Ethan Coen has explained why he and his brother Joel no longer work together as a directing team. For decades the Coen Brothers were considered among the top filmmakers in Hollywood, creating movies like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit. Their last project together was the 2018 anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and since then each has gone their own way.
Joel directed The Tragedy of Macbeth, a formal Shakespeare adaptation that earned strong reviews and Academy Award nominations. Ethan turned toward lighter comedy, releasing Drive-Away Dolls and the upcoming Honey Don’t!, written with his wife Tricia Cooke.
In a recent interview with Collider, Ethan said there was no dramatic split between him and his brother. He described exhaustion after Buster Scruggs and said he wanted to step back for a time. “After the last movie we made together, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, I was like, ‘I can’t do another one. This is too hard. I’m out.’ And Joel went on to do Macbeth.”
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Ethan became interested in directing again through work on a Jerry Lee Lewis documentary. While he was finding his way back, Joel was already focused on his own solo project. “Neither of us knew what the other would be doing or not,” Ethan said. “COVID happened, and we were locked down — me and Tricia — and we had the opportunity to do this documentary with all archival footage…and that was kind of great. So I kind of got interested again, and we have these scripts, but Joel was working on his thing, so we kind of got out of sync. Now, there was never a decision by the two of us to do movies separately.”
Since then the brothers’ work has reflected their different strengths. Joel’s The Tragedy of Macbeth tracked with the darker dramas that mark part of their career, like The Man Who Wasn’t There and No Country for Old Men. Ethan’s Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don’t! resemble the screwball comedies and eccentric performances in Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski. Joel already has his next film lined up, Jack of Spades, starring Josh O’Connor.
The results so far have been uneven. The Tragedy of Macbeth earned a 92 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Ethan’s work has taken a different path. Drive-Away Dolls holds a 63 percent score, while early reviews for Honey Don’t! sit at 47 percent, the lowest critical rating attached to either brother’s career.
Ethan has said he and Cooke are working on what they have called a “lesbian B‑movie trilogy” that started with Drive-Away Dolls and now continues with Honey Don’t!. That direction is far removed from the prestige recognition Joel has received, and isn’t likely to improved on their work together.
Neither brother has ruled out teaming up again, though for now they remain on separate tracks. If they ever do reunite, a Coen Brothers return would likely be treated as a notable cultural event.
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English (US) · 