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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
well sure the coens blow tarantino out of the water (i really like that expression) but for that reason they’ve always had less mass apeal.
before fargo though barton fink had been a great success, at least critically, and i think raising arizona too must have done well as a demented comedy. i don’t know when i first saw raising arizona (sometime in the 90s) but i can still watch it and have fun with it.
as for “crime” per se i guess fargo i suppose but pulp fiction wasnt really about crime— it was about style. it was a movie made solely of style. there were stories in them but— what was the point of them? it doesn’t matter. whereas fargo has a story and a morality and all those things we know and expect.
ok i have to go watch david attenborough now which is some great footage.
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Yes, Barron Fink is extremely great, one of the best movies of the era, and it won the palm d’orr or whatever at Cannes. For good fucking reason.
Blood Simple is also excellent. And so is Miller’s Crossing. And Raising Arizona.
I mention Fargo in comparison to Pulp Fiction because it’s from that era when EVERYONE was looking for the “next pulp fiction,” and you had studios dropping hints like A Simple Plan and Get Shorty (the former is actually a really good movie) promoting the hell out of them to hit than sweet spot. Then Fargo came along and... Christ. Like a frigid Midwest winter, it just blew through everything.
And it’s actually a very stylish film. All Coen efforts rely heavily on style. Though I think you’re talking about a different kind of style.
Anyway, yeah, Coens are better.
But I do love Tarantino. I don’t worship at his altar, and I’m not a fanboy (let’s face it, he’s no Christopher Nolan baaaahahah fuck y’all!!) but everything with the exception of Reservoir Dpgs and that Grindhouse shit I’ve never seen is solid filmmaking. Rarely transcendent anymore (Inglorious Basterds had a few moments of genuine *AAHHHH!* (angels singing, that), but the rest of it is just ... good, fun, smart entertainment. Also dumb entertainment, but yeah