10 Most Essential Coen Brothers Films

There’s black comedy, then there’s pitch black comedy, then there are the sort of awkward jokes we all feel compelled to make at funerals to ease the tension (just us?).

Then there’s 2010’s A Serious Man. Easily the most brutal but blackly funny of the Coen Brothers’ films, this story of a Jewish patriarch whose entire life unravels around him for no apparent reason manages to be both hysterically funny and surprisingly poignant philosophical treatise on everything from historical guilt to the existence of God.

Transplanting the biblical story of Job’s endless trials into the suburban milieu of fifties Americana, A Serious Man piles misfortune after misfortune on its hapless protagonist, forcing the viewer to empathize with this tragic sadsack right up to its hilarious but cruel final frames. It’s hard to unpack just what the pair are saying here, outside of funding some fun in the inevitability of suffering (very Buddhist, Coens), but there’s not denying it’s a guiltily hilarious ride once you accept the happy ending isn’t on its way. Uncut Gems wishe