Twitter

Where to Stream:

Intolerable Cruelty

Spend any time on the internet, particularly in film circles, and you’ll learn what is perhaps the one great truth: people LOVE to talk about, and especially rank, the films of the Coen Brothers. Is Fargo the best of the best? Something newer like Inside Llewyn Davis? A classic snob’s choice like Miller’s Crossing? The best part about it is that we can just keep shuffling that deck over and over again, because the Coens have no shortage of excellent movies to choose from. But what of the flip side to that coin? The movies that continually end up on the bottom when it comes time to rank.

One of the most maligned Coen brothers movies of all time is 2003’s Intolerable Cruelty. Borne of that middling period that lasted roughly in between The Big Lebowski in 1998 and No Country for Old Men in 2007. Joel and Ethan still made some quality movies in that stretch, but it’s almost always where you’ll find the films most frequently ranked the lowest in the Coens’ filmography. Intolerable Cruelty was a departure for the Coens in a lot of ways. It’s probably their purest attempt at a romantic comedy, depending on what angle you take on Raising Arizona. It was also the first time you saw them really leaning on star power, and with George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, it’s tough to blame them. The script was originally a work-for-hire job by the brothers that then bounced around Hollywood for years before they decided to take it on.

The reception for Intolerable Cruelty was tepid, and really only after The Ladykillers completely flopped the next year did people start roping both films together as the Coens’ worst. And indeed, in subsequent years, Intolerable Cruelty has been a reliable presence at the bottom of Coens lists. Now that it’s started streaming on Netflix, it’s time to ask the question: is it the WORST Coen brothers’ film of all time? It’s worth a look.

For this particular exercise, I’ve gathered a handful of the least well-regarded Coens films and judging them across a variety of subjective and objective rubrics: box-office performance, Rotten Tomatoes score, IMDb score, and their placement on the following Best of Coens lists: Indiewire, ScreenCrush, The Atlantic, Slate, and Film.com. After which point I will add in my own subjective ranking, which will be weighted heavily, because it’s my article.

It’s important to note: the Coen brothers are world-class filmmakers. Even their failures are interesting, and they’ve to date never made an unwatchable film. These are just the ones that most frequently fall towards the bottom of their lists. I’m curious as to why.

Intolerable Cruelty

Year: 2003
Stars: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton, Geoffrey Rush
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
Box Office Take: $35 million
IMDb Score: 6.3
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 14.5 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: This is Catherine Zeta-Jones at her absolute peak.
Secret Anti-Weapon: George Clooney is maybe not at his best when collaborating with the Coens? Stick a pin in this one and evaluate after Hail Caesar!

Personal take: This is my least favorite Coen brothers film. It takes forever to get going, Clooney and Zeta-Jones only have decent chemistry together, and the Coens’ famous misanthropy is really at odds with the romantic comedy genre they’re working in.

[Where to stream Intolerable Cruelty]

The Ladykillers

Year: 2004
Stars: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%
Box Office Take: $39 million
IMDb Score: 6.2
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 14.6 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: The 2004 Cannes Film Festival gave a special jury prize to the film for Irma P. Hall’s performance.
Secret Anti-Weapon: Nobody on Hanks’ criminal team, including Oscar-winner Simmons, gives a very good performance.

Personal take: It’s definitely not the greatest Coens film of all time, but I’ve always felt like this one caught a bit too much flak. Hanks is hammy as heck, but honestly pretty funny, and for a decidedly minor, low-ambition kind of a movie, it has its moments.

[Where to stream The Ladykillers.]

The Hudsucker Proxy

Year: 1994
Stars: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%
Box Office Take: $2 million
IMDb Score: 7.3
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 13 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: Every single time Jennifer Jason Leigh demands her Pulitzer is an Oscar nomination she should have gotten.
Secret Anti-Weapon: This being the first time the Coens really faced critical push-back, we’ve had twenty years’ worth of Coens fans feeling like they need to “stick up” for the quality of this movie. Lots of people think this movie is a good, fun time! I’m one of them! Quit hollering at me.

Personal take: Coming on the heels of Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, and Barton Fink, it’s understandable why this turn for the screwball was initially resisted, but it’s a very funny movie with very strong performances, and I really think we’re past the point of seeing it as a bad movie.

[Where to stream The Hudsucker Proxy]

O Brother Where Art Thou?

Year: 2000
Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Durining, Holly Hunter
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
Box Office Take: $45 million
IMDb Score: 7.8
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 11.9 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: That soundtrack, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year, which is one of the more lowkey amazing things to have happened in pop culture lately.
Secret Anti-Weapon: The superstructures in Coens movies always make themselves apparent, though some more than others, and this movie in particular feels awfully slavish to its take on The Odyssey.

Personal take: This is a movie I enjoy less with each successive rewatch. It has its moments, mostly due to the music, but the diminishing returns sure do diminish.

[Where to stream O Brother Where Art Thou]

True Grit

Year: 2010
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Box Office Take: $171 million
IMDb Score: 7.7
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 11.7 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: It does everything that a remake ought to do, in terms of making it feel current without being forcibly updated. The source material fits into their western vibe shockingly well.
Secret Anti-Weapon: Incredible performances in small roles, from Domhnall Gleeson to Elizabeth Marvel.

Personal take: Honestly mystified why this one ranks so low with the list-makers. Its RT score and box-office take blow these other films out of the water. Spoiler for the rest of this article: True Grit is NOT the worst Coen brothers movie.

[Where to stream True Grit]

The Man Who Wasn’t There

Year: 2001
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Tony Shalhoub, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%
Box Office Take: $7 million
IMDb Score: 7.6
Average Placement on Ranked Lists: 11.5 (of 16)

Secret Weapon: Roger Deakins’ flawless cinematography, which didn’t win an Oscar for reasons which are frankly unfathomable.
Secret Anti-Weapon: Thonrton’s low-wattage performance is right for the character but contributes to a snoozy mood at times.

Personal take: One of my favorite Coen brothers’ movies! Better luck next time, list-makers!

[Where to stream The Man Who Wasn’t There]

Conclusion

As expected, this one comes down to Intolerable Cruelty versus The Ladykillers. IC has a big advantage in that its RT scores were 20 points higher, though I suspect that if their release dates were reversed, IC‘s scores would be just as low. The Ladykillers really bore the brunt of that two-film slump. Otherwise, the two films are wildly comparable in every other metric. Except for the fact that I personally think Intolerable Cruelty is a good deal worse. Them’s the breaks, Miles Massey. Your iron-clad pre-nup can’t save you from this shaming!