Time is a flat circle.

"And Paul Newman as Sidney J. Mussburger"

"No, I think it more likely that you were a gazelle, with long, graceful legs, gamboling through the underbrush. Perhaps we met once, a chance encounter in a forest glade. I must have been an antelope or an ibex. What times we must have had. Foraging together for sustenance, snorfling water from a forest stream, picking the grubs and burrs from one another's coats. Or perhaps we simply touched our horns briefly and went our separate ways."

"You know, for kids!"

Misunderstood period comedy from the Coen brothers which was panned on its release. While it's certainly not up to the standard set by the duo's other works, it's also much better than critics would have you believe. Great unity of visual composition (the shots of the Hudsucker board room and the mail room as well as the shot straight down the front of the building are all structurally identical), and Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh are a delight.

Great concept. I wish they'd played it a little straighter. Jennifer Jason Leigh is great.

You know, for kids!

for a long time this was my favorite coen film, largely because of the lightheartedness of the main conflict and how gutbusting the best punchline in it is

today I'm not as fond of it, the plot's kind of flabby and the ending is a little weird and unsatisfying, but it still has a special place in my heart

I knew basically nothing about this movie, just that my told me it was a Cohen bros movie I could skip...but I don't skip stuff. I guess I get where my dad was coming from? But I found this one super charming. It's definitely a movie you either like the vibe of or don't and I liked it a lot. I always enjoy Tim Robbins in things plus I got a surprise Bruce Campbell in the job he was born to have, a 1950's newspaper reporter. Yes it's one of their sillier movies, but even those usually have some really interesting themes and in my opinion this isn't one that needs to be skipped.

unique. some people need this.

A clever yet unpleasant skewering of American capitalism, The Hudsucker Proxy shares DNA with the more sincere Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the funnier Trading Places, and the tighter Network. It doesn’t quite live up to this admittedly excellent company — it’s not particularly funny, and the characters are pretty flat and unsympathetic — but it’s well-constructed and creative enough to get the job done.

Robbins is a solid lead, but Jennifer Jason Leigh steals the show as a motormouthed journalist straight out of a ‘50s screwball. Though the movie drags a bit in the middle, the wildly unexpected third act makes up for any misgivings you may have. Its themes aren’t particularly innovative or complex (“capitalism brings out the worst in people”), but it’s pretty effective in conveying them.

Not the Coens’ best, but far from their worst.

Holds up on a re-watch several years later.

The Hudsucker Proxy is possibly the greatest cartoon that never was.

The Coens (and Sam Raimi!) at their wackiest - somehow even more than Raising Arizona - and calling back to the American comedies of the yesteryear, owing much to Capra, Hawks, Tashlin and especially Preston Sturges. Full of zippy, snappy dialogue, visual precision, incredible comic performances from Robbins, Newman, Durning and especially Leigh, I'm honestly shocked that this is one of the Coens' least loved films. It's also one of their most philosophically positive, so maybe that's a two-hander.

While definitely not among their more nuanced films, The Hudsucker Proxy is the Coens indulging in their loves for Old Hollywood, vibrant direction and comic relentlessness, and part of me wishes they indulged in themselves a little more often.