Two to three years back the Coen Brothers split off into different projects, with Joel working on his Macbeth movie while Ethan put together a play on the LA stage. Well, the COVID lockdowns only delayed The Tragedy of Macbeth for a few months, but they killed Ethan's play dead. He's been quite quiet since then.
So it was nice to hear an update on his doings. He's releasing a documentary on Jerry Lee Lewis, and really you couldn't ask for a more fascinating subject. I remember him from the Chuck Berry: Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll documentary, even though he faced the handicap of not being Chuck Berry.
There's also talk that he and Joel will work together again. I hope so. I strongly suspect they're more than the sum of their parts when together. Although Ethan also seems like the funner one.
2 comments:
We've felt for a while now that the Coen brothers movies were best in the years between 1984 and 1998 - Blood Simple to The Big Lebowski, the years they also made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, and our all time favorite: The Big Lebowski. They could have retired after that as far as I'm concerned with the exception, of course, of No Country For Old Men. Oh all right, The Man Who Wasn't There was okay but not really original and remaking movies like The Ladykillers and True Grit was a waste of valuable time.. at least in my opinion.
Still, despite my disappointment with some of their choices I agree with you that Jerry Lee Lewis would be a good subject for a movie. A documentary, eh? Considering some of the things he got up to offstage I imagine a movie with someone (who?) playing him would be more interesting, but we shall see.
Meanwhile, Jer suggested you might like to see this little video of a cat watching a scary movie. Now that's entertainment.
You didn't mention The Hudsucker Proxy but it's a particular favorite of mine. I'd agree that they really made their mark in the films they made those first 15 years or so. But they haven't completely rested on their laurels since then, as some of their movies show them breaking new ground while staying identifiably themselves. A Serious Man, for one. The original Ladykillers had a charming simplicity and directness which doesn't really gibe with their work, so they wound up making something overly busy and tonally off.
Yeah, Jerry Lee Lewis is an interesting subject all right. He's the last of the original generation of rock 'n' rollers, unless you count Wanda Jackson who was never as well known. Certainly he seems like he would be filled with good anecdotes.
Cat's haven't been living with people as long as dogs have, so they're not as domesticated. For all that, though, they've picked up some of our emotional reactions. I enjoyed seeing that little video.
Post a Comment