, and said that, despite talk of superhero fatigue and some of last year’s entries having disappointing box office returns, you should never “count Marvel out.

Tim Blake Nelson first played The Leader in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, the second MCU movie after Iron Man was released earlier that same year.

Samuel Sterns' story ended with a hint that he was about to become The Leader but, over a decade and a half later, we still don't know what became of him. However, thanks to Captain America: Brave New World, all that changes next year.

"I deeply, deeply grieved over the prospect of not being able to come back into the MCU," Nelson told Variety of his absence in a recent interview. "All I wanted to do, as an actor, was to figure out what happens to this guy. 18 years later I got to do it and I wasn’t disappointed."

"It was a great challenge and I was guided beautifully by Julius Onah, who’s an indie director," he said of the next Captain America movie.

Tim Blake Nelson is about to shoot a “spectacular” Western “Shoot” in Spain, directed by Guillermo Navarro. Guillermo Del Toro’s regular cinematographer, he already won an Academy Award for “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

“We have a great cast and a script written by British writer Ian Wilson. Westerns change, reflecting a cultural moment when it’s made. ‘Yellowstone,’ ‘Power of the Dog’… each generation needs to furnish its own take on film genres. This one is about the power of the gun as a corrupting force,” he reveals.

“It’s absolutely a current script, but it’s 100% true to its time. We are starting to shoot in November. The great thing about Westerns is that they require big vistas, but good Westerns don’t have to cost $100 million. We made ‘Old Henry’ for $1.2 million. It’s a way of having a superhero film with natural environments and no visual effects.”

There...

Some unexpected gangster films, like Layer Cake or Miller's Crossing, have had a significant impact on the genre's evolution. Directors like Warren Beatty and the Coen brothers brought unique elements like comic strip characters and dark humor to crime films. The gangster genre continues to evolve with unconventional storytelling, challenging typical character types and narrative structures.

A few unexpected films within the gangster genre have made a large impact, influencing many of the stories that exist today. The subgenre of crime films has a few consistent visual and narrative devices that have continued to be used, but like any other genre, there have also been changes attributed to trailblazing films. While directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma are significant players in the genre, some more unexpected names shouldn't go unnoticed.

Films like Layer Cake or Miller's Crossing aren't unknown to fans of crime-related stories, but they also aren't...

John Turturro is to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia, which runs from Aug. 16 to 23. The award is in recognition of his contribution to the film industry and his talent as an actor, director and screenwriter.

Jovan Marjanović, director of Sarajevo Film Festival, said: “With a career spanning over four decades, he has delivered unforgettable performances in a diverse range of roles. His dedication to his craft, versatility, and ability to bring depth and authenticity to every character he embodies have made him a joy to look at every time he enters the scene.”

Turturro studied at Suny New Paltz and the Yale School of Drama. He has worked with a number of acclaimed filmmakers, appearing in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show,” Francesco Rosi’s “La Tregua,...

John Turturro will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival (August 16-23).

US actor and filmmaker Turturro will give a masterclass about his career; and will attend a screening of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s 1991 film Barton Fink, for which Turturro won Best Actor at Cannes.

That was one of several collaborations between Turturro and the Coen brothers, alongside O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski.

Turturro received the Cannes Camera d’Or for best debut feature in 1992 for Mac, which he also starred in. His other directorial work includes 2020 feature The Jesus Rolls,...

The 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival will kick off with RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys.”

Film at Lincoln Center made the announcement early Monday and notably didn’t specify a premiere designation for the film, perhaps an indication that “Nickel Boys” will have its world premiere at another festival such as the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, or Venice Film Festival.

“What an absolute honor for ‘Nickel Boys’ to open the 62nd New York Film Festival… a daydream really, for the crew, the cast, and team who’ve committed so wholeheartedly to its vision,” Ross said in a statement. The filmmaker’s debut documentary, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” was previously screened at the 2018 edition of New Directors/New Films at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Ross called his debut feature...

