What's wrong with The Hudsucker Proxy, though, is that, for all its craftsmanship it is an utterly soulless enterprise. The Coens wisely show no inclination to parody their sources here, but neither do they seem to have anything else in mind for them.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2021

It is possible to create something emotionally true out of second-hand ingredients, in fact that's what Hollywood does, but it isn't the Coen Brothers' strong point.

| Nov 16, 2017

| Original Score: C | Sep 7, 2011

A visually arresting but emotionally uninvolving dark comedy.

Full Review | Nov 6, 2007

A jeering, dreamlike comedy with nothing much on its mind except how neat the Coen brothers are and how stupid or contemptible everybody else is, including everyone in the audience.

| Nov 6, 2007

Nearly everything in the Coen brothers' latest and biggest film seems like a wizardly but artificial synthesis, leaving a hole in the middle where some emotion and humanity should be.

| Nov 6, 2007

A minor work, but confirmation of the Coens' position among America's most ambitious, able and exciting film-makers.

| Jun 24, 2006

Movies are, after all, about fakery; so is the story of Norville's rise and fall and redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 20, 2003

It's a fairy tale without any lessons, a satire without any targets.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Not even the slightest attempt is made to suggest that the film takes its own story seriously. Everything is style. The performances seem deliberately angled as satire.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

While not to everyone's tastes, this is without doubt one of the most exhilarating films of 1994.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Clever but cold, a heartless mechanical gizmo.

| Jan 1, 2000

If something brilliant is happening in The Hudsucker Proxy -- and you're meant to believe that it is -- it's apparent only to Ethan and Joel Coen.

| Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: C | Jan 1, 1994