Ethan and Joel Coen

We’re trying something a bit different this month at MZ by devoting all of April to the Coen Brothers (as you can see, our nifty random banner up top is already cycling through classic frames from their films). We’ll be reviewing each of their films chronologically on every Monday, Wedensday, and Friday, beginning with Blood Simple later today. As well, we’ll be participating in Film at Eleven’s blog-a-thon later this month, updating Andrew Sarris’ seminal The American Cinema with an entry on the Coens. Also expect insightful articles and witty observations on their evolution as filmmakers, Top Ten Lists (that crack cocaine of the internets), and featured guest contributors.

Look for essays and features from (in no particular order) Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema, Joseph Demme of Cinexcellence, Daniel Johnson from Film Babble Blog, Dylan Fields (aka Fletch) of Blog Cabins (and purveyor of LAMB), Nick Plowman at Fataculture, Daniel Getahun from Getafilm (I just made that connection, Daniel), Rick Olson of Coosa Creek Mambo, and hopefully a few others who haven’t confirmed yet. Take a second to visit some of their excellent sites.

Basically, we’ll be ingesting all things Coen until Joel and Ethan come shooting out of our eyeballs. Not to be missed!