An old adage reminds us that “character is what you do when no one is watching.” Steve Buscemi, the acclaimed actor, exemplified this maxim on September 11, 2001, when he reported to Ground Zero and worked with his old unit, Engine Company 55, in Manhattan. Without fanfare, press conferences, or public declarations, Buscemi worked alongside other firefighters in the aftermath of the attacks. It was only later, through chance encounters and quiet disclosures, that the public learned of his selfless actions that day. And so, it’s fitting that Buscemi, a man of character, is best known for his work as a character actor – bringing depth, nuance, and complexity to the roles he’s played on screen, just as he brought courage, compassion, and humility to his work on and after that fateful day.

But how was that courage formed? To know that, we must return to where the beginning began, when he was born On His Birthday,...

Barry Sonnenfeld's 1991 film "The Addams Family," based on the New Yorker comic strips by Chas Addams and extrapolated from the 1964 sitcom of the same name, was a pop culture clarion call for aspiring young goths the world over. The Addams Family were a gaggle of murderous weirds who lived in a haunted mansion, kept a severed human hand as a pet, and regularly engaged in cute family games wherein they exhumed long-dead relatives. They loved blood, sex, and magic. It's possible they were immortal; the young Wednesday (Christina Ricci) regularly murdered her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman). Morticia (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) were sexually active to an enviable degree, perhaps standing as one of the healthiest, most sex-positive couples in movies at the time. They were full of zest and joie de vivre. Only they were obsessed with death, so perhaps the term should be joie de mourir.

The Coen Brothers, namely Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, are an iconic filmmaking duo. They are credited with the making of some of the best movies like Raising Arizona and O Brother, Where Art Thou? The duo wrote and directed their first movie, Blood Simple, in 1984.

After decades of working together with his brother, Ethan Coen decided to take a break from making films to turn his attention to theater. However, he was not able to stay away from narrative storytelling for too long. In 2022, it was announced that he was directing a movie named Drive-Away Dolls, which he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke. The movie is loosely based on the couple’s one-of-a-kind family setup.

The Coen Brothers- Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Unique Family Setup

For those unversed, Ethan Coen‘s wife Tricia Cooke worked with the Coen Brothers as a...

There’s a new Coen duo in town. Ethan Coen and his wife, film editor Tricia Cooke, have created a feature – Drive-Away Dolls. Here they talk about 70s B-movies, US politics, and the joys of their unconventional marriage

In the folklore that has grown up around the Coen brothers over the past 40 years, there are two siblings, Ethan and Joel, and Joel’s wife, actor Frances McDormand, who has been a regular since their first film, Blood Simple, and bagged an Oscar for her unforgettable performance as the pregnant policewoman in Fargo. Ultra-swotty groupies may remember that Ethan’s son, Buster, was credited as Matt Damon’s abs double on True Grit, though Buster was barely into his teens and Damon never displayed his abs.

But unbeknown to most, on seven of the Coens’ films, up until 2001’s The Man Who Wasn’t There, a fourth member of the clan was working away behind the scenes.

Despite Coen's Hollywood status, Drive-Away Dolls failed to impress in its box office debut. The film blends crime capers with raunchy comedy, which may have accounted for some mixed reviews. Drive-Away Dolls' lack of marketing may have also contributed to its underwhelming opening weekend.

Despite Ethan Coen's impressive Hollywood track record, the director's new movie, Drive-Away Dolls, bombed at the box office over its opening weekend. Notably, Coen is one half of the Coen brothers — an Oscar-winning directing duo composed of Ethan and Joel Coen. While Drive-Away Dolls marks Ethan Coen's solo directorial debut for a feature film, he co-wrote the screenplay with his partner Tricia Cooke, who has also worked as an editor on numerous classic Coen brothers' films, including Miller's Crossing, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski. Unfortunately, their team-up hasn't panned out from a financial perspective.

In the early 2000s, Cooke and Coen pitched the idea...

A road trip. A mix-up. A fast-talking hero, prone to tossing off bewilderingly verbose sentences. Some criminals who run the gamut from eccentric to psychotic to painfully inept. (Sometimes, they’re all three at once.) Dangerously sudden violence. Dangerously dark humor. Dangerously outrageous hairdos. The feeling that you’re watching a vintage film noir story run through a Looney Tunes filter. You are in the presence of a Coen brothers movie — whaddaya need, a road map?!

