Coen brothers Ethan is also a writer of short stories, theater and poetry. Known for many distinctive stylistic trademarks including genre hybridity, the brothers' films "No Country for Old Men", "A Serious Man" and "Inside Llewyn Davis" have been ranked in the BBC's 2016 poll of the greatest motion pictures since 2000. Joel and Ethan Coen were born and raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Their mother, Rena (née Neumann), was an art historian at St. Cloud State University, and their father, Edward Coen, was an economist at the University of Minnesota. Their family is Jewish. When they
Bound (1996 film) pretentious, superficial and heavy-handed. On the release of "Bound", the Wachowskis were compared by many to the Coen Brothers. Rita Kempley for "The Washington Post" went so far as to call them "Coen Brothers clones". In particular, similarities were drawn between "Bound" and the Coen Brothers' first film, 1984 neo-noir "Blood Simple". Bryant Frazer for "Deep Focus" called it an "obvious precursor". Critics noted resemblances to the films of Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock. Janet Maslin for "The New York Times" said that the grisly violence in "Bound" would likely limit its audience and Ebert said that its shocking violence