Nice insights by The Dissolve’s Tasha Robinson, especially this one:
Coen protagonists tend to make one early bad choice that will lead to destruction by the end of the movie, but their struggles to evade it are endearing and fascinating.
I’ve been watching the Coen brothers for decades now and I always wonder if their slant toward moral punishment and absurdism will ever not show up in one of their films. The answer is always no, even in those that court mainstream audiences with bigger budgets and stars like True Grit and No Country For Old Men.