Actually, some sort of Gps system would be a blessing for both you, the viewer,...

The release of "Drive-Away Dolls" has been marked by most of the trades as the first solo directorial feature of Ethan Coen, following his brother Joel's 2021 outing with "The Tragedy of Macbeth." And sure, it's a catchy headline to acknowledge that one-half of one of cinema's greatest directorial partnerships is stepping out on his own, but that doesn't tell the full story. For one thing, Ethan Coen already made his solo directorial debut with the documentary "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind." More importantly, "Drive-Away Dolls" may have Coen listed as the solo director, but if you ask him, this was yet another co-directed project, but this time with his wife and longtime Coen Bros. editor, Tricia Cooke.

Cooke first worked with the Coens as an editor on "Miller's Crossing" fresh out of film school, seeking out the job not because they were the esteemed directors of "Blood Simple" and Raising Arizona" fame,...

Drive-Away Dolls' Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 72%, lower than all but two Coen brothers movies. The Coen brothers, known for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, have each started directing solo projects. Despite being considered fresh, Drive-Away Dolls' score doesn't match the Coen brothers' high achievements.

The Drive-Away Dolls Rotten Tomatoes score is in, and it's lower than all but two Coen brothers movies. Known for their acclaimed genre-spanning films like Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers recently parted ways and started making movies on their own, starting with Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021 and Ethan Coen directing Drive-Away Dolls, due for release on February 23. The road comedy, co-written by Tricia Cooke, follows two free spirits who embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee and cross paths with a group of inept criminals.

The Drive-Away Dolls cast includes Margaret Qualley,...

Authorship is a major point of contention in queer cinema, so let’s get one thing straight: Ethan Coen’s solo directorial debut is co-written and edited by Tricia Cooke, a lesbian who is also his spouse. Yes, that’s a present tense use of “spouse.” If Cooke and Coen’s unique personal arrangement shocks you, then good luck enjoying a single frame of the married filmmakers’ wildly endearing, decidedly shaggy, and gay as fuck comedy caper. It’s steeped in mismatched genre styles and dark red blood; not to mention, it’s chockful of dildo jokes sure to put a lovable new spin on contemporary audiences’ evolving definitions of found family… member.

Cooked up more than two decades ago with the title “Drive-Away Dykes” in mind, “Drive-Away Dolls” puts an overdue spotlight on Cooke’s indelible impact on the Coen brothers’ filmography. This misadventure in girl-on-girl odd coupling was...

When Fat Tuesday rules around every year, thousands of tourists flock to one destination: New Orleans, Louisiana. Almost 1.5 million celebrants of the holiday, celebrating the end of Carnival before Ash Wednesday (this year taking place right on Valentine’s Day) kicks off the season of Lent, spend their day partying in the Big Easy, donning purple, green, and gold beads as they dance the night away. And if you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you know just how intoxicating a party there can be.

Founded in the Spring of 1718 (the exact date is unknown) by the French Mississippi Company on the land of the indigenous Chitimacha people, New Orleans is one of the most culturally distinct cities in the entire United States. Its Creole cultural roots manifest in unique cuisine, dialects, and architecture, particularly in the iconic French Quarter. The nightlife along Bourbon Street is particularly legendary, as are...

The Coen Brothers parted ways in the late-2010s to pursue their own projects after making movies together for more than three decades. Ethan Coen reveals that he and brother Joel are reuniting for a horror movie, which is a genre they have never worked in before. He compares the film to Blood Simple. Many of the Coen Brothers' movies feature dark and disturbing moments, making them a perfect fit for the horror genre.

The Coen Brothers are set to reunite after their split for a movie in a genre they've never worked in before. Writing and directing duo Joel and Ethan Coen first announced themselves with Blood Simple in 1984 before going on to make classics like Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country For Old Men, among others. After making movies together for more than three decades, the pair went their separate ways, with Joel Coen releasing his first-ever...

