The only Coen brothers movie they called a cop-out: “We just totally chickened out on that one”
The concept of a cinematic cop-out is a difficult thing to put your finger on, but the Coen brothers saved everyone the hassle of trying to figure out which, if any, of their movies fit the bill by naming and shaming the offending article themselves.
Then again, since this is Joel and Ethan we’re talking about, everything they say in a public setting should be taken with at least a tiny pinch of salt, since the Academy Award-winning siblings have gained a reputation for purposely fucking with the people who keep asking them what their films are about.
If most self-appointed Coen aficionados were asked to name which one of their pictures constituted a cop-out, two loom larger than others. Intolerable Cruelty comes to mind, seeing as it was a writing assignment that they only ended up directing because Jonathan Demme and Ron Howard both dropped out.
The other was their next feature, the wholly unnecessary remake of The Ladykillers, which stands head and shoulders above the rest of their output as the weakest movie bearing both of their names. However, it wasn’t either of them, but a picture that, on paper, had all the hallmarks of a passion project. Or, at least, the Coens’ version of it.
After reaching the pinnacle of the industry when No Country for Old Men swept the Oscars, and then returning to familiar and farcical ground with Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan went back to basics with a low-budget dramedy about a Minnesotan Jew facing a personal and professional existential crisis, which seemed right up their street.
A Serious Man won widespread acclaim and earned them an Oscar nod for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, which didn’t prevent the Coens from suggesting that it was thematically lacking. In a 2013 interview, they teased making “a sandal movie,” which was the seed of the idea that became Hail, Caesar!
When it was mentioned to the duo that audiences have come to expect their films to take great pleasure in the absurdities life can throw in the way of their characters, they claimed that whatever they did next would be a return to form on that front, throwing Michael Stuhlbarg’s Larry Gopnik under a bus in the process.
“It’s not like our piddly A Serious Man,” Ethan informed the Associated Press. “That was a cop-out,” Joel added. “We just totally chickened out on that one.” Taking over, Ethan said that when they made that film, “We hadn’t grown up,” but promised to turn over a new leaf. “In that respect, OK, we have matured. We’re ready to answer the big questions now.”
This being the Coens, their next venture was, in fact, Hail, Caesar!, a light and frivolous love letter to Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ and the eccentric cast of characters who populated it, and a picture that was never at any point interested in answering any of the “big questions” they’d hinted might be tackled, which is classic behaviour from them, really.
