Monthly Archives: December 2020

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Song of the Day #4,553: ‘Way Out There’ – Carter Burwell

Continuing my countdown of every Coen Brothers movie…

#8. Fargo (1996)
(down two spots from previous ranking)

The ugly true crime sensibility of Blood Simple moved from sweaty Texas to frigid Minnesota, and the Coens enjoyed their best reviews yet, eventually taking home a Best Original Screenplay award and another Best Director prize at Cannes.

Fargo might be the best encapsulation of the Coens’unique sensibility, as it alternates between chilling violence, nail-biting suspense and big laughs, defying any attempt at simple categorization.

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Song of the Day #4,552: ‘Ahmnot Madatcha’ – The Negro Problem

This is the second Negro Problem song to pop up on Random Weekends in three weeks, not a bad showing considering I own 54 of their songs out of more than 13,000 in my iTunes library.

The odds of them showing up twice in such a short period of time are less than one in a quadrillion — wait, I’m sorry, those are the odds of Joe Biden defeating Donald Trump in each of the four battleground states mentioned in that batshit Texas lawsuit that got laughed out of the Supreme Court.

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Song of the Day #4,551: ‘Hound Dog’ – Elvis Presley

‘Hound Dog,’ Elvis Presley’s top-selling song, started out as a hit for the blues singer ‘Big Mama’ Thornton. Thornton’s 1953 version was a hit in its own right, selling two million copies and spending nearly two months atop Billboard’s R&B chart.

Thornton’s version was far more sexually suggestive, depicting a Black woman giving a no-good man the kiss-off. “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, been snoopin’ ’round my door,” she sings, “You can wag your tail but I ain’t gonna feed you no more.”

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Song of the Day #4,550: ‘Typing Montage’ – Carter Burwell

Continuing my countdown of every Coen Brothers movie…

#10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
(down two spots from previous ranking)

I’ve given five stars on Letterboxd to every film in my Coen Brothers top ten, which puts them in a category all to themselves. No other director whose work I’ve rated has scored more than four 5-star movies.

I’ve written a whole lot about The Ballad of Buster Scruggs on this blog already so I don’t have much to add here.

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Song of the Day #4,549: ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ – Harry McClintock

Continuing my countdown of every Coen Brothers movie…

#12. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
(up three spots from previous ranking)

This is the Coen Brothers movie I was most looking forward to revisiting, because I’m pretty sure I’d seen it only once before. As with all Coen movies, additional viewings are required, and this one shot way up in my estimation the second(?) time around.

This might be the brothers’ most beautiful film, with Roger Deakins’ creamy black-and-white photography making every shot worthy of framing. It’s also one of their most tonally consistent, never dropping the poker face of its noir classicism.

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