When trying to categorize the Coen Brothers films, two distinct categories emerge. The first group are movies that are primarily dramatic, such as Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, No Country for Old Men, and The Man Who Wasn't There. The second group tend to be straight up comedies, such as Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou?. Granted, none of there movies are without some humor (even No Country for Old Men), and even the lightest of their comedies includes (imminent) hangings, suicides, and bounty hunters getting blown up by their own grenades. Arguably their greatest (and one of my favorites), Fargo, deftly straddles the line between the two groups, often coming down on the comedy side, while being far too violent to completely live there.
