The Guide

Apple TV · CA US UK AU NZ · The Tragedy of Macbeth; Peacock · US · Drive-Away Dolls, Honey Don't!

The Coen Brothers, Where to Start

Ten films to begin with Joel and Ethan Coen, from Blood Simple to their separate work since 2021, with where each one streams.

By Andrew Lovesey November 12, 2026 4 min read

Photo: Focus Features Published 12 Nov 2026

Trailer: The Big Lebowski. Cast, where to watch and more on the title page.

For almost four decades, Joel and Ethan Coen made films that sit in no single genre: noir that turns into farce, a kidnapping comedy, a western, a Yiddish fable. Since 2021 they have worked apart, Joel on Shakespeare and Ethan on crime comedies written with Tricia Cooke, which makes this a good moment to take stock of the whole body of work. These are The Remote‘s 10 places to start, in release order.

Blood Simple (1984)

The debut, a neo-noir love triangle with John Getz, Dan Hedaya and Frances McDormand, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Anyone who came up through classic film noir will recognize the bones.

Raising Arizona (1987)

A screwball road comedy in which a childless couple, Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, kidnap a baby. It made back several times its budget and put the brothers’ comic side on the map, a useful counterweight to the noir.

Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading — In pictures 3

Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik in A Serious Man — In pictures 3

Barton Fink (1991)

John Turturro plays a New York playwright who goes to Hollywood to write pictures and runs straight into writer’s block. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was the brothers’ first film with cinematographer Roger Deakins.

Fargo (1996)

A Minnesota-set crime thriller led by Frances McDormand. McDormand won the Oscar for best actress and the Coens won for original screenplay; the film was also nominated for best picture and best director.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Jeff Bridges is the Dude, whose rug is ruined in a case of mistaken identity, with John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman around him. It was a modest earner on release and became a cult phenomenon, complete with its own fan festival. Bowling, avant-garde art and nihilists all figure.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

The Cormac McCarthy adaptation, with Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem. It won best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Bardem, the brothers’ biggest night at the Oscars.

Burn After Reading (2008)

Two gym employees find a disc of CIA material and try to blackmail the people named in it, and the scheme spirals. The cast includes George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton.

A Serious Man (2009)

Michael Stuhlbarg plays Larry Gopnik, a physics professor whose wife leaves him for his best friend, whose brother is sleeping on his couch and whose tenure is in doubt. He consults three rabbis. A good pick for viewers drawn more to Barton Fink than to Lebowski.

Apart

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Joel Coen’s first film without his brother, written, directed and produced by him, with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the Macbeths. Apple Original Films partnered with A24 on it, and it reached Apple TV on 14 January 2022.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Ethan Coen directs, writing with Tricia Cooke. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play two friends whose road trip to Tallahassee collides with a crew of hopeless criminals; Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo and Matt Damon turn up. Released on 23 February 2024 by Focus Features.

Where to go next

Add Miller’s Crossing (1990), a gangster film drawn from Dashiell Hammett, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), the Odyssey in the Depression-era South with a bluegrass soundtrack produced by T-Bone Burnett. The Ladykillers (2004) remakes one of the Ealing comedies, and Ethan and Tricia Cooke’s Honey Don’t! (2025) reunites them with Qualley as a small-town private investigator looking into deaths tied to a secretive church. Viewers who like their suspense with a joke inside it should also try Alfred Hitchcock.

Three ways in

The crime films: Blood Simple, Fargo and No Country for Old Men trace the same idea across 23 years, ordinary people making one bad decision and paying for it, and the last two account for six Oscar wins between them.
The comedies: Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading show the farce side, each built on a scheme that falls apart. Drive-Away Dolls carries the line into Ethan’s solo work.
The writers’ films: Barton Fink and A Serious Man are about men undone by the jobs and faiths they lean on, and pair well on a double bill.

Where to watch

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Apple TV, as an Apple Original film, in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don’t!: Peacock in the US, per Focus Features’ own streaming guides. Elsewhere, both are available to rent or buy digitally.
Everything else on this list: subscription homes for the Coen catalogue rotate often and could not be confirmed on the platforms’ own pages for any of the five markets. Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading and A Serious Man are available to rent or buy digitally in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.