You know what’d help get everybody through a rough Ohio January? Some Coen brothers’ movies on the big screen would, and you’ll find them every Monday of the month over at the Drexel Theatre, you betcha.
Throughout 2022, Bexley’s Drexel Theatre experimented with repertory programming: a kaiju block, a kung fu block, and a very popular Universal Monsters series. So why not take something people like – themed programs – and use that to improve something people do not like – Mondays?
A Case of the Mondays was born. Each month of 2023 will introduce a new themed program, with one film unspooling every Monday of the year at 7 pm. The Coen brothers kick things off this Monday, January 9, with their 1996 Oscar winner, Fargo.
“My staff all is involved in programming,” says Jeremy Henthorn, Drexel Theatre director. “They all get a voice in the room in terms of how we program. Almost to a person, Coen was the first name that came up.”
Henthorn fully supported the idea.
“The Drexel has a long history with the Coen brothers,” he says. “And I can’t really think of two directors who have done such an eclectic group of work, going from almost every genre but maintaining a voice that you hear from Blood Simple all the way to Macbeth. Their ability to transcend different genres and maintain a voice is something that I think is really impressive.”
According to Henthorn, whittling the list of possible options down to just four films was the tough part.
“It was a process of elimination. I wanted a few that everybody really loves,” he says. “We knew some movies were a little oversaturated, that they had been played a few too many times, and so we didn’t want to do those. We were kind of creating rules as we went along. We also wanted to pick a few that we felt maybe not everybody has seen or maybe they’ve seen a long time ago and haven’t revisited.”
Henthorn and team finally decided on Fargo (1996), A Serious Man (2009), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
“One that stands out to some people is A Serious Man, which I think is one of their best movies, one of their most experimental movies. But not as many people think of it immediately when they think of the Coen brothers,” Henthorn says. “And for us to be able to expose audiences, to return audiences to that movie, that was the thinking.”
According to Henthorn, the balance of 2023’s A Case of the Mondays is already laid out, each film planned with a purpose.
“I used to work in record stores, and we would make mix tapes to play in the store,” he recalls. “We were trying to give the customers a sense of the different types of music that we were into. And we’d spend a lot of time trying to create that mix tape in a way that was going to take the people on a journey when they went in the store. I think these programs are intended to do a very similar thing.”
And the Coen program felt right for January.
“Coen Brothers movies are perfect cold weather films – Clearly Fargo, for obvious reasons,” he says. “In January, when it gets dark early in the evening, it’s a nice cozy way to spend time.”
Tickets to the films in A Case of the Mondays are available at drexel.net.