Thinking In Pictures

More Jim Thompson and why Anjelica Huston made the right choice

I was down on the Coen brothers during my college years when I met Michael Lalicki at New Paltz, the subject of this week’s free newsletter. Although I’d loved Raising Arizona (1987) when I saw it in the theater in high school, I didn’t cotton to the other Coen brothers movies. Not Blood Simple (1984), not Miller’s Crossing (1990), which I never gave a chance—though it later became a favorite—because it was released around the same time as GoodFellas (1990).

I never got that Barton Fink (1991) feeling, avoided The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) altogether and skipped Fargo in the spring of 1996 when it became a surprise hit almost immediately. Lalicki, who had always enjoyed the Coen’s, told me it was great, maybe their best. Yes, the story, and the humor and the acting. But mostly, this:

“They are always making pictures, Alex,” he said. Images that are like paintings, ones that linger, that seem conjured from the subconscious, a waking dream.