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Still Coen strong

Billy Bob Thornton as Ed Crane
  • Posted at 4:05pm
  • 18 January 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

Writing/directing brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have rediscovered the spark that rocketed them to indie glory 25 years ago with their modern western No Country for Old Men (currently in cinemas).

Set in Texas and revolving around money and bloody murder, it shares a common theme with the Coens 1983 neo-noir debut, the blistering Blood Simple.

Their leftfield success continued with wacky comedy Raising Arizona and 1930s gangster homage Miller's Crossing, before the Coens struck gold with multi-award-winning snowbound crime thriller Fargo.

Although less of a commercial hit, The Big Lebowski, in which ten-pin bowling met the art world and some Nazis, remains beloved of Coen fans.

Music came to the fore in Depression-era odyssey O Brother, Where Art Thou?, after which even hardcore fans concede to something of a lean period.

I retain a soft spot for slow-moving 1950s-set thriller The Man Who Wasn't There. But their pointless and shouty remake of Ealing classic The Ladykillers is better left unmentioned. It might have put them off working from existing source material, but happily it didn’t, as Cormac McCarthy’s novel provides a rich basis for No Country for Old Men.

Rave notices and four Golden Globe nominations suggest that the brothers are back in town.

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