Trade Mark: Frequently casts Steve Buscemi (6 times),Frances McDormand (5 times), Jon Polito (5 times),John Goodman (4 times), John Turturro (4 times),George Clooney (3 times), Michael Badalucco (3 times),Charles Durning (twice), 'M. Emmett Walsh (I)' (twice), Peter Stormare (twice), Richard Jenkins (twice), John Mahoney (twice), Tony Shalhoub (twice), Stephen Root (twice), and Billy Bob Thornton (twice).

References to the films of Stanley Kubrick. Films often center around or include a botched crime.

The Coens frequently focus on round spinning objects: hat in Miller's Crossing (1990), bowling balls and tumble-weed in The Big Lebowski (1998), hair pomade tins in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), UFO and a car wheel in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ...or the fans in Blood Simple. (1984).

Often creates at least one lengthy sequence in most of his films where only music plays as a major event unfolds, i.e Raising Arizona (1987) when Nicolas Cage is being chased after robbing a store. Also sequences in Miller's Crossing (1990), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and Fargo (1996).

Often has a certain phrase that is repeated throughout the movie or a specific scene.

Typically makes movies set during a specific time period in the past.

Films usually contain at least one fast-talking character.

Films often include characters or places with the stereotypes of theregions they take place in. The Mid-Western accents and snow-covered landscapes for Fargo (1996), the South Western accents and barren deserts of Arizona for Raising Arizona (1987), the Southern accents and dust-bowl landscape for_O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)_, Los Angeles accents and life-style in The Big Lebowski (1998), and the accents and cramped environments of Los Angeles in Barton Fink (1991).