10 Most Essential Coen Brothers Films

Come on. Did you think the stoners would let us leave this one off the list?

Shane Black and Paul Thomas Anderson may have made their own attempts at shaggy dog comedy-noirs in the years since and produced a pair of classics in the form of 2005’s uber-cynical Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 2015’s trippy Inherent Vice, but neither film could have existed without the help of the Dude, and Jeff Bridges’ hilarious central turn remains one of stoner cinema’s finest hours.

The labyrinthine plot, borrowing from the likes of Raymond Chandler and other iconic noir authors, may be impossible to follow, but that isn’t the point here—the point is the razor sharp dialogue, with the brothers’ inventive wit and ear for a surreal one liner making this one of the most quotable films from the nineties.

It’s a flick bolstered by some hysterical turns from John Goodman and Steve Buscemi as the dude’s proverbial devil and angel in his ear, and by a hilariously dark sense of humour wherein everything—death including—is good for a laugh.