The Top Directors Working Today: The Coen Brothers
When I originally brought up this project, one thing that quickly came to light was it seems the younger generation look at the Coens with the same regard the older generation has for Scorsese. So (being of the older generation) I want to know...are the Coens the best in the business?I don't think many of you will say 'yes' because you probably have a personal pick that you rank slightly higher. (P.T. Anderson is a likely candidate.)
Of course the Coens are coming off of a film that had long stretches of directorial perfection. They are masters of mood, sound and music, sets, costumes and even haircuts. They've also proven that they can pull out performances that are Oscar worthy and/or very surprising career definers. (Jeff Bridges will Always be The Dude.)
Unfortunately if you look at the entire body of work I see a handful of interesting failures mixed in with the masterpieces. I would have to say for me, they definitely make the list, but I can think of a dozen of directors who are better.
posted by Cutshaw at 6/09/2008
3 Comments:
While I find your blog a good read, I can't help but feel the articles in this particular ongoing "project" should be longer, instead of each post barely reaching a paragraph's length. You Big Tease.
My hope was to briefly give my opinion without too much detail and then open the room up for debate.
This has proven to be much more successful on the Filmspotting message boards (in the 'movie talk' section under 'Polls'.)
http://www.filmspotting.net/boards/index.php?board=15.0
That's probably because they receive hundreds of hits a day, while my little rant page is lucky if it sees 40 visitors a day.
I've also fallen a bit behind. I plan to make up for it by posting my next director and the commentary together. (Over at the boards they're about a week ahead.)
I'll still comment on or include any comments left here. I've been learning quite a bit from outside opinion.
I'm a big fan of the Coens, but it's hard to say if they're the best there is. It is easy to argue that someone like P.T. Anderson comes out with masterpieces every time, but I also have to commend other directors on taking chances.
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