What a double bill! Tom and Sam dive into the twin pleasures that are A Serious Man and New Moon with intellectual curiosity and torso-viewing expertise. Producer John then joins the fun to violently criticise Sam Worthington and life as a six-inch tall man. John goes on to praise Babylon 5 and Fellini, before everyone joins in to cite The Rock as a great 90s action-fest. The conclusion is a trailer round-up, with Clash of the Titans going up against Kick-Ass.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 43

Email us, follow us on Twitter and subscribe on iTunes. Serious.

Missisipi – Anni ‘30. Tre galeotti strampalati evadono dal carcere alla ricerca di un tesoro che non esiste. Lungo il loro viaggio, che è un libero omaggio all’Odissea di Omero, incontreranno una galleria di personaggi a dir poco stravaganti e vivranno una serie di avventure surreali quanto grottesche.

PER CHI

Per chi ama la commedia.. ma anche l’avventura, il western, il gangster movie, il musical, lo slapstick e il cinema muto.

Per chi crede in Dio.
Per chi crede nel Fato.
Per chi non crede né a Dio né al Fato.

Per chi difende la leggerezza, l’intelligenza e l’ironia.

Per chi ha voglia di farsi un viaggio nei miti, quelli cosmogonici dell’antica Grecia, quelli patinati del cinema Hollywoodiano e quelli “falsi” del sogno americano.

Per chi non resiste alle citazioni. Fratello dove sei? è una dichiarazione d’amore al il cinema classico Hollywoodiano, dai generi (ad esempio il gangster movie) alle scene (come quella esplicitamente ripresa da I dimenticati di Preston Sturges), ai personaggi (George Clooney, impomatato e con quell’aria da simpatica canaglia, fa l’occhiolino a Clark Gable). E gli omaggi non finiscono qui: dalla letteratura al cinema, dal mito alle leggende popolari, Fratello dove sei? è un crogiuolo di citazioni e giochi intertestuali, un vero spasso per chi voglia divertirsi a scovarli. Ad esempio: chi sarà mai Tommy Johnson, il chitarrista venuto dal nulla?

Per chi crede ancora agli eroi di un tempo. Quando Ulisse era “pio”, le sirene mezze donne e mezze pesce, Polifemo un gigante tonto con un occhio solo e Penelope stava a casa a fare la maglia.
In Fratello dove sei? Ulisse è un chiacchierone senza fede, astuto e vanitoso, le sirene donne in carne e ossa (soprattutto carne), Polifemo un ladro venditore di Bibbie violento e xenofobo e Penelope una fedifraga emancipata che dà non poco filo da torcere al di lei succube Ulysses.

Per chi vuole farsi un bagno nel profondo Missisipi della canzone popolare americana. La colonna sonora è un’enciclopedia di brani tradizionali e di successo americani, che vanno dal soul (es. Po Lazarus), al gospel (es. Down to the river to pray), al folk, al country (es. Man of Costant sorrow, Big Rock Candy Mountain, You are my sunshine), al blues.

Per (solo per) veri uomini Dapper Dan!

Pensive

When I think of the Coen brothers, I think of their movie Miller’s Crossing. More specifically, I think of the scene at the end of Miller’s Crossing, when John Turturro begs Gabriel Byrne to “Look in your heart!” and Bryne replies, “What heart?” before shooting him. That, to me, is quintessential Coen: witty, achingly clever, and heartless. If there’s a line where unsentimental becomes schadenfreude, every Coen brothers movie ignores the delineation. Their new effort – A Serious Man – is a comedy of torture. A nebbish physics professor asks the meaning of his existence, and the movie answers him the way Gabriel Byrne answered John Turturro.

After a prologue where a well-meaning Jew invites disaster into his house, we meet Larry Gopnik; a well-meaning Jew who only seeks tenure. Larry is a good, God-fearing man with some serious problems. First, his wife wants a divorce. Second, he’s being blackmailed. Third, he feels forsaken by God. Larry also has a no-good, gambling addict brother and two bratty kids to worry about, but it’s the “forsaken by God”-thing which rankles him the most. In search of answers, Larry turns to three rabbis. But they offer him thin advice. So it seems it’s up to Larry to deal with his problems; if he has real problems; if all problems aren’t a screen from death.

Michael Stuhlbarg, who plays Larry, has the default expression of a man in trouble (the look you get when you’re on a rope bridge and you hear a “snap”). Despite this, he’s a likeable person. Stuhlbarg never seems stupid or gullible as various shitheels exploit him, which is why he maintains our sympathy even when he stubbornly refuses to get mad. His misfortune is to be in a Coen brothers’ movie. Anywhere else he’d be shown mercy. But the Coens – like Flannery O’Connor – aren’t big on giving nice people their reward. They’d rather show us how cruel, how arbitrary, life is. Stuhlberg’s eyebrows have more chance of pardoning him than the script.