Joel and Ethan Coen, the Coen brothers, have directed eighteen feature films together over the decades, giving us such classics as Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; No Country for Old Men, True Grit, and more. A while back, they decided to split off in their own directions, with Joel directing The Tragedy of Macbeth and Ethan making the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind as well as the upcoming crime comedy Drive-Away Dolls (which reaches theatres on February 23rd) and the recently announced Honey Don’t. Last summer, Ethan revealed that he was developing a new project with Joel… and now it looks like the Coen brothers might be reuniting to make a horror movie!

The website Montages reported that, while sitting down for a Q&a at the Tromsø International Film Festival in Norway,...

John Turturro was initially disappointed with his role as Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski, finding it lacking substance. Turturro's discomfort with the role increased after seeing the footage, feeling embarrassed about his performance. Turturro later created a spin-off film based on his character, The Jesus Rolls, with a different storyline and received negative reviews.

The Big Lebowski became an instant cult classic upon release, but John Turturro found his performance as Jesus Quintana embarrassing. The 1998 Coen brothers movie follows a bowling-loving slacker named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) as he gets caught up in the kidnapping of the wife of a wealthier man with the same name (David Huddleston). Nihilists try extorting the Dude, and he has no other choice but to work with the "big" Lebowski. However, the Dude soon discovers there's a bigger conspiracy going on behind the scenes. The Big Lebowski is an intriguing stoner-detective...

Daryl McCormack as Colman and Ruth Wilson as Lorna in ‘The Woman in the Wall’ (Photo Credit: Chris Barr / BBC / Showtime)

Paramount+’s January 2024 lineup includes the series premiere of Sexy Beast, a prequel to the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama released in 2000 and starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone. The streaming service’s also kicking off the new year with the debut of The Woman in the Wall, a six-episode series starring Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters).

June Carter Cash is the focus of June, a feature-length documentary directed by Emmy Award-winner Kristen Vaurio (Going Clear: Scientology & The Prison of Belief) arriving on January 16. January 2024 also sees the return of SkyMed, a medical drama set in the world of medics and pilots who fly air ambulances in Canada, for its second season.

Coming to Paramount+ on January 1

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5 Card Stud

A Promise*

A Single Man*

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Gangster movies often have a dedicated audience, but some great films in the genre fail to perform well at the box office. Movies like "The Hot Rock" and "The Outfit" suffered financially, despite their unique stories and talented performances. "Scarface" and "Miller's Crossing" faced challenges including bans and competition, resulting in disappointing box office results.

While gangster movies rarely fail since they don't require huge budgets (and there's almost always an audience for them), that doesn't mean there haven't been a few that bombed at the box office. The gangster genre has always held a certain allure, pulling in huge crowds with fascinating tales of crime, control, and corruption. The best mob movies shine a spotlight on unique criminal underworlds, some of which are based on true stories, and they almost always have immoral but still lovable lead characters. Whether it's Goodfellas or The Godfather, many of the movies considered...

UK director James Marsh’s literary biopic Dance First, starring Gabriel Byrne as iconic Irish writer Samuel Beckett, will close the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival.

The film is sold by London and Paris-based Film Constellation.

As per its synopsis, the biopic touches on various phases in Beckett’s life from “Parisian bon vivant, to World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse.”

Its focus, however, is on Beckett’s reaction to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, which was a turning point in his life as he grappled with his own inner demons.

Byrne is joined in the cast by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire as Beckett’s wife.

Marsh has a long relationship with San Sebastian.

His Academy Award-winning documentary for Man on Wire (2009), directed with Simon Chinn, played at the festival in 2008.

Prior to that his early work Wisconsin Death Trip screened in...

“Dance First,” a portrait of Irish writer Samuel Beckett starring Gabriel Byrne and directed by Oscar winner James Marsh, will close this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, playing out of competition.

The closing film screening, on Sept. 30, will mark the film’s world premiere.

