New Coen Bros, A Serious Man

These are the dudes responsible for the trailer, they've done some good stuff over the last while
http://www.markwoollen.com/

Hoberman all but calls them Jewish anti-Semites:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-09-29/film/for-serious-man-coen-brothers-aim-trademark-contempt-at-themselves/

but Armond loves it!

http://www.nypress.com/article-20412-the-humor-in-gloom.html

Who knew Hobermann had gender reassignment and a name-change to Ella Taylor?

a serious woman

the film is somewhere in between "great" (in parts) to mediocre/embarrassing (in other parts).

the last 30 minutes or so of the film (esp. the bar mitzvah scene) are truely great: only then did The Coen brothers took the film seriously and thoghtfully as they didnt for (most of) the rest of the movie, which is a not-so-much-inspiring take on judaism as philosophy and culture.
the comedy is vulgar on those parts because it was done while the directors didnt take their "job" seriously, and as a result - the characters,the story, the jokes are shallow, and some people would say even anti-semite (as they did).
at least they did made the effort to make the movie into something profound - a piece of art - at the last part,saving it from being their worst movie into being somewhere in the middle between their best and their worst to date.

still - some good sequences there too - the one where Gopnick is fixing the antenna on the roof is brilliant,for example.

frank grimes: the movie

i loved this

http://www.talkingfilms.net/wp-content/trailers/serious-man-tr1.jpg

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/20/m_0fcac5bb5d14ac81db54b6cad104fa71.jpg

oops on me for attributing VV review.

Anyway, this is one of their best (like, top 4) and I'd declare it my favorite along with Raising Arizona if there wasn't some slippage into actual cruelty, as opposed to a study of gracelessness under pressure. All the roles are astoundingly well cast. And yeah, it's the most aerious American film about Judaism I can recall since Mazursky's Enemies. Key ambiguous line: "I didn't do anything."

Also, I know the guy who plays the shtetl husband in the prologue (he also did the Yiddish translation). We're in the same vintage film-comedy film buff circle.

^"misattributing"

"serious"

Morbs, I did not get to see ASM while home but you might wanna take a look at this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100804786.html

http://resizeimage.org/system/0002/7635/serious-man-9.jpg?1255889533311http://i35.tinypic.com/2wbri9w.jpg

Dybbuk, Schmybbuk: I Said "More Ham"

Some of the weakest sequences here are, predictably, pot-related

I loved this! I agree about the pot sequences though.

come on, "do you take advantage of the new freedoms?" is a brilliant scene

this movie is amazing. and speaks to my n american jewish upbringing with alarming specificity.

I just found out from my dad that Amy Landecker, who plays Mrs. Samsky, is my aunt Paula's stepdaughter and that, according to a Chicago Tribune interview, she modeled her performance after my aunt. o_O

I loved loved loved this.

Movie's only weakness was that despite Sy Ableman's character being amusing as all get out I found it somewhat difficult to believe that Gopnik's wife would actually fall for someone that thoroughly unexciting (not to mention so completely unctuous.) But that minor stretch of credulity aside, it was pitch perfect.

Ableman does come off as unctuous, but I can also see how his touchy-feeliness could represent an attractive alternative to Larry's essential conservativism.

I couldn't quite see it, but it's a minor complaint cuz Ableman's character is so hilariously funny that I was able to overlook it.

The bar mitzvah sequence definitely belongs on my list of favorite drug freak-out sequences ever.

anyone know if / when this will get nationwide release? or will i have to wait until it comes to the arthouse cinemas here?

It was art-house here in SF. About 25 people in the theater for the bargain matinee show and all members of the tribe. One guy put his hand on my shoulder warmly (Sy Ableman style) and nodded at me as he was walking by during the closing credits.

I tried to go see this on Saturday (5:15 show) at the local multiplex here in NJ. Sold out. I was not expecting that. I didn't know that many people wanted to see this.

"do you take advantage of the new freedoms?" IS a good line. I was thinking more of Danny's bar mitzvah being lame-o (bound to be Lebowski fans' fave).

I saw this at an Upper West Side matinee with maybe 7 people in the theater. I was the only one laughing much of time. (I know for sure a few of them didn't recognize the "Somebody to Love" lyrics when they are recited.)

"Look at the parking lot!" (Actually the junior rabbi has a point, but it's really not what Larry needs to hear.)

"bound to be Lebowski fans' fave"

Thinking it had more to do with being at bar mitzvah's and wishing I was stoned, frankly.

Kid on the school bus who called everyone a fucker: A+

also the dental story rabbi George Wyner told.

Junior rabbi was hysterical. Definitely my favorite of the three rabbi sequences. I liked the story of the goy's teeth, but it felt like it maybe belonged in a different Coen bros movie.

That fucker.

I also liked the kid who called every joint a fucker, "gimmee that fucker".

Sequence with Korean dad where he's explaining that he's going to sue Larry for defamation and bribe-taking was also priceless.

SPOILERS, obv

also I had audibility problems with the wife's line at the bar mitzvah: did she cop to writing the defamatory letters to the tenure committee?

I thought the handling of Sy's death was odd -- was it clearly established it was in the same chain-reaction accident that Larry caused, or elsewhere?

"also I had audibility problems with the wife's line at the bar mitzvah: did she cop to writing the defamatory letters to the tenure committee?"

No she let slip that Sy had been writing letters to the committee.

"I thought the handling of Sy's death was odd -- was it clearly established it was in the same chain-reaction accident that Larry caused, or elsewhere?"

Elsewhere.

Of course she thinks those letters were laudatory, Larry knows (or suspects) otherwise.

OK, I figured Sy was a much more logical candidate.

