A Look at the Movies the Coen Brothers Wrote But Didn't Direct

Scene from Suburbicon
It is commonly accepted that Joel and Ethan Coen are two of the most acclaimed directors currently working. Their work has spanned over 30 years and has lead to a Best Picture Oscar win for No Country for Old Men in 2007. While last year's Hail, Caesar! proved that The Coen Brothers still have some juice directing movies, there is an even more interesting trend developing. They are starting to write screenplays for other directors. While this isn't anything new (they wrote Crimewave for Sam Raimi in 1985), it hasn't been as prominent in their careers in quite awhile. With the release of their latest penned movie Suburbicon, it feels like a good time to go back and look at this recent trend and see if these movies deserve to be talked about in the same leagues as Fargo or A Serious Man.
There's plenty to suggest that Suburbicon will be a Coen Brothers-esque movie. Based on the trailer, it's got that balance of homely suburban life and an upsetting presence of dark comedy. Even the presence of Matt Damon will remind audiences of his work in True Grit seven years ago. But wait awhile, and the trailer will play some odd cards. This is a movie written by Joel and Ethan Coen, but the director is someone different. It's George Clooney. He may be a welcomed player in Coen collaborations, but there's something interesting to judging a film by his directorial skills. While he's been more political in recent years with The Ides of March and The Monuments Men, Clooney has been known for an occasional slice of pitch black comedy, such as in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. His sadistic streak isn't quite as polished as The Coen Brothers, so one must wonder what exactly will be different.
This is not a review of Suburbicon. As of this publishing, I have not seen the movie. What this is going to be is a reflection of the four films over the past five years that The Coen Brothers penned for other filmmakers: Gambit, Unbroken, Bridge of Spies, and Suburbicon. For a duo who have sporadic streaks of prolific output, it's amazing that between 1987 and 2010 that they never had a credited script for anyone but their own movies. Many filmmakers would be fine doing this, yet there's an odd trend that doesn't entirely make sense. For example, Quentin Tarantino's work on True Romance felt like it happened because he wasn't established enough to direct that movie. With several Oscars and Best Picture nominees, The Coen Brothers in 2017 have more than enough juice to film whatever they want. So, what makes right now the perfect time to start writing movies for other people?

Scene from Gambit
In what is probably the weakest of the first three, director Michael Hoffman's Gambit is a confusing remake of the Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine film of the same name. With Colin Firth in the lead, it's a juvenile film full of slapstick comedy and sophomoric moments. It isn't entirely removed from The Coen Brothers style of humor necessarily, as films like Intolerable Cruelty definitely reviled in similar antagonism. However, it's still a spectacularly unmemorable movie that tries to mix a highbrow heist story with less exciting jokes that Firth has proven to be capable of, but doesn't get much to work with here. It's a screenplay that, at best, was probably shelved for years with intent to never see the light of day. It wasn't the worst that someone could write, but it does feel like it mostly got dusted off because of the names on the cover.
The film's biggest criticism has to be its release. It premiered in London in November of 2012, but didn't hit the United States until 2014. Even with a solid cast, it felt like the film was finally dumped to video on demand to bank off of Firth's big role in the first Kingsman movie. It's especially baffling to wonder what makes this a Coen Brothers film, largely because it misses the charm of the films they made around this time. One could wonder what exactly was missing, though the answer may have been simpler than that. Hoffman isn't necessarily as skilled a director as Joel and Ethan Coen, and the results show. Where there could be nuance to something as simple as dropped trousers, Hoffman goes for broad comedy that compromises the story in ways that take things from a subversive genre film to a forgettable romp.
This is most likely what pains the other films. It has The Coen Brothers in spirit, but the films never feel like they are allowed to exist mentally. The flaw of collaboration in this case is that established filmmakers have to sacrifice certain techniques in order for a different filmmaker to create something that appeases them. Save for studio-mandated films, it is difficult for a director to not make a film that doesn't feel like their own. For what it's worth, Hoffman made a film that fit his ideal vision. The only issue is that the script he's working with feels like a rough draft to a movie that The Coen Brothers probably were never going to make, but just used as an exercise to work out some kinks. What they left on the page is some of their least appealing work, which makes sense given that they've likely saved their best material for themselves.

