Blood Simple is the story of a man with serious doubts, and what happens when he attempts to discover what the "truth" is.

In Barton Fink, the title character, a successful New York playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter, mortgages his soul as he struggles with terminal writers block among the residents of, what may be, hell-fire, demons and all.

The Big Lebowski chronicles the misadventures of the Dude — stoner, pacifist, philosopher — as he attempts to right some wrongs and vanquish the powers of nihilism and moral turpitude.

O Brother Where Art Thou follows the odyssey (spiritual and otherwise) of three convicts, a skeptic searching for his way home and two seeking redemption from their sins.

No Country for Old Men is an epic, prophetic journey that tackles one of theology's most daunting conundrums, theodicy — if God is good, then why doesn't God intervene to stop unrelenting violence — and surmises that we don't really know what God is thinking.

Actually, we surmised a loooong time before No Country For Old Men that we may not know what God's thinking, and if there's so much as a hint of spiritual revelation in the plot of Blood Simple, we'll turn our cinephilia membership cards in on our way out of the office tonight. That said, we look forward to third-party confirmation that the woodchipper scene in Fargo is a modern metaphor for crucifixion. Or a modern revision of the story of Abraham and Isaac? Maybe we should just leave it to the scholars.

[Photo Credit: Erik Rose]

• Coen Brothers 'Gospel' Explored in New Book [Reuters]

Lorne Michaels (#58) not only ranked higher than stoner comedy overlord Judd Apatow (#61), but he also got a better writer to script his defense: his darling protege Tina Fey, rather than smushy-faced Garry Shandling, who begins his piece on Judd by saying, "I know Judd Apatow. And I know myself. And I am no Judd Apatow." Yes, Garry, we knew that already. Where've you been by the way? We kind of miss you. But as we said, we do take issue with several rankings. For example, Miley Cyrus (#59) beat out the Coen brothers (#62). While Cyrus and her Hannah Montana franchise may have generated billions of dollars, the Coens not only won four Oscars for adapting a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and created one of the most chilling villains in cinematic history, but No Country For Old Men happened to rake in more cash at the box office ($74mm) than Miley's 3-D concert flick ($65mm). Does a newbie shilling pop songs for Disney really deserve a higher ranking than a pair of filmmakers who've earned mounds of respect for their art? Truth be told, we'd have no issue with Miley beating out the Coens had this list been established post-Topless Scandal. Apparently nude 15 year-olds "influence" the masses like crazy.

[Photo credits: Time]

• COMPLETE LIST: THE TIME 100 [Time]

No Country for Old Men was a great film. I'm not trying to say it was anything but spectacular. But I'm going to fucking take the Coen Brothers to task on something. Ready? WHY THE FUCK IS THERE JACK LINK'S BEEF JERKY SO PROMINENTLY PLACED IN SUCH A PIVOTAL SCENE?"

Aside from it being so fucking distracting, it's also a completely unnecessary anachronism. I hope it's just some attempt at sneaky product placement that they were forced into as a means of paying for the film. Otherwise, guess what. GIVE BACK THE FUCKING OSCARS. HAND THEM TO P.T. ANDERSON. YOU TOO, RUDIN. UNACCEPTABLE OVERSIGHT."

• I Eat Your Jack Link's, I Eat Them Up [I Know What It Is]

· Renee Zellweger is close to a deal to star in My One and Only, a road picture based on a story permabronzed raconteur George Hamilton once told Merv Griffin about his mom's hunt for a sugardaddy willing to provide the good life to her and her sons. [Variety]
· Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse hopes to squeeze in five more episodes this season, whether or not there's enough time to figure out where they left things before the strike. [THR]
· NBC continues to dominate a still strike-plagued Monday night behind 90-minutes blocks of American Gladiators and Deal or No Deal, with the latter show recently resorting to placing $1 million prizes in each of the show's 26 briefcases in an attempt to keep ratings high. [Variety]

Confirms Bardem: "You see yourself, you see the haircut. You don't realise that it's affecting you in a very delicate way, through your own psyche. What happened to me was that after a couple of weeks, I was a little bit - a little bit - strange to myself. There was something that was not familiar. It was like, 'What am I doing here?" Of course, even the most profound of these wounds will heal instantly upon receiving his Best Supporting Actor in two weeks, particularly that brief fear about an inability to get laid. [Entertainmentwise UK via Guanabee]