Ethan Coen

In my most recent Screenwriting Master Class offering, we did a deep immersion into the movies of Joel and Ethan Coen analyzing narrative dynamics and themes such as the Dynamism of Violence, Unresolved Endings, Fate, and Misunderstanding. Here is the final tip I offered per the Coens with an assist from another outstanding screenwriting duo Scott Neustadter and Michael Webber: This may seem an odd point to make: Follow the story. Of course, follow the story. That’s what writers do, right...Read Full Story

Before it debuts at the Cannes Film later this month, you can watch a new red-band trailer and for Joel and Ethan Coen’s new film Inside Llewyn Davis. The film takes place in the folk music scene of New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1960s, it’s very Coen brothers.  The cast is top notch, and once again the Coen’s have got the Goodman (that’s John) delivering what looks to be another great performance. The film also stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, F. Murray Abraham...Read Full Story

Joel and Ethan Coen are at it again — this time with the help of some of Hollywood’s most good looking actors. Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers’ love letter to New York City’s folk music scene in the ‘60s, borrows a few narratives from Dave Van Ronk’s memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street. In the film’s first trailer, unleashed this week, viewers meet Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), a struggling songwriter hailing from the streets of Greenwich Village. Along the way, he meets a character...Read Full Story

I have two favorite contemporary filmmakers. In terms of mainstream commercial films, there is Pixar. For independent movies, there are the Coen brothers. Both are hugely successful in what they do, commercially and critically. That’s why I’m thrilled to follow up the popular Pixar class I teach with a companion course: Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling. In this 1-week online course, we will analyze most of the movies the Coen brothers have written and directed including such...Read Full Story

It's been a whole three years since the Coen brothers released True Grit, which suggests their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, could be an early contender for the 2014 Oscars. (Last time the Coens took three years to craft a movie, it was for No Country for Old Men, and the time before that, it was for Fargo — a lot of Oscar gold between those two.) Inside Llewyn Davis follows a struggling folk singer (Drive's Oscar Isaac) dealing with a pissed off Carey Mulligan and trying to make it in the...Read Full Story