I hope you all stayed for nearly-the-last credit: "No Jews were harmed in the making of this film."

(well, I know jaymc left cuz watching the credits is too snobby)

Richard Kind gives a really heartbreaking performance as the genius brother. I thought that last dream sequence was unnecessarily vicious.

(well, I know jaymc left cuz watching the credits is too snobby)

What!

I left because my meter was 15 minutes expired!

Usually I like to stay for the whole credits, though:

Especially with movies that are heavy or intense or draining in some way, the credits give you an opportunity to let everything settle.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, March 1, 2005 3:27 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was sure you once said staying thru end-credits was a transparent attempt to impress others. Apologies if I'm mistaken.

(I'm sure you know who actually posted that if I'm wrong, you trainspotter)

This, maybe?

Sneaking food into movies is classic. Sneaking booze is even better. And reading all of the credits is the lamest sort of pseudo-movie-buff snobbery unless you're just trying to ID a certain song or actor. In which case who cares if people are being noisy and walking around? If you really hate people so much that you can't deal with the natural sort of interruptions that occur in a movie theater you should really just stay home with a DVD.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, March 1, 2005 8:26 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

To which you replied, two years later:

btw, "walterkranz" needs to eat shit.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, July 25, 2007 8:46 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I saw this Friday before last at the Uptown theater in Minneapolis. The big laughs were local: the Red Owl supermarket, Embers, and real-life superlawyer Ron Meshbesher. My friend Ari played the colleague whose scenes all involved standing in the doorway of Gopnik's office.

Your friend (who looks eerily like Ira Glass) was great.

"bound to be Lebowski fans' fave"

Thinking it had more to do with being at bar mitzvah's and wishing I was stoned, frankly.

― Alex in SF, Monday, October 19, 2009 1:53 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for me it had to do with actually being stoned in synagogue haha

"I thought the handling of Sy's death was odd -- was it clearly established it was in the same chain-reaction accident that Larry caused, or elsewhere?"

Elsewhere.

― Alex in SF, Monday, October 19, 2009 2:01 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it was sort of retroactively established in that scene. can't wait to watch it again.

"for me it had to do with actually being stoned in synagogue haha"

I only went to synagogue for bar mitzvahs so my opportunities were more limited heh.

^^^Priceless exchange. Real-life superlawyer used to have the absolute epitome of keys-in-the-ashtray '70s parties.

Ari's comedy record:
http://www.arihoptman.com/index_files/dang.jpg

(Did not know that about the superlawyer!)

Eazy, I'm from St. Louis Park; ma famille has lived there for three generations and I have school friends who pepper this film with their extraness. That I didn't get to see it when home last week is a major bummer for me seeing as the fam are two miles from the theatre. NB am not a member of the frozen Chosen, but my mom throws Yiddish phrases into the mix and makes seriously amazing matzoh ball soup, which she attributes to growing up there.

Yeah, as with Hold Steady songs, I'm just glad to have good songs/movies/etc. that actually overlap with my specific childhood memories (born in the St. Louis Park hospital, though grew up in Burnsville, school in inner-city St. Paul and then Golden Valley).

I haven’t DONE anything!!

What has Adonai done for me? Bupkis!

Also, the dark opening fable set in a shtetl that simply exists to set the proper tone and frame of mind for a story set in a late-60s Minnesotan suburb.

Santana Abraxas

Esther is barely cold!

do you drink wine? because this is... an incredible bottle. this is not mogen david. this is-- a wine, larry. a bordeaux. open it--let it breathe--ten minutes. letting it breathe. so important. i insist! no reason for discomfort. i'll be uncomfortable if you don't take it. these are signs and tokens, larry.

― difficult listening hour, Monday, May 15, 2017 5:26 PM bookmarkflaglink

so important.

I think about this movie a lot. Stand by my assessment that it may be the most Jewish movie ever made.

That shtetl sequence makes the movie imo, tips it over from being good coens to one of their masterpieces

the parking lot larry... just look at it

no one's playing the blame game here

great trailer

I love this film unconditionally both as a love letter to my hometown, and as the most Jewish film I’ve ever seen.

The dream sequence with Richard Kind is OTT, otherwise I love this.

Its Extreme Jewishness brought me to tears in the cinema, especially the barmitzvah stuff

Finally saw this and absolutely loved it from the opening scene. For a dark movie, it was so damn funny. Some comments:

As discussed by Mordy and Shakey above, this seems thematically very similar to No Country, both preoccupied with the unknowability/unreasonableness of fate/life. Chigur/tornado have obvious parallels. The essential difference is that No Country is completely godless and sudden violent fate cannot be reasoned with. In ASM, on the otherhand, there is a God because of the "Goy's teeth" story and the fact that Larry appears to be punished by God the moment he changes the grade, which implies Larry has some control over his fate. On another level though there is no difference, I guess: we can never know God or what he wants, so effectively, he is as random and unreasonable as Chigur. I don't know.

Lol, at the 1967>>>1970 mistake (Abraxas and Cosmo's Factory both 1970). Has to be intentional, right? Also, that conversation with the Columbia House rep is more significant than it seems. Larry's, "I haven't DONE anything", is accurate, but is also a cause of his problems: he hasn't been paying attention to his wife/kids/life and just seems to be floating along until fate intervenes.

The pain at the beginning of the bar mitzvah scene is so real. I once got high when I worked at a country grocery store and had to weigh customer's produce on a scale and remember the prices of tons of different items. I had a near meltdown of laughter in front of a customer when I couldn't get my shit together and remember what bananas cost.

Was Larry's brother supposed to be gay? He got picked up on a sodomy charge, right?

I still see the Shtetl Husband at movie rep screenings, will tell him you all said hi.

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.