The three rabbis Larry encounters are, in order: naïve, indifferent and inscrutable. The first tells him his problems are all about perspective. “Look at the parking lot!” he tells Larry. It certainly seems to make the first rabbi happy. The second rabbi tells Larry a long involved story about a Jewish dentist and a goy’s teeth. In the story, the dentist finds the words “Help me! Save me!” inscribed where only a dentist could ever read them. It could be a message from God; the revelation of a profound truth. But the second rabbi assures Larry that the moral of the story is to ignore profundity. The last rabbi, Larry only sees through a crack in the door to the rabbi’s office. This man offers no advice. He’s only a presence. For Larry, this last encounter is perhaps the truest expression of his religious faith.

Keep track of Larry’s son in this movie. I’m convinced he’s Larry mark 2. We first meet him listening to Grace Slick in his yeshiva class, then what’s dearest to him in the whole world (his transistor radio) is taken from him, then he’s bullied relentlessly, then a tornado touches down about twelve feet from where he’s stood. As played by Aaron Wolff, he’s a slack-jawed weenie with a fondness for pot (much like his dad). He’s also deeply concerned with Jewish tradition even though he doesn’t understand a word of it. Stoned out of his gourd on the day of his bar mitzvah, he sees absurdity all around him, but any meaning to the ceremony is lost.

Be happy you have problems is the moral of Larry’s story. If you want an explanation for the last shot of A Serious Man (and you will), here it is: death ends all problems. There’s a lot from the Book of Job in this movie. Job (as you’ll recall) is the one where a pious man is tested by God. After all his travails, when Job’s wife tells him to “curse God and die”, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” For a good Jew, Larry is somewhat remiss in forgetting that verse. The reason the Coens are inspired by it is obvious: Job is Larry. He’s every man in every Coen brothers movie. The question is: does God laugh at Job?

Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg)

For 25 years now Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading) have been making stylish and meticulously constructed films that reveal their deep love and knowledge of cinema. Frequently working in the screwball comedy and film noir genres, the Coen brothers have made films that toyed with generic conventions and delightfully undermined audience expectations. Occasionally they make radically non-genre films such as their 1991 masterpiece Barton Fink, which still stands as their most personal and expressive film. Not only does Barton Fink contain the Coen brothers’ dark and absurd sense of humour and existential view of the universe but it also touches on their Jewish identity. Now comes A Serious Man, which is very much one of the Coen brothers’ more left-of-field personal projects and it contains the most thorough examination of their Jewish background to date.

Set in a suburb in the American Mid West in 1967, A Serious Man depicts a world that on the surface appears to be one of complete ordinariness.  In the centre of this world is Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) a college professor whose son is preparing for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Despite not having actually done anything to cause any ripples in the universe, Larry’s entire life soon begins to tumble around him. His wife asks for a divorce, his professional integrity is challenged and his troubled brother appears even more troubled than originally suspected. Larry turns to a series of rabbis for moral and spiritual advice on how to get over these calamities and live his life as a good and serious man.

Larry and Judith Gopnik (Sari Lennick)

As you would expect from a Coen brother’s film every single aspect contained within A Serious Man is deliberate and carefully compiled. The shots are composed perfectly and not since Punch-Drunk Love has music been used so effectively to give such incredible tension to what appears on screen to be mundane interactions. A Serious Man is a film that will get under your skin unexpectedly and stay in your mind long after its astonishing final shot abruptly cuts to the end credits. Somewhere in this puzzle of a film is a parable about perception, meaninglessness, moral accountability, faith, coping with what life throws at you and Jefferson Airplane lyrics. It is a film to be intuitively understood on an almost gut level and discussing it at length later to unravel its nuances is part of the pleasure of seeing such a film. A Serious Man is a rich, darkly humorous and spellbinding addition to the incredible contribution that Joel and Ethan Coen have made to contemporary cinema.

© Thomas Caldwell, 2009

Read more reviews at MRQE

‘No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture’ it says on the penultimate page of the 38 page press release. Are they quite sure? There was an awful lot of quietly dreadful stuff happening in A Serious Man, the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Apart from the ‘quietly dreadful’ it’s a rather sweet and lovely film, albeit somewhat weird. Although neither Jewish nor American, I felt strangely at home anyway. I feel 38 pages of information about a film is slightly on the long side, but it did help explain how they came by a residential area looking as new as it should have done in 1967, when the film is set. Storm damage, apparently. I’d been worried they’d cut down all the mature trees.

The setting is almost too perfect and ‘authentic’, says I who have never set foot in the US. That’s the thing, really, with period pieces. They are too clean and too period. And it had better not have been the CCR Cosmo’s Factory they referred to.

What’s refreshing is using actors who are more or less unknown. We may feel we know them, but we don’t, really. It goes to show that we don’t need to be constantly forcefed Hollywood stars.

So, it’s about this poor middle aged man, who thinks life is fine and normal, and suddenly it’s anything but. Physics professor Larry Gopnik has a wife who wants to divorce him – as long as it’s a ‘gett’ kind of divorce – and a brother who’s a nuisance, a pot-smoking son just pre-Bar Mitzvah, and a daughter who washes her hair rather frequently. There is also his superior who will decide on giving Larry tenure. Or not. A blackmailing student, who gets the Physics, but not the Maths. Television aerials.

More rabbis than you can shake a stick at, and who can’t advise poor Larry very well, and a surprisingly kind divorce lawyer. One sexy neighbour and one gun wielding one, who mows the lawn in a worrying manner. And, a beginning to the film which makes almost no sense whatsoever, except it’s quite fun and enjoyable. Let that be a warning.

On at Cornerhouse from Friday.

(Photos © Focus Features)

A Serious Man, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2009

shrink-wrap for the soul

HOOK: Is the cat in the house, dead or alive?

 LINE:  “Even though you can’t ever figure anything out, you will be responsible for it on the midterm.”

 SINKER: How can someone ‘who hasn’t done anything’ be blamed for everything? A Book of Job treat with a razor hidden in it. 

JOHN: As our friend Bob (at Coffeespew) points out the new suburbs of the fifties and sixties are old territory for authors like John Updike. So why do the Coen brothers revisit them (other than the fact that this is where they grew up in one around Minneapolis)? I think there’s a broader question concerned with the difference between comedy and drama—a line they’ve crossed with mixed results in the past. In drama we in the audience want to identify with the protagonist, feel that what is happening to him is happening to us. We are curious and relieved (even if things turn out badly, “It is only a movie.”). Comedy requires more distance. We recognize the situations but want to laugh at the characters, not ourselves. Whether or not the Coens relate to the Larry Gopnik character (superbly played by newcomer Michael Stuhlbarg in a career launching performance), we don’t, even if the fact that this involves his Jewishness makes it a bit of an uncomfortable laugh. The genius of this film is that it doesn’t stay in the mid sixties. The last moments, like impending doom, roll out at us today. I found the movie funny, at times stereotyped and slow, but ultimately a masterpiece that leaves you gasping.

GO GO GO GO (4 GOs out of four) 

SPANKY: The fact that you have to do all this rationalizing, John, seems to me to indicate that the film isn’t making it on its own terms (like Fargo). We can debate great films, like those of Bergman and Fellini, all night, but whether or not we do they stand as great films. This one has some magical moments: the sequence with the young rabbi, the tale of the message on the teeth of the Jewish dentist’s client, Sly Abelman—beautifully played by Fred Melamed—even the dark, sub-titled prologue. And I agree, the shift of vantage point from the father to his son toward the end gives the conclusion knock-out power. But it also seems to me the movie has to work a little harder than it should have to. And we in the audience do too. Plus the two-dimensional, hair-washing daughter, the Jewish lawyers, the Nazi-like neighbors and the desperate housewife next door…com’on. This may be much better than their other recent movies, but the Coen boys are still a long way from home.

BARK, BARK (2 BARKs out of four)

Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, Sari Wagner, Jessica McManus, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen,  Sari Lennick , A Serious Man, Fargo, Comedy, Drama, Coen Brothers, No Country For Old Men, Man Who Wasn’t There, Woody Allen

Walking into a Coen Brother’s film is a bit like going to a therapist for two hours but not knowing what neurosis you will be treated for. The only thing you can be sure of is there will be some messin’ with your head. That is at once the charm and challenge of their filmmaking. A Serious Man is the story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a mathematics professor who has carefully calculated his life and on the verge of tenure, when his wife, Judith (Sari Lennick) asks for a divorce. There was already a lot of tension in the house, with a stoner son, a self-obsessed daughter and loser Uncle Arthur.

Larry is in shock and tries to reason things back together, but Judith and her new companion, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), keep applying pressure and push him to visit “The Rabbi.” The guy for the job is Rabbi Marshak, but he’s much too busy to see anyone these days. So Larry settles for the junior Rabbi, who essentially tells him life is like a parking lot. Not a great help. He’s shuttled to a second Rabbi who takes more of his time and is of even less help.

In the meantime the story unfolds on a number of side plots involving the son, Danny (Aaron Wolff), who’s radio is confiscated in Hebrew school and contained the money he needed to pay off a drug purchase. Uncle Arthur is working on some landmark writing and attending single mixers, which turn out to be card games. One of Larry’s students realizes he is going to fail so he tries to buy a passing grade by leaving behind an envelope full of money. And if that wasn’t enough, the head of the tenure committee drops by to inform him that someone is writing anonymous letters besmirching Larry’s good name. It seems everyone wants a piece of Larry, even the Columbia Record Club who keep calling trying to collect on the latest selection of the month, Santana Abraxas.

The filmmaking craft is so smart. The Coens are masters of pacing and camera placement that advance the story and define characters in subtle but effective ways. One of Larry’s neighbors is a very scary man who over mows the property line week after week and then claims the extra real estate for his own. He also doesn’t think twice about taking his son out of school to go hunting. Signature Coen all the way. Landscape always plays an important role in Coen films. This picture is set in 1967 in rural midwest and they successfully re-create the time, space and sounds, with the possible exception of the school buses; they look a bit too modern. As with most of their films (No Country for Old Men excluded), music plays a significant role; lots of Jefferson Airplane air time and Carter Burwell’s repeating score.

The Gopnik’s are Jewish (you got that right?) and the Coens leverage, but never disparage their culture or faith. They do however have fun with it. Larry’s son smokes a joint just before his Bar Mitzhav and is stoned out of his mind while trying to recite a portion of the Shabbat. And there is a quick shot of the Rabbi holding up the Torah and exclaiming, “Jesus Christ” over its weight.

Larry gets one big break. While on the roof adjusting the TV antenna he notices Mrs. Samsky sunbathing in the nude next door. He visits her after the separation with Judith, and finds himself on her sofa smoking pot. But even that opportunity is vanquished by the misfit Arthur. One saving grace for the audience. Larry seems so much more entertaining when he’s high. But we are beginning to feel it’s total doom for Larry. At the end of the picture we find out for sure. Probably just as well he didn’t get in to see Marshak. Visit the official A Serious Man web site here.

I found myself thinking more about this film the second or third day after seeing it, but frankly, I’d rather go back and watch No Country for Old Men, Fargo or Miller’s Crossing. I think I’ll do that this weekend.

Photo Credit: Focus Features

2009, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen

A Serious Man is the story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) – a father, husband, physics professor, home-owner, neighbor, brother, friend, man. He is a Job-like character whose life hits a rough patch. Not understanding this streak of bad luck, he seeks advice and answers from the traditions of his Jewish faith, through the 3 Rabbis of his synagogue.

The film opens with a story, played out in Yiddish. I’m not sure how (or if) this connects to the rest of the movie. The only connection seems to be that this Jewish folk-tale and Larry Gopnik’s world are both steeped in the same heritage. Its presence is rather like that of the animated shorts Pixar presents before their features. And why not? It’s funny and dark, but don’t expect it to come back later in the movie to mean anything.

The very first thing we see on-screen is a quotation: “Accept with simplicity everything that happens to you.” I think this is beautiful. Simple. A great life mantra, and a skill I think Larry Gopnik holds. As we watch his life slowly crumble around him, it’s impossible not to notice that this is a good man. He takes it all in stride: his wife leaving him for the pompous Sy Ableman; the anonymous letters being sent to the school, defaming his character and threatening his acceptance for tenure; his loafing, aimless brother Art with mounting legal troubles; the bribery money he finds on his desk; the collection calls from the record club he didn’t sign up for. It sucks, but he does his best to accept it. He doesn’t fight to change it, he doesn’t crumple beneath its weight. He continues on, trying to find the action that’s good and right to get his life back on track. He doesn’t want to be seen as a sad sack, he wants to be taken seriously. A friend suggests he talk to the Rabbi, and so he does.

The first Rabbi, the junior Rabbi, advises Larry to see the world around him with fresh, new eyes, and delivers my favorite line: “Things aren’t so bad, Larry. Look at the parking lot.” The second Rabbi offers the idea that perhaps Larry’s problems are like that of a temporary illness and will eventually just go away on their own. The third Rabbi is no help at all and, in fact, won’t even see Larry. One must conclude that even they, so close to God, do not know His intentions for Larry. Is it a question one should even ask? Is there ever a certain answer?

The characters are colorful and too plentiful to go into here, but every performance is a delight. This film is complex and deeply humorous. Larry’s dilemma is universally relatable — who among us, no matter what your beliefs, hasn’t at some point asked that great vast void, “Why me?” Up until the end, Larry maintains his integrity. Health fades, people come and go, things can be lost or stolen, but nothing, nobody can take your integrity from you. That, you have to give to lose.

Burn After Reading – A prova di spia è un film del 2008 scritto, prodotto e diretto da Joel ed Ethan Coen. Il film è interpretato da George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins e Brad Pitt.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Ethan Coen | Joel Coen | Brad Pitt | George Clooney | John Malkovich | Tilda Swinton

Título: Quemar después de leer
Título original: Burn after reading
País: USA
Estreno en USA: 12/09/2008
Estreno en España: 10/10/2008
Productora: Working Title Films
Director: Joel Coen y Ethan Coen
Guión: Joel Coen y Ethan Coen
Reparto: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt

Sinopsis:

El analista Osborne Cox llega al cuartel general de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA) en Arlington, Virginia, para una reunión ultrasecreta. Por desgracia para él, el secreto no tarda en salir a la luz: le han despedido. Cox no encaja muy bien la noticia y regresa a su casa en Georgetown, Washington DC, para entregarse a la redacción de sus memorias y a la bebida, el orden no altera el producto. Su esposa Katie está consternada, aunque no parece muy sorprendida. Ya hace tiempo que tiene una aventura con Harry Pfarrer, un agente federal casado, y empieza a hacer planes para dejar a Cox por Harry. En un barrio a las afueras de la capital, en un mundo totalmente diferente, Linda Litzke, empleada de Hardbodies Fitness Centers (Gimnasios Cuerpos Duros), tiene dificultad para concentrarse en su trabajo. Sólo piensa en hacerse la cirugía plástica total y decide confiar su plan a su compañero Chad. Linda no se da cuenta de que Ted Treffon, el director del centro, está loco por ella. Cuando un disco de las memorias del analista de la CIA llega accidentalmente a manos de Linda y Chad, los dos deciden sacar provecho de esta casualidad. Pero Ted se preocupa con razón: “No puede salir nada bueno de esto”. Los acontecimientos se precipitan en una serie de oscuros e hilarantes encuentros fortuitos.

