When The Tragedy of Macbeth was released in 2021, there was some cause for concern. After 18 films, including such classics as Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski, Joel Coen, for the first time, offered audiences a movie that did not feature the involvement of his younger brother, Ethan Coen. However, Joel Coen’s sole directing credit wasn’t a first for the filmmaker.
From his debut, 1984’s Blood Simple, through 2003’s IntolerableCruelty, Joel Coen was credited as director, but it was understood that the films were equal collaborations with his sibling, who had co-written, and produced all the projects as well. Ethan Coen is also listed as the uncredited director of each film on IMDb. In fact, it wasn’t until 2004’s The Ladykillers that both brothers were credited equally.
But the 2021 Shakespeare adaptation, which contained a tour de force performance from Denzel Washington as Lord Macbeth, was the first truly solo Joel Coen production. Since Ethan has also embarked on his own solo projects, including the 2022 archieved documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in My Mind and the upcoming comedy Drive-Away Dolls. So, does this mean the siblings have made their last film together? Take a look at what the future holds for the Coen Brothers.
Update February 20, 2024: With the upcoming release of Drive-Away Dolls, this article has been updated with more information regarding Joel and Ethan Coen including a new project the brothers are working on together.
Working on Separate Projects
The last film both Joel and Ethan Coen worked on together as directors was 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. While the COVID-19 pandemic partially could be seen as a big gap in their filmography, it also appears the directors wanted to pursue different projects. Joel decided to direct The Tragedy of Macbeth in March 2019 while Ethan sat it out. Many long-time Coen Brothers fans questioned the decision.
There had previously been concerns that Ethan Coen was out of the filmmaking game altogether. In August 2021, Longtime Coen brothers composer Carter Burwell, whose career began with them on Blood Simple, told Score: The Podcast, “Ethan just didn’t want to make movies anymore.” This made it into a bigger deal than just Ethan Coen not being interested in his brother’s Shakespeare passion project. It also belies the fact that he actually made a movie instead of working on The Tragedy of Macbeth.
In the same interview with Score: The Podcast, Burwell also relayed that “a ton of scripts they’ve written together that are sitting on various shelves,” and “I hope maybe they get back to some of those because I’ve read some, and they’re great.”
Ethan Coen’s first solo film effort, the 2022 documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May of the same year, where it received praise from critics. Produced by A24, along with musician Mick Jagger, the film makes use exclusively of archive footage to portray the life and career of the titular rock ‘n’ roll legend. Perhaps, then, Burwell meant Ethan didn’t want to make scripted comedies or dramas anymore. But that doesn’t seem to be the case either.
While promoting his Jerry Lee Lewis doc, Ethan confessed to the AP that when working on his own, he would hit snags that made him miss his brother:
“Many times, there are all these problems when you go, oh f***. You’re stuck, this doesn’t work. And I’d think, Joel would have an idea what to do here. So, where the f*** is he?”
On the same note, Joel Coen said in that aforementioned New York Times interview that trying to make a movie without Ethan was like “having one eye put out.”
Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls
In April 2022, it was announced that Ethan would be directing a new film, described as a “lesbian road trip project” and that he would be doing so without the involvement of his brother, Joel. That film became Drive-Away Dolls, which was initially scheduled to be released in September 2023 but was pushed back to February 2024 due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Co-written by Ethan’s wife, Tricia Cooke, the story will follow two twenty-something girls, Jamie (played by Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee in order to escape the harsh realities of their lives. Things don’t go to plan, however, when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals. After the trailer dropped in June 2023, many commented on an apparent departure from the brothers’ signature style.
The idea of the main characters being on the run from criminals is certainly reminiscent of both Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou. Nevertheless, the mix of quirky comedy and adrenaline-filled action feels fresh and distinctive from the brothers’ collaborations.
While speaking with Collider, Ethan also acknowledged another way in which Drive-Away Dolls is different from what’s come before.
“There are sex scenes!… This movie, the action stuff—and there’s a lot of action stuff—and the sex stuff—and there’s a lot of sex stuff—are interesting cutting exercises if we want to talk specifically about cutting in weirdly different ways. Cutting a sex scene is…Joel and I have not done that! You go, “Huh!” [Laughs] It’s interesting.”
It doesn’t stop at sex, though. Tricia Cooke also noted that the film’s LGBTQ+ themes make it stand out.
And it’s a queer movie. But aside from that, when you watch it you’ll say, “Oh, okay, this makes sense,” and you know it’s their body of work for sure.
How true that statement is, we’ll have to wait and see, but Drive-Away Dolls is set for release on February 23, 2024, and early word of mouth has been strong.
