O Brother, Where Art Thou?

In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? earned a warm but not rapturous reception on release — critics enjoyed its loopy energy and Depression-era atmosphere while debating whether its episodic Odyssey riff ever cohered into something more than a series of delightful set pieces. Its reputation has grown considerably since, with writers' guilds and major critical retrospectives now ranking it among the best films of the century, a gap that makes the original mixed notices look increasingly like a misread.