Son of Gratuitous Coen Brothers Argument Starter

Following the lead of my buds Ryan and Victor, here's my ranked list of Coen Brothers films:

Masterpieces:
1. Barton Fink
2. No Country for Old Men

Near-masterpieces:
3. The Man Who Wasn’t There
4. Fargo
5. Blood Simple

Awesome:
6. The Big Lebowski
7. Miller’s Crossing
8. Burn After Reading

Pretty darn good:
9. The Hudsucker Proxy
10. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Not too shabby:
11. Raising Arizona
12. Intolerable Cruelty

Meh:
13. The Ladykillers

Need to see:
Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go

I've seen precious few lists thusfar that have placed Fink at or even near the top. Yet for some reason it's the Coen brothers film I've returned to most over the years, and the one that I've grown closest to in that time. Why is this? Perhaps it's the way the Coens approach the film's central message- that most artists are basically full of crap. At a time when the Coens surely must've had studios coming after them (the rollicking Raising Arizona surely must've garnered them plenty of offers to make brain-dead big-budget comedies), they rebelled by portraying Hollywood as a place where creativity goes to die, and did it with such style and wit that their barbs really sting, rather than feeling like the self-congratulatory insider soft-pedaling- more suited to a celebrity roast- that typically passes for industry satire. And so many wonderful character creations, especially in W.P. Mayhew and Karl Mundt, a pair of unforgettable mentors from hell (one literally, the other figuratively). If you haven't seen this lately, you really ought to check it out again.