Strangelove is my #3. I don't know what you can say about it that hasn't been said (falls under my quadrants of satire, and sort of dark comedy. The subject material is pure gallows humor and in that sense dark, but the tone of the delivery is light-hearted in the vein of something like Airplaine!). So here goes - I've seen Strangelove numerous times over the decades since I first saw it in high school and I laugh pretty much every time. Except one time. It was a midnight screening at a local independent theater, a little tired and not mentally alert, sparse crowd, the jokes just felt overfamiliar. No one else was really laughing that much either and I suspect collectively we were all in the same boat and no one was providing the audience laugh track catalyst to get us all going. That was years ago and was fortunately not my most recent watching. This anecdote weirdly gives me hope for movies like This is Spinal Tap and The Holy Grail (the former which I rewatched for this countdown and didn't laugh at all, the former I feel like my last rewatch, probably over a decade ago suffered a similar fate). This got me thinking about jokes and overfamiliarity in the past, and so, for a list about comedies, about how to separate which greats should end up above the others on my ballot (for the few minutes I gave it some thoughts).
Which brings us to a word about The Big Lebowski.
Actually, let's step back to that Spinal Tap rewatch.
The three movies I rewatched for this countdown before calling it quits were A Serious Man, Dogtooth (maybe I should have rewatched The Lobster instead), and This is Spinal Tap.
Dogtooth and Spinal Tap, I was greatly let down that I didn't really laugh. At all. Actually add Dogtooth to that list above of hopefully it resume its greatness on another rewatch. A Serious Man on the other... I just kept laughing my ass off. Just bursting out loud. Now the interesting thing was, the first time I saw A Serious Man in the theaters, I loved it, I find it greatly stimulating intellectually, but I didn't laugh at it like I was expecting to. It just seemed a little more slow and somber than what I expected from a Coens' movie. But something happened on the first rewatch, the drawn out awkwardness of all the interactions, the absurdities, they all just clicked, and I just ended up going, "this movie is so much more funny than what I thought it was the first time around." And I've seen it multiple times since then (laughing along the way), but when this ballot came around, it became an issue of, "wait, I remember this being funny, but how funny was it. I'm now a little concerned because I do remember that first viewing. But hell, I just laughed my butt off. Which only added to my surprise I didn't laugh at all the following night when watching Dogtooth or Spinal Tap.
A Serious Man (2009) was my #7.
Burn After Reading was another Coens' that I was a little disappointed by not laughing as much in the initial theatrical experience as I was expecting, but seemed to just become great on the first rewatch. Burn After Reading didn't make my shortlist, let alone my ballot though.
So, I'll give that anecdote as a caveat on the following - I've not gelled with The Big Lebowski. I laughed when I watched it back in the 90s, but I ended up not laughing as much as I was expecting, and it just never stood out in my mind as one of the great Coen movies. Since everyone else seemed to love it, and after both my Serious Man and Burn After Reading Experience, I decided it was due for a rewatch and, you know, you think of scenes in the movie, they seem like they have to be really funny.... and I still didn't find it that funny. I don't know if it's ultimately one that just doesn't click for me or if the comedy's just fundamentally on a different wavelength than what I'm expecting going in - A Serious Man issue, but managed to repeat itself and still hasn't had a chance to correct itself. I will say, unlike O' Brother, I still think there's a possibility that Lebowski would rise in my estimation, but as of right I would rank all of the following Coen Brother movies above it for a comedy ballot (ordered by release):
Which brings us to Unnamed Ballot Entry #2 (the only movie besides It's Such a Beautiful Day to edge out Strangelove on my ballot).
I couldn't help but notice dark comedy replays well for me, Coen comedy replays well for me, and so Unnamed Ballot Entry #2 was a Coen brothers' movie.
Barton Fink
It's not my favorite Coen brothers' movie, but it seems to be the most four quadrant Coen brothers' movie for me, and it seemed like an obvious choice once I thought of it.
The comedy is dark, but has the overt character actor and snappy dialogue that one associates with Raising Arizona or the surrounding world of Miller's Crossing, it plays with reality and the fantastical, and I don't know. I guess the fourth quadrant for the Coens is John Goodman?
And unlike A Serious Man and Fargo, which are both really funny, they're a, you need to be paying attention funny, not have it on in the movie on in the background and laugh at jokes as they come up funny.
It's one I would have assumed to make the list. Which is surprising to me since it seemed like it used to be really big. It was the last movie to win three major awards at Cannes (and will be the last because after it did so, Cannes changed their rules so there's a cap on the number of major awards a film can win). At the beginning of this countdown I would have guessed at least #65, quite reasonably in the top 40 or 30. Conceivably, if things broke right, in the top 10.
