2003CC: Joel Coen
- Blood Simple (84): *****
- Raising Arizona (87): *****
- Miller's Crossing (90): *****
- Fargo (96): *****
- The Big Lebowski (98): **** 1/2
- Barton Fink (91): **** 1/2
- The Man Who Wasn't There (01): ****
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (00): *** 1/2
- The Hudsucker Proxy (94): ***
This is a new entry in an up-dated series I'm calling the New Critical Consensus. Several people have requested updates of the older series, and since critical opinions shift, I am revamping the entire system. I am averaging the opinions of several excellent film critics to produce a list of each director's movies. Rather than using a number system, which was perhaps a bit clunky, I will now be using a five-star system. The films will be listed in a recommended viewing order, so new fans will have an idea of where the best place to start watching a director's work is.
These are not my opinions, although, since I have chosen the critics used (and I'm using many), my taste will perhaps seep through a bit.
Terribly nerdy, I know, but maybe this will help people only now beginning to dabble into certain artists' bodies of work.
Scale:
***** - Masterpiece
**** 1/2 - Classic
**** - Great
*** 1/2 - Good
*** - Above Average
** 1/2 - Average
** - Below Average
* 1/2 - Bad
* - Terrible
1/2 - One of the worst films ever
Usually I don't have many disagreements with these CC lists, but this one raises a few . . . Using the textual equivalents of the star system, I couldn't call Fargo a masterpiece nor Barton Fink a classic. The Big Lebowski isn't even in the same time zone as "classic", and The Man Who Wasn't There isn't on the same planet as "great". But that's just my opinion, of course. And I know these are an aggregation of ratings rather than your own opinion. Just thought I'd throw in my $0.02.
Well, for what it is worth, I agree with much of what you said. I was very pleased to see Miller's Crossing do so well, but yes, many, many of these films are VERY over-rated.
Perhaps time will sort all this out eventually...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs