New Coen Bros, A Serious Man

My wife and I re-viewed The Hudsucker Proxy last night (nb: after more than 20 years she didn't even recall having seen it before). We both enjoyed it, but mentally comparing it to A Serious Man, their relative stature within the Coen's oeuvre is immediately apparent. ASM is just fabulous in several senses of the word.

Watched this again for the first time in years. Still think it's the most Jewish movie ever made. Still love it, one of their top films. So many incredible beats, many I missed the first time, or at least didn't remember. It's so, so, so dark, but in a really subtle way. In a lot of ways it's the opposite of the famous flood rescue/helicopter parable, only instead of God sending help, it's him sending, again and again, terrible things, and yet Larry keeps asking, what does it mean? What am I supposed to think? And then the tornado at the end is basically God finally saying, jeez, do I have to make it downright Biblical for you?

My wife was in awe of the period set design, but did catch one little mistake: the scene at the empty swimming pool, there's a No Diving sign. She pointed out that in the late '60s it would not have had a No Diving sign, though it sure as hell would have still had a diving board.

Still think it's the most Jewish movie ever made.

In terms of Judaism in North America, no contest. It might not map into Old World quite as snugly, e.g. a Sephardi might nominate some other movie.

No, I live at the Jolly Roger.

Rabbi Marshak reciting the names of Jefferson Airplane and shrugging as he gives up trying to pronounce Jorma's last name cracks me up very time.

OTM re "most Jewish movie". Was genuinely brought to tears the first time I saw this, watching suburban Jewish idiots like me on the big screen for the first time.

I was inspired to rewatch after Shiva Baby, which is a very close runner-up.