Byrne, a memorable lead in “The Usual Suspects” and “Miller’s Crossing” who also won a Golden Globe for his performance in “In Treatment,” plays Beckett. The Nobel Prize-winning playwright was a Parisian bon vivant and WWII resistance fighter who became a recluse, living the last years of his life in a single room in a nursing home, ashamed of past actions and convinced that for much of his life he had been a failure.

U.K. director Marsh won an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2009 with “Man on Wire.” He also directed the Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything,” which earned five nominations at the 2015 Oscars,...

Program Description

Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Mist, arrives on a SteelBook® in a National 4K HD™ (+ Blu-ray™ + Digital), plus a Best Buy exclusive release, on October 3rd from Lionsgate. Both releases include the color version and the alternate black & white version of the film. When a mysterious mist, and the supernatural creatures within, fall across their town in the wake of a violent storm, a group of local citizens must fend for themselves while trapped inside a local supermarket. They soon begin to realize that the real danger may not be from the monsters outside but from tension and mistrust within. Written, directed, and produced by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, and William Sadler, The Mist will be available nationally for the suggested retail price of $34.99 and a Best Buy exclusive of $37.99.

Official Synopsis

From legendary...

From Goodfellas’ trigger-happy Tommy DeVito to Scarface’s drug-addled Tony Montana, the crime movie genre is jam-packed with evil gangster characters. Gangster movies are a great vehicle for traditionally villainous characters to take center stage as the protagonist. The Warriors, for instance, has one street gang as the heroes and all the other street gangs as the villains. In any other movie, Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega would be the bad guy. But Pulp Fiction puts Vincent in the spotlight. The Irishman similarly wants its audience to empathize with a mafia hitman, because he was forced to whack his best friend.

Some gangster movies have sympathetic protagonists in spite of their chosen professions. Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. White becomes a caring father figure to the bullet-riddled Mr. Orange as he bleeds out in the warehouse. Paul Vitti, the mobster played by Robert De Niro in Analyze This, wins over the audience...

Clockwise from top left: The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.), Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros.), Barbie (Warner Bros.), Oppenheimer (Universal), Pitch Perfect 2 (Universal), Mamma Mia! (Universal)Graphic: AVClub

July 21, 2023 will go down in history as the day of Barbenheimer–and we’re here for it. In short, the date...

“I think I loved the fact that it was a comedy,” reflect Marcia Gay Harden on what first drew her into the script for her CBS series “So Help Me Todd.” Even though the show seems like a legal procedural, its episodes are always threaded through with hijinks. “Even if Margaret is ostensibly serious, it’s because she’s serious about her work, but in life, her inabilities in life to master technology, her rigidness, and her vanity are really funny and her anger is really funny,” comments the actress about her character. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“So Help Me Todd” centers on Harden’s Margaret, a powerful Portland, Oregon, attorney who hires her sharp but unorganized son Todd, played by Skylar Astin, to be her firm’s temporary, in-house investigator. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever done,” admits the Oscar winner, discussing how the show has a “screwball comedy sensibility,...

John Turturro has made four great movies with the Coen brothers, playing both lead roles and scene-stealing supporting characters in movies ranging from underrated gems to beloved cult classics. Turturro first collaborated with the Coens on their offbeat gangster saga Miller’s Crossing. For their next movie, Barton Fink, he graduated from a small part to the titular role. Turturro and the Coens have since worked on two more hilarious comedies, The Big Lebowski (in which Turturro played a minor but unforgettable character) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (in which Turturro played one of the main trio).

The Coens demonstrated their versatility as storytellers right out of the gate with their first two movies, grisly neo-noir thriller Blood Simple and wacky slapstick comedy Raising Arizona. Turturro has appeared in both low-budget independent films like Five Corners and Box of Moonlight and big-budget blockbusters like Transformers and The Batman. He’s...

The ensemble cast of The Big Lebowski is full of iconic actors playing unconventionally wacky characters. Although it received mixed reviews and bombed at the box office during its initial release, The Big Lebowski has since been reappraised as a beloved classic with a massive cult following. The Coen brothers are renowned writing quirky, unforgettable roles, and this 1998 stoner noir features some of the zaniest and most colorful characters in their canon. Led by Jeff Bridges’ career-defining turn as the king of all slackers, the Dude, The Big Lebowski has one of the most star-studded casts of the Coens’ filmography.

