A groundbreaking, incisive critical study of the Coen Bros., the quirky team of filmmaking brothers who delight in unsettling cinematic conventions and confounding audiences while raising disturbing questions about human nature.

Joseph McBride is an internationally renowned film historian, biographer, and critic who has written twenty-two other books, including acclaimed biographies of Frank Capra, John Ford, and Steven Spielberg.

A Note to the Reader; Introduction: The Taciturn Two; 1. Heartless Cynics?; 2. "The Pleasure of Mixing Things Around"; 3. Caricature and Empathy; 4. A Grand Design; 5. Skewed Perspectives; 6. "In the Beginning There Was Fear"; 7. "This Cockeyed Caravan"; 8. "Magic * Mirth * Mystery" in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; Filmography; Selected Sources on the Coen Brothers; Index.