The Coen brothers went all Clockwork Orangey in their most violent but least ironic picture, Miller's Crossing. It's a relatively run of the mill gangster thriller, though oddly the film has found an intensely loyal audience. (Many even consider it to be the best of the Coens' films.) The story follows a Prohibition era crime boss's aide (Gabriel Byrne), who finds himself trying to keep the peace between his boss and a warring faction. He loves his boss's gal, too.

None of this is told tongue-in-cheek style like Fargo, it's a "serious" gangster movie, only one in which odd musical cues -- like "Danny Boy" during a bedroom shootout -- are the norm. Very little of the film is surprising, and the story is quite straightforward. As for that story, it's good enough, but honestly I fail to see what everyone's all worked up about.