Movie Review #2 - Raising Arizona

“Edwina’s insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase”

Yes, i love the Coen Brothers. Scorsese, Tarantino, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Fincher, Nolan, I love all of these people. But the Coen Brothers are number 1. Watch this movie, and you may understand why.

With cracking wit, and exceptionally intelligent dialogue, Raising Arizona is a zany, whacky ride through the brother’s heads. Nicholas Cage, (not the world’s best actor, but nor the worst) has his crazy and manic trademark on display again, but with dialogue so great that it works. The characters are caricatures, completely over the top, and larger than life. But, and this is a thing many directors struggle with, they are still incredibly three-dimensional. 

But it’s not just the script, indeed, consider all the tiny little details in the fantastic production design. When Cage lambasts the country being run by Reagan, whose photo is seen in a tiny corner of his cell? JFK, of course!
Cinematography in this film is not amazing (hence, Roger Deakins has become a Coen collaborator), but it shows exactly what it needs to. The first 5 minutes, pre-credits, play out like a short film, with short little clips, cut tightly together that launch us straight into the enjoyable shenanigans to follow.

The Coen brothers are masters of genre, which seems paradoxical because their films are so whacky. How are they so? They have an inherent understanding of what makes a good story. They know exactly when to ramp up tension and build a thriller, when to ease into emotions and create drama, and when to send it completely looney and create comedy. Life cannot be separated into genre, and the Coen brothers understand this. They know enough about genre conventions to manipulate them and mould them into their own.

This movie is real life, with family drama, parenting troubles, strong morals, and a fearsome biker who drives around shooting bunnies. Life it seems, is like a box of chocolates. Assorted ones, that is.

5 Stars