Scene from Unbroken
The one appeal of Gambit is that it's now an obscure film that nobody will likely associate with The Coen Brothers. In fact, it would've seemed like a one off had it not been for a film that premiered stateside alongside Gambit: Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie. The film about "Torrance Tornado" Louis Zamperini was unlike most of what the duo had done before even in their own work. While they had done serious dramas, Joel and Ethan Coen weren't anywhere near as mature and nuanced to make Unbroken into a film that fit their aesthetic. In some ways, this is a great thing in the way that Mel Brooks producing The Elephant Man suggested that he wanted to branch out, but feared bad comparisons to his spoof movies. By allowing Jolie to make a movie that was about triumph in times of overwhelming peril, they were allowed to explore a character that was new to them. Zamperini's struggles were more internal, and thus challenged them to write something that had emotional resonance without goofy accents or hair cuts.
While the film may feature a heavy dose of over-dramatic set pieces, the choice to cast Jolie as director was the smartest choice. She knew how to make a film that centered around encouraging dialogue like "If I can take it, I can make it." and shoot for an inspirational film. While it's possible that The Coen Brothers could've shot war scenes as riveting as Jolie, it still would be disconcerting, as their period pieces like Miller's Crossing weren't light on comedy. Zamperini is a character whose struggles are serious, and the third act in which he is imprisoned is a harrowing feat that requires strict focus on drama. It becomes a powerful film when it allows Jolie to present the material in her way. Unlike Gambit, there's a certain positive effect in compromise that makes Unbroken a solid war film.
Of the three adapted scripts, Unbroken feels the strangest because it's not a Coen Brothers movie in the slightest. There's no real trace of the humor or eccentricity that they would bring around that time to Inside Llewyn Davis. What this movie showed was their capability to handle more dramatic material that challenged them in ways that audiences hadn't seen from them. It may be tough to differentiate this script even more than Gambit from typical studio hands, but Unbroken is a film that shows their struggle with nuance and a desire to make a traditional studio war film that has extra poignancy. 

Scene from Bridge of Spies
In a lot of ways, Unbroken felt like a warm-up to their most successful collaboration to date. Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies is a film that has many things going for it. There's the Oscar-winning performance by Mark Rylance. There's a timely story about not judging people unfairly. It also has just the right level of Spielberg sentimentality fused with elements from throughout his career. There's plenty of action to forward the story, but this is largely another character drama, and one that proves Tom Hanks charisma. As a whole, it's still easy to see this more as a Spielberg movie, who more than deserved the Best Picture Oscar nomination that the film received. Still, there's something to the film's core, where the dramatic tension of Unbroken was now fused with a more Coen Brothers-friendly script, which now managed to turn Rylance's brief asides into comedic gold.
The film still avoided the slapstick heart of Coen Brothers' central work. However, the humor was still present in the small interactions, such as an awkward dinner date that shows the complexity of Hanks' family life. There's even jokes to be made as characters wait on trial for potentially horrifying punishments. It's a film about judicial law and treating others fair, even if they are suspected of devious crimes against the country. There's recurring gags and symbolism that keep returning to elevate the film's humanity - likely more an element of Spielberg - into something a bit more gratifying. By the end, everything is resolved in a positive way, though not without a few dark moments. In some ways, this is The Coen Brothers most diverse script since No Country for Old Men. They haven't been allowed to be as disturbing or funny in the years since, and Bridge of Spies at least allows them to do so in an effective manner.
Between these three scripts, one thing is clear. The Coen Brothers may provide a certain mentality to the work, but there's still an underlying sense that it's a jumping off place for the directors. It's been done very well (Bridge of Spies) and not so successfully (Gambit), but it reflects the desire for filmmakers who want to emulate the duo and create art that is off kilter and reflects something a little strange in Americana. Who knows if Suburbicon will be one of the better or worse screenplays that have made it to film. Given that they have worked closely with George Clooney in the past, odds are that it will have just as effective an approach as Spielberg. Only time will tell. While none of these scripts compare to their own work, they at least show an interesting new trend where The Coen Brothers give other people a chance to make their own version of their movies. It's not always for the best, but it usually turns out interesting enough.

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