Opinión:

A los Coen les encanta este tipo de personajes. Exagerados e imbéciles. Tan idiotas que son fácil objeto de burla. El problema es que aquí han dado en hueso. En su intento de ridiculizar a los servicios de inteligencia, les ha salido una película confusa, en el que la trama no avanza y los personajes van y vienen o aparecen y desaparecen sin ningún sentido. Y para colmo el largometraje no es tan divertido como otros de su filmografia.

Litros y litros de laca

Pena, porque el reparto es de los de aúpa, destacando sobremanera un estupendo Brad Pitt, de lo mejor de la película, en un papel de bobo adorable que clava a la perfección. Por contra, ni George Clooney ni John Malkovich están a la altura. Sobreactuando y siendo demasiado gesticulantes para mi gusto en esta comedia coral y esperpentica, pero muy desigual en sus resultados.

¿¿Comorrrr??

Y ese es el problema fundamental, que el film te deja la sensación de que había podido ser mucho mejor de lo que es. Esperemos que para la próxima ocasión, los Coen nos ofrezcan algo mejor.

Puntuación:

5 / 10

“Sy Ableman was a serious man.”

The latest Coen Brothers movie, I dig everything these guys do.

Here are a few random people who happen to be awesome. I’m just saying.

The Coen Brothers
Evidence:
- The Big Lebowski, 1998 (directors/writers)
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000 (directors/writers)
- No Country for Old Men, 2007 (directors/writers)
- pretty much all of their other movies

Giulietta Masina
Evidence:
- La Strada, 1954 (Gelsomina)
- Le notti di Cabiria, 1957 (Maria “Cabiria” Ceccarelli)

Sam Mendes
Evidence:
- American Beauty, 1999 (director)
- Away We Go, 2009 (director)
Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like Away We Go (why are there so many of you??), whatever, American Beauty is enough on its own to make him awesome.

Ron Perlman
Evidence:
- La cité des enfants perdus, 1995 (One)
- Hellboy, 2004 (Hellboy)

Adam Elliot
Evidence:
- “Uncle,” 1996 (director/writer)
- “Cousin,” 1998 (director/writer)
- “Brother,” 1999 (director/writer)
- “Harvie Krumpet,” 2003 (director/writer)

Big Lebowski, The (1998)
★★★ / ★★★★

I usually don’t like screwball comedies because the characters are stupid without any sort of redeeming qualities, the jokes are rude and sometimes mean-spirited, the story has no idea where to go, and I quickly get bored watching them because they fail to get me to think. Strangely enough, I enjoyed “The Big Lebowski,” written and directed by the Coen brothers, because of such qualities except for the fact that it is far from mean-spirited. Jeff Bridges stars as The Dude, whose real name was Jeffrey Lebowski, a guy who was mistaken by two miscreants as the millionaire Lebowski. Since the two didn’t get what they wanted from The Dude, one of them decided to pee on his carpet. What started off as a story about a slacker who wanted compensation for his carpet ended up being about a lot of things: a kidnapped woman (Tara Reid), an artist who had intentions of her own (Julianne Moore), nihilists who craved money, and the dynamics among bowling buddies (Steve Buscemi and John Goodman). All of such disparate elements came to together in a way that didn’t necessarily make sense–in fact, sometimes I had no idea what was going on–but it was very funny because each character was driven by well-defined motivations (no matter how strange they might have been). I did not expect this kind of movie from the Coen brothers because I’m more familiar with their thrillers (“No Country for Old Men,” “Blood Simple”) and dark comedies (“Intolerable Cruelty,” “Fargo”), but after watching the film I was glad that I got a taste of their lighter side. The only real complaint I had with this picture was it had no reason to run for almost two hours long. Somewhere after the half-way point, I began to wonder when it was going to be over because at that point it still did not try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The characters were still too busy running around like children and it made me restless. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, I still enjoyed watching this movie because of the characters’ funny fixations and interesting mistaken identities. And considering I detest stoner comedies, I think it’s a solid accomplishment.

Sometimes I think the Coen brothers try a bit too hard. Actually, most of the time I think this. Even when the movies they make are incredibly good I always get the sense that they are out to prove something or to show something off. This is in no way the case with A Serious Man. A Serious Man tells the story of a jewish man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), and his family and how his life falls down around him. We observe how he deals with his problems and how he seeks answers in his religion.

