This Coen Brothers classic often gets overlooked amidst the rest of the duo's daunting catalog, which is a shame because it would be a shining beacon in almost any other director's portfolio. Tim Robbins, Paul Newman and Jennifer Jason Leigh put on their roaring twenties accents and breathe in boatloads of snappy dialog as the centerpieces of a closed-doors corporate scheme that never seems to quit escalating. Though the climax is a bit of a cop-out, the rest of the film works magnificently as an allegory for the sins of capitalism, the failures of an impartial press and the temptations of glamour we all stare down sooner or later, while managing to be cute, creative and charming the whole way through. Excellent stuff.
As will all Coen brothers films, this one calls me to see it again, as I always seem to discover new elements when watching their works for the second, third, fourth times, and beyond. A very worthwhile film – enjoy!
Something completely different for the Coen brothers, this is an oldschool screwball comedy originally written by Sam Raimi. It really commits to that style, everything is wonderfully overacted and the sets and score are all very exaggerated. Imagine the J Jonah Jamison scenes from the Sam Raimi Spider-man films stretched out over an entire film, mix in some German expressionism and Terry Gilliam, and you’re close to what this is. However, for as much as the Coens nail the style, I didn’t care as much for the writing. As far as ‘capitalism = bad’ movies go, this doesn’t dig all that deep. That means your enjoyment will probably depend on how much you vibe with the comedy, which is the most divisive aspect of the film. In my opinion, some of the slapstick and silliness are really good, but it can get oddly lowbrow and dumb for a Coen brothers film, it’s sometimes lacking that clever layer you can often find in their dumb comedies. Look, I’d recommend Brazil over this any day, but this is still a pretty decent effort, if a little unremarkable when taking their entire filmography into account.
6/10
I'm sure if I googled around for a minute I'd be able to find an established term that describes the style/vibe of this film, but instead I'm going to reinvent the wheel and describe it myself. It exists in a heightened version of reality. All of the ideas are familiar, and are grounded conceptually in the real world, but they're turned up to 11 in absurdist ways that are used to add humor and/or visual style. If I had to guess what the established term is, it would probably be some distant relative of fantasy or an offshoot of magical realism or the like. Regardless of what it's called, I'm a fan. I was on board with the quirky sense of humor and, with only one exception, I enjoyed the caricature-esque portrayals from the cast. That exception is Jennifer Jason Leigh's portrayal of Amy Archer. I don't think this has anything to do with the performance, which is probably great. The problem is that the accent and character are just too tied to the cliché for me to disconnect them (I blame the reporter character in one of the later seasons of BoJack Horseman). In any case, I don't know that any portrayal of this type of character will ever feel convincing to me, because I inherently associate it with over the top acting. Aside from that, my one other big critique is the film's third act, which felt rushed and also leaned a bit too much on the fantasy relative to the rest of the film. Despite those two issues, I still have no problem recommending the film, thanks primarily to Tim Robbins' fantastic central performance and the clever writing typical of the Coen brothers.
Got boring fast. No good characters just a few one dimensional stereotypes. The comedy was very poor. Then I found out it was Coen movie and it all made sense. I only watched it because I like Tim Robbins but in this he's got nothing to watched or watched or with. Newman looked like he didn't care.
One of Coens best work. Very entertaining and smart with magnificent dark humour
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2013-09-04T15:29:16Z
A smart and sometimes bizarre film who tells the story of Norville Barnes, a college graduate from a small town who is looking for a job in the big city. When he gets a job in one of the biggest companies in town Hudsucker Industries the president had just commited suicide. One of the board members comes up with the idea of putting Barnes running the company waiting to him to ruin everything with the intention of making the company so cheap that all of the board members can buy it and then they will become majority stockholders. But things will not be like all of them hope to be.
I really liked the idea of incorporated the invention of the Hula-Hoop in the story. Very funny!
Tim Robbins does a good job so has Paul Newman. Jennifer Jason Leigh was a little bit annoying for me.
Just need to see two more films from the Coen Brothers and then I've seen all of his films.