The Coen brothers directed Billy Bob Thornton in the delightfully quirky black-and-white neo-noir The Man Who Wasn’t There — and despite its critical acclaim, it’s still criminally underrated. Although the Coens have had a reputation as two of the most unique and legendary filmmakers in the world for more than four decades, a lot of their films remain underappreciated. Hail, Caesar!, Burn After Reading, and The Hudsucker Proxy all deserve a lot more love.
Some of the Coen brothers’ movies were appreciated in their time, like Fargo and True Grit, while others were dismissed on their initial release but later became beloved cult classics, like Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski. But some of the Coens’ finest films weren’t appreciated in their time and never found a wider audience later on, either. The Man Who Wasn’t There is a prime example.
Billy Bob Thornton Starred In The Coen Brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There In 2000
Thornton Plays A Barber Who Blackmails His Wife’s Lover
In 2000, the Coens released The Man Who Wasn’t There, a 1949-set neo-noir starring Thornton as Ed Crane, an emotionally distant barber who suspects that his wife is having an affair. Intrigued by a promising business proposal from a strange customer that requires a $10,000 investment on his part, Crane resolves to blackmail his wife’s lover for the money. The Man Who Wasn’t There has many hallmarks of a classic film noir, from its monochromatic cinematography to its voiceover narration, but it also subverts the genre with its small-town setting, classical soundtrack, and regular-joe protagonist.
The Man Who Wasn’t There was inspired by a 1940s haircut poster that the Coens saw while they were filming The Hudsucker Proxy.
Although it was a box office bomb that failed to recoup its production budget, The Man Who Wasn’t There was widely praised by critics for Thornton’s typically brilliant performance and Roger Deakins’ typically gorgeous cinematography. At the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Joel Coen won the award for best director. The BBC, the Guardian, the Austin Chronicle, and the National Board of Review all named it one of the best films of the year. Deakins was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. But despite all this acclaim, it’s still an underappreciated gem.
Why The Man Who Wasn’t There Is Still Overlooked Despite Its Award Recognition
It’s A Little Too Weird For Mainstream Audiences
In spite of its critical success, The Man Who Wasn’t There sadly remains overlooked. It’s rarely discussed alongside Sling Blade, A Simple Plan, and Monster’s Ball as one of Thornton’s best movies, and it’s rarely discussed alongside A Serious Man and No Country for Old Men as one of the Coens’ best movies. The problem might be that, with its old-timey style, its bizarre characters, and the out-of-left-field appearance of a UFO, The Man Who Wasn’t There might be too weird for mainstream audiences (even by the Coens’ standards).