It is a very refreshing film, as it does not seem to have anything to prove. It simply is what it is, the story is what the story is and the Coen brothers have just put it up on screen and left it there. Yes, certain statements about religion are certainly made, but only in passing. The focus is Gopnik and his problems, and the bigger message at work seems to be that some problems cannot be solved, so perhaps you’d be best off not to try.

Set in the 60s, the sets, costumes and props are completely perfect for the feel of the time and the film is generally well put-together, weaving in and out between the different stories with a great flow in the narrative. The acting is great, and the characters impossible to care for. I’m not sure how much more I have to say about it. It is probably my favorite Coen film to date, in its simplicity and in its mix of serious themes/tragedy and witty humor/comedy it manages to be incredibly enjoyable.

5/5

A Serious Man | Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009

One of the things that we as humans have always asked ourselves is “why, if there is a god, do horrible things happen.” We tend to ask this question more when we are actually going through something horrible. Some people try to find an answer, but to no avail.

A Serious Man, from the wicked minds of the Coen Brothers, takes on this subject. The movie follows Larry Gopnick (Micheal Stuhlbarg), a college professor that lives an ordinary life. One day a student he failed tries to bribe him, which could end his career, and his wife decides to leave him. Things only get worse from there as his brother is wanted by the law, his children don’t listen to him, he is near financial ruin, and everybody tells him to talk to the rabbi.

This is not a movie with a straight story that will wrap up in a nice conclusion. Because of this I didn’t really want to write a review because I feel like I need to watch it a couple more times before finally coming to a conclusion. However, something compelled me to write about it. This is an abstract movie that will leave many people scratching their heads. Is it about how our decisions affect how the guy up above will handle our lives? About stayin true to our take on religion and not let tradition decide what we do? or is it just about a guy going through a rough patch? I’m hoping that repeat viewing will help answer the question, but as of right now it reminds me of the Neil Simon’s play “God’s Favorite” about a deeply religious man who has to suffer a lot to prove that he believes in God after the devil dared God to do so. While watching this movie I thought that God was just toying with Larry, his brother and his son

This movie is much better than their previous two. It shows that this is a more personal project through the dialogue, the scenes everything. Every single member in the cast gives a great performance, which is rare for a movie filled with mostly new comers. Carter Burwell’s score and Roger Deakin’s cinematography are also quite amazing, and only make a haunting ending more haunting.  See it, but don’t expect to understand it right away.

“If you point a gun at someone, you’d better make sure you shoot him, and if you shoot him you’d better make sure he’s dead, because if he isn’t then he’s gonna get up and try to kill you.” ~~Ray

What is it about best-laid plans crumbling to hell that fascinates us so endlessly? Is it the thrill of watching greed and lust pollute the simplest of schemes, careful blueprints drawn up with what seems like attention to detail? Maybe it’s simpler than that. Maybe there’s something comforting about maintaining distance, assuming a stance of superiority that allows us to say — and believe — “I’d never let that happen to me.”

The perverse magic of Joel and Ethan Coen’s stylish, enormously disquieting “Blood Simple,” what shakes us to the core, is that the opposite is true: Easy plots like this get dreamed up by normal people, and they unspool in crazy ways that boggle the mind. For every hairline fissure that surfaces, there are hundreds more underneath, slowly working their way to the top. The bitter end, the Coens understand, is always so much closer than we think.

It is the illusion of control that sets in motion the undoing of most every player in “Blood Simple,” which begins with a seemingly simple plan (code for “something’s about to hit a fan”): Slimy bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) suspects his wife Abby (Frances McDormand in her first big-screen role) is having an affair, so he hires Private Detective Loren Visser (a skin-crawlingly good M. Emmet Walsh) to tail her. When Marty discovers Abby is bedding Ray (John Getz), one of his bartenders, he’s glad to pony up dough for a hit. Marty’s out for blood. Problem is, Visser’s out for money – as much as he can get — and he knows the location of his client’s safe. That was Marty’s first mistake.

Since this is film noir, the initial mistake leads to another … which leads to another … which unleashes a slow-building hurricane of potential and totally unforseen complications. Suddenly nobody, not even Abby, so wide-eyed in her protests of “I ain’t done nothin’ funny,” is able to walk away from this mess without making bloody getaway tracks. There are dead bodies and very-nearly-dead bodies and mistaken identities. The whole business might be downright comical if it wasn’t so damn sleazy.

But wait! This is Coen brothers film noir, so comedy abounds. “Blood Simple” is where the Coens introduced their brand of nefarious tomfoolery, so the jokes sneak up on us like Jack the Ripper. Consider Ray’s summary of what happened on a midnight trip: “He was alive when I buried him.” Gulp. Or Visser’s response to Marty, who says the Greeks beheaded bad news carriers: “Gimme a call whenever you wanna cut off my head. I can always crawl around without it.” Yipes. Humor doesn’t get much blacker (note the song that announces the final credits). Barbed observations like these are the kind that clump uncomfortably in the throat, yet they spotlight human folly too good not to laugh at: Every man thinks he’s gripping the reins, and not one of them actually is. The actors time these lines faultlessly, with Walsh, who sweats menace, and Hedaya, perfectly cast as the fiendish Marty, doing heavy lifting. McDormand, all innocence, shows early promise she’s more than made good on. And Getz might have the best job of all: He shows us how easy it is for the straight man to nosedive into depravity.