Even stranger was seeing my #1 and #4, It's Such a Beautiful Day and Hausu, place because those seemed a lot more like long shots.
ETA: For A Serious Man, I feel like a modified version of the junior Rabbi's speech could serve as the memorial for this countdown.
"There's comedy in the parking lot, Larry."
Which brings us to a word about The Big Lebowski.
Actually, let's step back to that Spinal Tap rewatch.
The three movies I rewatched for this countdown before calling it quits were A Serious Man, Dogtooth (maybe I should have rewatched The Lobster instead), and This is Spinal Tap.
Dogtooth and Spinal Tap, I was greatly let down that I didn't really laugh. At all. Actually add Dogtooth to that list above of hopefully it resume its greatness on another rewatch. A Serious Man on the other... I just kept laughing my ass off. Just bursting out loud. Now the interesting thing was, the first time I saw A Serious Man in the theaters, I loved it, I find it greatly stimulating intellectually, but I didn't laugh at it like I was expecting to. It just seemed a little more slow and somber than what I expected from a Coens' movie. But something happened on the first rewatch, the drawn out awkwardness of all the interactions, the absurdities, they all just clicked, and I just ended up going, "this movie is so much more funny than what I thought it was the first time around." And I've seen it multiple times since then (laughing along the way), but when this ballot came around, it became an issue of, "wait, I remember this being funny, but how funny was it. I'm now a little concerned because I do remember that first viewing. But hell, I just laughed my butt off. Which only added to my surprise I didn't laugh at all the following night when watching Dogtooth or Spinal Tap.
A Serious Man (2009) was my #7.
Burn After Reading was another Coens' that I was a little disappointed by not laughing as much in the initial theatrical experience as I was expecting, but seemed to just become great on the first rewatch. Burn After Reading didn't make my shortlist, let alone my ballot though.
So, I'll give that anecdote as a caveat on the following - I've not gelled with The Big Lebowski. I laughed when I watched it back in the 90s, but I ended up not laughing as much as I was expecting, and it just never stood out in my mind as one of the great Coen movies. Since everyone else seemed to love it, and after both my Serious Man and Burn After Reading Experience, I decided it was due for a rewatch and, you know, you think of scenes in the movie, they seem like they have to be really funny.... and I still didn't find it that funny. I don't know if it's ultimately one that just doesn't click for me or if the comedy's just fundamentally on a different wavelength than what I'm expecting going in - A Serious Man issue, but managed to repeat itself and still hasn't had a chance to correct itself. I will say, unlike O' Brother, I still think there's a possibility that Lebowski would rise in my estimation, but as of right I would rank all of the following Coen Brother movies above it for a comedy ballot (ordered by release):
- Raising Arizona
- Miller's Crossing (not even a comedy, IMO, and thus not eligible for my ballot)
- The Hudsucker Proxy
- Fargo
- The Man Who Wasn't There
- Burn After Reading
- A Serious Man
- and possibly, but not likely, Hail, Caesar!
Which brings us to Unnamed Ballot Entry #2 (the only movie besides It's Such a Beautiful Day to edge out Strangelove on my ballot).
I couldn't help but notice dark comedy replays well for me, Coen comedy replays well for me, and so Unnamed Ballot Entry #2 was a Coen brothers' movie.
Barton Fink
It's not my favorite Coen brothers' movie, but it seems to be the most four quadrant Coen brothers' movie for me, and it seemed like an obvious choice once I thought of it.
The comedy is dark, but has the overt character actor and snappy dialogue that one associates with Raising Arizona or the surrounding world of Miller's Crossing, it plays with reality and the fantastical, and I don't know. I guess the fourth quadrant for the Coens is John Goodman?
And unlike A Serious Man and Fargo, which are both really funny, they're a, you need to be paying attention funny, not have it on in the movie on in the background and laugh at jokes as they come up funny.
It's one I would have assumed to make the list. Which is surprising to me since it seemed like it used to be really big. It was the last movie to win three major awards at Cannes (and will be the last because after it did so, Cannes changed their rules so there's a cap on the number of major awards a film can win). At the beginning of this countdown I would have guessed at least #65, quite reasonably in the top 40 or 30. Conceivably, if things broke right, in the top 10.
Even stranger was seeing my #1 and #4, It's Such a Beautiful Day and Hausu, place because those seemed a lot more like long shots.
ETA: For A Serious Man, I feel like a modified version of the junior Rabbi's speech could serve as the memorial for this countdown.
"There's comedy in the parking lot, Larry."
Last edited by Little Ash; 08-13-22 at 12:40 PM.