Joel Coen

What makes a Joel Coen film a Joel Coen film

Across 20 films, they run much more ambiguity, much more beauty and somewhat more cerebral than films in general. Their films resemble each other far more than any 20 films picked at random would, which is what makes one recognisable before anybody says who directed it.

The line down the middle is the average film. A bar to the right means more of that reading than films in general, to the left less. Drawn from every film of theirs in the catalogue, not a selection.