More brilliance reveals itself as “Blood Simple” rumbles toward the finish. The staggering cinematography, courtesy of Barry Sonnenfield, transforms the dusty Texas landscape into a character with its own motivations, its own agenda. The desert turns an unforgiving eye on these miscreants, offers not a moment of solace. Behind the camera, the Coens do their part to make their film a dark visual masterpiece. They amplify that desolate feeling with artful, pointed shots: a blood drip here, a thumping ceiling fan there, a close-up of dripping sink pipes. Matter of fact, that last shot pins the film’s thesis, squirming, to the wall: If you’re dumb enough to think something’s just what it seems, prepare to suffer the consequences.

Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a basic if somewhat cliched question, true, but knowing the answer is essential to how you will perceive the latest dark opus of the Coen brothers, A Serious Man. The film’s prologue, a shtetl tale involving a husband, a wife, and a rabbi (who may or may not be possessed by a wandering malicious spirit called a dybbuk), asks the audience whether they believe that the events of our life are the machinations of a higher power with a master plan for us in mind, or if they believe that said events are merely part of living in a random and amoral universe where the best-intentioned of us can end up at the bottom of a burgeoning mountain of woes.

Larry, the film’s hero, struggles to answer that very question almost immediately after we’re introduced to him. Things start off cheerfully enough; he’s in good health, he seems to have clinched his tenure spot, and his son is about to be bar mitzvahed. But no sooner do we meet him than the rug is pulled out from under him, and in no time his once-ordered life begins to unravel around him as the Coens’ cruel comedy begins: Primarily, his wife wants to divorce him (and remarry the grandiloquent Sy Abelman, a close family friend), but Larry’s troubles don’t stop there. His son smokes pot and listens to the radio in school, his daughter steals from him (ostensibly to fund a nose job operation), his brother lives on his couch and attracts the attention of the police for gambling, a student attempts to both bribe and blackmail him, and his shot at tenure is threatened when the tenure committee receives anonymous letters defaming his character.

And that’s just the short list of Larry’s worries.

Larry, finding himself under assault on all fronts by either an undeserved streak of bad luck or a vengeful deity, seeks solace and assistance in combating his problems from a succession of rabbis, each as unhelpful as the last. From young, to older, to oldest, his spiritual leaders reliably fail to provide the guidance Larry so desperately needs; the first rabbi is too inexperienced to truly counsel Larry, the second relates a (seemingly) irrelevant parable about a Jewish dentist, his Goyish patient, and a message carved into the patient’s teeth, and the third turns him away. At first it appears that the Coens want to examine religion’s role in society under a harsh light by criticizing its inability to articulate why a man like Larry should suffer the endless ignominies of his life, and while that’s certainly the point it’s not the entire point. If the advice of the rabbis is obtuse, it’s at least sound– sometimes the best thing to do when reflection of life’s mysteries yields no explanation is to shrug and move on.

That’s not good enough for Larry. “But I haven’t done anything,” is his prevailing battle cry throughout the film; he has been wronged by the universe and he can find no relief until he understands why. That “why” is the central question of A Serious Man, and as is to be expected the Coens leave it up to the audience to answer the film’s challenge. Is Larry’s misfortune the work of an incensed god, or is it all just part of the human condition? Or is Larry himself responsible, at least partially, for his own misery? Yes, Larry hasn’t done anything wrong to warrant the tragedies that befall him; but at the same time that’s exactly the problem. He hasn’t done anything; he has not asserted himself in his own life and addressed, among other things, his marital problems or the situation with his couch potato brother. Then again it’s hard to imagine that Larry could possibly have brought the entire roof down on his own head, so to speak. So really, A Serious Man is as much about the inadequacies of the divine as it is about human uncertainty; nobody, not even the wise, can genuinely discern why bad unfortunate events happen to us.

At the eye of the film’s storm of moral decisions is Larry, brought to over-stressed life by Michael Stuhlbarg, an actor I’ve never heard of prior to seeing this film, and I’ll henceforth keep my eyes peeled for project he’s attached to; the man is truly brilliant here. Stuhlbarg’s depiction of Gopnik is nothing short of hapless, over-anxious genius; he appears almost permanently unkempt and harried, wide-eyed and alert as though he’s always on the look-out for where the next ordeal is coming from. It’s natural that we should feel sympathetic towards Larry and his plight, but Stuhlbarg doesn’t just ride on token goodwill for his character; Larry is the kind of man who would comfort his brother (the wonderful Richard Kind) in his own time of need, and he succeeds where any of the film’s religious advisers would fail. Stuhlbarg strikes a perfect balance between the layers of Larry’s humanity and his confounded, neurotic exterior. This is a truly sterling performance, and one that the actor is sure to be remembered for years from now.