The old saying that there are no small parts, only small actors, is particularly true of the Coens’ movies. Even a minor character like Jesus Quintana can steal every scene they’re in. The cast of The Big Lebowski includes some of the Coen brothers' most frequent regular collaborators, like John Goodman,...

The Coen Brothers injected their 1998 cult crime-comedy, "The Big Lebowski," with a medley of thematic and aesthetic inspirations, ranging from hard-boiled crime noir to deliberately eccentric dream sequences. Although the basic plot points of the film follow the beats of a convoluted kidnapping mystery that meanders in several directions, "The Big Lebowski" is more of a vibe, an amalgamation of idiosyncrasies that work due to a loose, free-flowing narrative structure. On many occasions, the Coen Brothers have credited the works of Raymond Chandler for inspiring parts of "The Big Lebowski," especially Chandler's 1939 hardboiled crime novel, "The Big Sleep," which seems to share slight similarities with the film. In the event of the 25th anniversary of "The Big Lebowski," let us look past the superficial threads that tie the L.A. noir classic and the comedic crime mystery by looking at the overlapping sensibilities these films share, despite being very different in tone,...

Carter Burwell is now nominated for his third Academy Award. The composer's latest collaboration with Martin McDonagh, "The Banshees of Inisherin," captures both familiar and almost indescribable feelings. There is loneliness in the whispers of the strings, as well as instrumentals that help make viewers question what it all means in McDonagh's film.  

Burwell is the composer behind a long list of modern classics. He's the Coen Brothers' go-to composer and scored "Barton Fink," "Fargo," and "Miller's Crossing." He regularly collaborates with filmmakers Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, and Brian Helgeland. Simply put, he's one of the best. Recently, we interviewed Burwell to discuss his work in "The Banshees of Inisherin."

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

'We All Are Trying To Let The Words Be Their Own Melody'

You don't compose the more dialogue-heavy scenes. Did you and Martin talk about that, or is that just your personal taste?...

Has there ever been a better filmmaking duo than the Coen Bros? Joel and Ethan Coen have made some of the greatest modern films, hitting it out of the park with their 1983 debut Blood Simple. From there, the list of classics goes on and on. There’s Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis – the list goes on and on. Yet, following the release of 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, this formerly inseparable duo split, with Joel directing The Tragedy of Macbeth and Ethan making the Jerry Lee Lewis documentary, Trouble in Mind. What gives?

In this episode of Wtf Happened to this Celebrity, which is written (with Brad Hamerly), narrated and produced by Taylor James Johnson (with the enigmatic Roderick Jaynes editing), we dig into the careers...

Most filmmakers get bit by the movie bug early in life. They walk out of "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," or "Jurassic Park," and, like getting off a great amusement park ride, are desperate to get back in line to relive the experience all over again. At some point, they have to go home. That's where the dreaming starts. They imagine the further adventures of their big screen heroes, and, eventually, craft whole universes of their own. Sure, they'd love to add their own chapter to the "Indiana Jones" films, but what they really want is to create their own Indiana Jones. As they get older and discover other genres like Westerns, musicals, and gangster flicks, they study their tropes and unavoidably put their own spin on them.

The best filmmakers are the ones who seek not to replicate their formative experiences, but to work within different genres on their own terms.

"Alien: Resurrection" is the type of misfire that demands study; it's what happens when a director and a writer aren't even reading the same book, much less on the same page. Writer Joss Whedon lives and breathes screwball humor and self-deprecating snark. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, on the other hand, made surreal French fantasy movies like "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children." Moreover, Jeunet has made no secret of his distaste for Whedon's writing.

Whedon openly dislikes "Alien: Resurrection" what became, often pointing to parts of his script that were executed in ways incongruent with his intent. For instance, he's said the film taught him the lesson "casting is storytelling." Whedon continued:

"I wrote two characters for 'Alien: Resurrection' and their arc was that you would not know what way they were going to go. One of them turned out to be insane — and what do they do?...