Joel Coen

“Barton Fink” was the crowning glory of the Cannes Film Festival when it premiered there in May 1991. Critics heaped their praises on it. But it never really connected with the audience and hence was a box office failure. Luckily, Joel and Ethan Coen made a film that is worth rewatching and discussing, even if it’s not completely decipherable. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Drama of the Brothers Coen series and delve into the murky, oozing depths of “Barton Fink.”

For their third film, the Coen brothers decided to again make something completely different from what they’ve done before. With “Miller’s Crossing,” they made a gangster picture that honors conventions of the genre while also twisting those conventions, just as they did with “Blood Simple.” And it worked for some people while not for others (and lead to a big bomb at the box office). Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — on this week’s episode of The Next Reel as we continue our Drama by the Brothers Coen series with 1990s “Miller’s Crossing.”

“Blood Simple,” released in film festivals in 1984 and theatrically in 1985, found as many detractors as it did fans initially, but no one can argue that it was all that the filmmaking duo of Joel and Ethan Coen needed to break onto the scene as fresh, quirky and sometimes violent voices in the cinema world. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — on this week’s episode of The Next Reel as we start our Drama by the Brothers Coen series.