Gentlemen, ever stared blankly at a Coen Brothers film, convinced you missed some crucial philosophical memo? Do phrases like “bowling pins as existential metaphors” keep you awake at night? Then “This Book Really Ties the Films Together” is your… lifeline? Or maybe just a really heavy coffee table book. Film critic Adam Nayman bravely attempts the “herculean” (his word, not ours, though we concur) task of “plotting some Grand Unified Theory of Coen-ness.” Yes, apparently there’s a theory. We just thought it was all bowling alleys, kidnapping schemes gone sideways, and nihilists.

Combining “biography, film analysis, and interviews,” it’s a “veritable odyssey” into their “utterly human, weird, funny, tragic” film canon. In other words: it’s deep. Like, swimming-with-Sharks-for-intellectuals deep. For the Gent who colour-codes his Blu-rays, debates film noir symbolism at dinner parties, and secretly believes he gets Barton Fink. Gift this, and watch him disappear into the Coen-verse… possibly forever.