Is Joel the One Who Is Taking a Break?
Meanwhile, since The Tragedy of Macbeth, Joel Coen hasn’t worked on any projects, solo or otherwise. It, therefore, seems more accurate that he’s the one that has been taking a break from filmmaking for the past couple of years. Ethan Coen has long held separate careers as a playwright with successful runs on Broadway and an author of a few critically acclaimed novels.
In contrast, Joel Coen’s career has been completely dominated by the 19 films he’s made since 1984, with the 42 episodes of FX’s Fargo television series (2014-present) he’s co-produced with his brother on top of that. Few would argue that he had earned himself a break. The 68-year-old himself told the New York Times that there was “probably something healthy in taking a break.” The break, however, looks like it’s about to come to an end.
Their Work Apart From Each Other
Since the Coen Brothers separated, they each made a fictional movie. Joel did The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Ethan made the soon-to-be-released Drive-Away Dolls. They’re in different genres, styles, and tones, but ones that overlap with their past films and shows the two sides of the directors talents, one delving into drama and another into comedy.
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth might be one of the best film adaptations of the play, one where everything is about mood, with both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth being much older than in the play and performed incredibly by Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. This black-and-white interpretation also has some film noir DNA in it, which makes perfect sense, as that genre has always been present in Coen’s films, especially in the also black and white movie The Man Who Wasn’t There, but also in Fargo, even if Midge is a police officer, and Barton Fink. The director feels at home in this style and genre and makes the most of it, creating an atmospheric film, a tad more realistic than most versions, with some incredible performances, not only by the leads but also by Kathryn Hunter as the Witches and Brendan Gleeson as King Duncan.
His brother Ethan is about to release Drive-Away Dolls, a queer road trip movie with Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood) and Geraldine Viswanathan (The Broken Hearts Gallery) as the lead in this film that happens in the 1990s. The two queer friends embark on a trip to Tallahassee. On their way, they encounter some dumb criminals, and things get weirder and more dangerous. Written with his wife, Tricia Cooke, the film has some of the Raising Arizona wacky antics and some incompetent criminals (a Coen staple), but this movie is also much more horny and has sex scenes, something the creative duo has never tackled. Cooke identifies as queer, and she knows this world much more than the Coen brothers, so her influence is present in every aspect of the film, even if it was solo directed by Ethan Coen. The couple wrote the script for Drive-Away Dolls almost 20 years ago, and that they’re planning on doing a lesbian B movie trilogy. This movie is the first one, and there’s already a cast in place for their second one, Honey Don’t, with Qualley repeating, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans.
In many ways, the brother’s two solo films speak to a lot of their collaborations. Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth is very much like the brother’s dramatic movies like No Country for Old Men, The Man Who Wasn’t There, and True Grit. Meanwhile, Ethan’s Drive-Away Dolls is in the style of wacky dark comedies like The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and Burn After Reading. This might speak to why the directing duo have such drastically different films within their filmographies, as both directors have a specific interest and genre.
The Coen Brothers Are Back!
After six years, the Coen Brothers will work together again in a horror movie, a genre they’ve never done before. Their first film, Blood Simple, was a bloody thriller, but this will be their first entry in the scariest genres of them all. The news came from a Q&A at the Tromsø Film Festival, where Ethan was promoting Drive-Away Dolls. The writer-director said: “It’s a pure horror film” and the script is “horribly funny”.
Many of the writer-director duo movies have gruesome deaths and a very dark sense of humor, and both of those qualities are perfect for a horror film, so it makes perfect sense they would collaborate on a movie in that genre. From Miller’s Crossing to Fargo and No Country for Old Men, all have scary, surprising killings, so maybe that will be the style their horror movie follows, and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) might’ve been their first horror movie killer, so unconsciously they already dabbled in some horror conventions. What’s for sure is that audiences can expect great performances from an unexpected cast for a horror movie, some twists and turns, so much blood, some horrifying deaths, some dark jokes, and a very entertaining film, as the Coen Brothers always deliver.
The film is still in the writing stage, so it might be a while before audiences see the movie. After a few years when it looked like the Coen Brothers had broken up for good but now the duo is reuniting once more. The news comes as a relief to fans of the sibling’s work who were, no doubt, beginning to worry if the brothers would ever work together again. The filmmaking collaboration between Joel and Ethan Coen is arguably one of the most influential, iconic, and acclaimed directing duos in the history of cinema. It would’ve been a bitter pill to swallow if there was never going to be another production by the pair again. Thankfully, at least one new addition to their impressive body of work is guaranteed, meaning movie lovers everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief.
