Joel and Ethan Coen have one of the most distinctive styles in current cinema. They invite you into unfamiliar worlds and make them feel entirely relatable. The influence of the Coen Brothers begins with the screenplay. Both Ethan and Joel co-wrote the film, which includes their terrific sense of humor that is both surprising and predictable (something very difficult to achieve). Moreover, the compositions that they choose in the film have a depth of meaning to them that add layers to the characters, the story and the tone of the film.
A specific example is the scene where Larry is explaining The Uncertainty Principle to his class in a dream. He writes vigorously in a close-up on his hand. As he speaks rapidly in a medium shot he concludes that, "You can't ever really know what's going on." They cut to a wide shot of the room where we see that Larry has written on a massive floor to ceiling chalkboard and covered it with his math. There is silence, and then there is the bell that dismisses the kids from class. He yells to them as they hurry out of the class that they still are responsible for it on the midterm. This scene captures the essence of the Coens' humor. Larry has created a theorem to prove...that you can't ever really know what's going on. It tells us who this character is and what he's afraid of as he wakes up and we learn this is a dream he's having.
The Coens' use of the Jewish tale at the beginning and the oncoming tornado at the end of the film to bookend the story with the understanding that you never know what is going to happen. And that's life. The dark humor of it that the Coen Brothers reveal in their film.
