ACE presents: Raising Arizona

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

1987 / 94min / 35mm

The Coens’ second feature—edited by industry veteran Michael R. Miller, who would team up again with the brothers for Miller's Crossing—introduced another aspect of their cinema, the caricatured comedies of garish colors and oversized, daffy performances. And who better to star in their first live-action cartoon than Nicolas Cage, whose jinxed ex-con H.I. “Hi” McDunnough is a flesh-and-blood Wile E. Coyote? Hi’s short-lived reform following his marriage to policewoman “Ed” (Holly Hunter) ends when he decides to kidnap the baby that infertile Edwina so desperately wants. Slapstick shenanigans ensue, but beneath the madness there’s always heart, as evident in the film’s rueful dream sequence coda, scored by frequent Coens collaborator Carter Burwell.

Q&A with Michael R. Miller, ACE, moderated by Jamie Kirkpatrick, ACE, on Saturday, April 6th