And if this is a shining gem in Stuhlbarg’s career (he is primarily, as I understand it, a stage actor), then so too is it a new high in the Coens’ body of work. A Serious Man might be their most polished and nuanced film yet; it is a jaded portrayal an angry god’s terrible vengeance upon the least-deserving person in the entire movie, an examination of the indiscriminate nature of the universe we exist in, or a portrait of a man who has brought all of the film’s misery unwittingly upon himself. If 2007’s No Country for Old Men felt bleak to you, then A Serious Man will likely feel downright austere, or perhaps more akin to a cruel prank than anything else: Comfort is offered, but only for so long before it is utterly smothered, a mean reversal at the end of a mean film to be sure but without a doubt the kind of maneuver we’ve come to expect from the Coens. The abrupt ending, and the perceived attacks on tradition, will certainly turn many away from this film, but it is undoubtedly their blackest gem yet, and also their most finely crafted and refined. With A Serious Man, the brothers have once again out-done themselves at charting the grim and the hopeless.

Zapowiedź specjalna, z okazji wydania nowego plakatu.

Nowy film braci Coen zapowiada się świetnie. Nie dość, że jest wydarzeniem każdego festiwalu filmowego od 12 września bieżącego roku, to jeszcze ma piękny trailer. Rytmiczny, paranoidalny i prześmieszny.

Polska premiera w pierwszym kwartale 2010 roku. Polski tytuł nie został jeszcze wymyślony.

Wow.  After being consistently mesmerized by the works of the Coen Brothers year after year, you have to expect for them to have a “lull” project, right?  After putting out such gems as O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, and Burn After Reading all within this decade, the Coen Brothers go ahead and do it again with A Serious Man.

Without seeing this film once more, which I intend on doing quickly, there are so many themes to sink your teeth into.  Through the eyes of Larry Gopnik, a Jewish college professor from the Midwest, the Coens tell a modern story of Biblical proportions.  The ideas of karma, the religious man vs. the savage man, Eastern vs. Western culture, and the Biblical stories of Job and David are all explored within this 105-minute film.

As I sat in the theatre, I couldn’t help but think that A Serious Man would be great fodder for a college film studies course while discussing religious themes in film, but nothing more.  However (no spoilers here) after seeing the final shot, I know this film has far more significance than I previously gave it credit for.  I wanted to sit back down and hit “rewind” and take it all in again!

There’s so much to explore in A Serious Man, that I’ve decided to get scholarly on you and re-watch this film and write a paper on it!  It’s actually worth that!  Within a week or so, I will drop an academic masterpiece on you, my loyal reader.  Keep an eye out.  In the mean time, go see this movie!!!

5 out of 5 stars.

click the image for the original size picture

- TEXT -
Typewriter dialogue from “Body Heat” (1981)
Lyrics from The Platters‘ hit “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933)

- IMAGES -
Bogie in “The Maltese Falcon” (1941)
Joan Bennett in “Scarlet Street” (1945)
Billy Bob Thornton in “The Man Who Wasn’t There” (2001)
Scene from “The Big Combo” (1955)

—
Thanks to Brian from the Drive-In Theater

If I were teaching a course on films by the Coen Brothers, I would analyze beginnings and endings. Not many filmmakers make audiences aware so early on that they’re in for a film like none other.

The beginning of their new movie (one of their best) “A Serious Man” begins about as far away from what you would expect as possible. We expect the setting is somewhere in Russia, maybe a couple of hundred years ago, but where is unknown except that it is very, very cold. The scene is about a dybbuk (a ghostly spirit out of Jewish folklore) who visits a couple in their home. The dybbuk had helped the husband with his cart that had broken down in the middle of a blizzard and the husband, thinking he was a real person, invites him to his home for hot soup. But the wife knows this particular person to be dead.

The next sequence is set in 1967 Minnesota as we meet our protagonist Larry Gopnik (played by Michael Stuhlbarg), who is getting a routine check up and x-ray at a doctor’s office. This is cross-cutted with a sequence featuring Gopnik’s son, Danny (Aaron Wolff) sitting in class listening to a radio headset given to him by a friend.

And the ending…well let’s just say it gives “No Country for Old Men” a run for its money in terms of curiosity, sudden abruptness and brilliance. The Coen Bros. are masters of the beginning and ending. The ending of “A Serious Man” loops back to that parallel cross cutting at the beginning of the film.

The film is being marketed as a comedy but I would say if it is a comedy, it is a very dark one. Yes, it’s funny, but mostly the film is a look at life lessons. The ground is slowly falling out from underneath Larry as he goes through a divorce, moves in with his headcase brother at a motel room and worries about gaining tenure at the University he teaches for. The film is also always about uncertainty and how life can seem like a cruel joke at times.

Rating: 10/10

Michael Stuhlbarg in the Coen Bros.' "A Serious Man"