The Hudsucker Proxy
I do not know why I do the things I do, but rewatching The Hudsucker Proxy on a whim was an extremely good decision. This film has seemingly received a kinder critical reappraisal in the intervening years, but there was a point where it was considered a lesser Coens. We're a tired and weary audience these days, desperate for this level of filmmaking, and we now know what's good when we see it. This is like a gift from heaven in 2026.
I was in my early 20s when I watched this last and recall doing little hand flourishes saying my pulitzer as I walked around the flat. Such was the level of engagement with cinema when I was 23-years-old. But I was clearly onto something because the dialogue, and particularly the delivery of it, is one of this film's chief pleasures. Jennifer Jason Leigh's Amy Archer may not spared the retrograde gender politics in the pastiche, but man she fucking nails the performance. Paul Newman chomps his cigars with vigour, and Tim Robbins lankily gesticulates with charm, but Leigh marries the schtick with genuine emotion. It's her film and I could watch her slap men for hours.
Elsewhere the precision of the direction and visual effects are sensorial delights. Money was spent, this driving much of the flop diagnosis at the time, but importantly money was used. The choice to load visually-driven sequences with detail to then pare down the dialogue-focused moments is such a pleasure to watch. These alternate beautifully - we cut from an interminably huge mail room loaded with wretched souls to a spartan office where one or two people barely fill a corner. Our attention is guided with confidence and every scene lands, every word heard, every visual mechanism vivid and clear. We are firmly in the age where 90s visual effects are miles ahead of the dross we see in contemporary cinema and this is one of the finer examples.
So I'm now deliberating whether to do a full Coens bros rewatch. There are many reasons why that's not a productive use of time, but this film has really sold me on the value of it. Perhaps that's The Hudsucker Proxy's true legacy: being the purely entertaining Coen brothers film, one that feels easiest to stick on without dithering, that serves as a jumping point to re/watch all the others. I'll give it some serious thought.