The Daily Helping always keeps an eye on whatever Joel and Ethan Coen are doing. The brothers from Minneapolis have been a steady source of cinematic adventure. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t; but more often than not it’s original and smart.

Joel and Ethan studied film at NYU, and upon graduation, Joel scored a chance to assist in the editing of Sam Raimi’s wonderful, Evil Dead. In 1984 they wrote and directed their first film together.  Blood Simple is a classic American film.  It draws upon the darkest of noir films and yet feels strangely humorous when not frightening.  There are wonderful, oddly nuanced characters here that represent one of many great strengths the Coens bring to each film. Inspired casting.

This is not a piece about the Coen Brothers career. It’s important however that you see a few of their films if you haven’t already.

Miller’s Crossing (brilliant gangster film), Fargo (the Daily Helping doesn’t believe you’ve never seen Fargo), The Big Lebowski.

Fans of the brothers all tend to have their favorites and for those Coen Brother film they don’t like, they tend to not like it a lot.

The word out today is that they want to remake an American classic. True Grit. Most of us know the movie starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and an eye patch.  The Coens, in discussing their plan for the remake, say that they want to stay more loyal to the 1968 book by Charles Portis.  The Daily Helping doesn’t remember  much about the movie other than Rooster Cogburn lives in the end because John Wayne eventually did a sequel with Katherine Hepburn that was really hard to watch.

The Daily Helping had heard a few months ago that the Coen’s optioned the film rights for Michael Chabon‘s brilliant novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. This was wonderful news, but there’s little known about the project.

One hopes the Coens bring it along before the Grit.