The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together

Combining critical text—biography, close film analysis, and enlightening interviews with key Coen collaborators—with a visual aesthetic that honors the Coens’ singular mix of darkness and levity, The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is film critic Adam Nayman's carefully crafted effort to plot, as he puts it, “some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness.”

Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly comical, instantly recognizable voice in modern American cinema. They have given movie fans classics of all types—comedy, history, drama, romance. Their movies have a distinctive style and point of view: hilarious, sad, thoughtful, musical, sometimes all at once. When someone says a movie is Coen Brothers–like, every serious movie lover knows exactly what they mean.

Adam Nayman carefully sifts through their complex cinematic universe and covers their popular, award-winning, and unforgettable creations:

• The Big Lebowski
• Raising Arizona
• Fargo
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• O Brother, Where Art Thou
• Barton Fink
• Miller’s Crossing
• Blood Simple
• The Hudsucker Proxy
• And more!

Featuring film stills, beautiful and evocative illustrations, punchy infographics, and hard insight, this is the definitive exploration of the Coen brothers’ oeuvre.

“Filled with glossy, well-chosen pictures as well as thoughtful, eloquent analysis.” ―Filmmaker