Review of Raising Arizona (1987) by True Dirt F — 10 Jan 2011

Raising Arizona (1987) -- [10.0] -- Comedy this broad is rarely this brilliant. From the first frame of wild-haired Nicolas Cage staring at us from behind bars, to the end title music featuring yodelling and kazoo, "Raising Arizona," the Coen Brothers' story of a con man and a law woman who kidnap a septuplet, is THE funniest movie I've ever seen.

That's right. Nothing else comes close. I've seen the movie dozens of times and it never gets old. It's an untouchable classic with an arsenal of attributes -- a tight script, unforgettable performances, memorable one-liners out the yin-yang ("Her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase"), and superlative craftsmanship rarely lavished on a comedy, especially in the areas of cinematography, production design, and score.

It's part Hawksian slapstick, part suburban myth, and funny as fuck through and through -- from John Goodman and William Forsythe's screaming, primordial emergence out of the mud and Randall "Tex" Cobb's brutality against "the little things", to the Coen's epic staging of an 'everything-and-the-kitchen sink' pursuit involving Cage with pantyhose on his head, a pack of neighborhood dogs, armed grocers, and latenight shoppers in bath robes and curlers.

It's hilarity with heart, supported by effervescent turns from Cage ("There's what's right, and there's what's right, and never the twain shall meet"), Holly Hunter ("Everything's chaaaaanged!"), Goodman, Forsythe, Sam McMurray ("Say, there's something wrong with my semen"), Trey Wilson (".

..they had Yodas and shit on them"), and Frances McDormand ("Take that diaper off your head and put it back on your sister!").