A movie with humor and pathos, funny lines and ultimately no conclusion. The same could be said of most of the Coen brothers’ movies, in which human existence and the attempt to find meaning in it are equally futile, if also sometimes a lot of fun. He became a young man the 1950s – a few short years after World War II and the … Unfortunately got put off the scent by David Denby's review in the NYer... NEVER AGAIN... he's dead to me. His daughter is stealing from him to save up for a nose job, his pot-head son, who gets stoned at his own bar-mitzvah, only wants him round to fix the TV aerial and his useless brother Arthur is an unwelcome house guest. She has fallen in love with one of his more. 8 VIDEOS | 119 IMAGES. Certainly the first scene, if it is some metaphor for all the follows, is both trenchant and disturbing, more Babel than Singer, but perhaps (perhaps) frightening in its misogyny. Larry, an American, is the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. With lawyers' bills mounting for his divorce, Arthur's criminal court appearances and a land feud with a neighbour Larry is tempted to take the bribe offered by a student to give him an illegal exam pass mark. A Serious Man seems designed to baffle, but it actually lingers long after its small, sly jokes and plot complications finish. In their latest film, A Serious Man, the Coens once again are steeping themselves in language. What is the best film directed by the Coen brothers? View production, box office, & company info. But both Arthur and Larry get turfed out into a motel when Larry's wife Judy, who wants a divorce, moves her lover, Sy, into the house and even after Sy's death in a car crash they are still there. Six tales of life and violence in the Old West, following a singing gunslinger, a bank robber, a traveling impresario, an elderly prospector, a wagon train, and a perverse pair of bounty hunters. With lawyers' bills mounting for his divorce, Arthur's criminal court appearances and a land feud with a neighbour Larry is tempted to take the bribe offered by a student to give him an illegal exam pass mark. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man? A Serious Man "The fun of the story for us," they crow in the notes for this loathsome movie, "was inventing new ways to torture Larry.". After a deeply weird Yiddish folk-tale prologue set in 19th-century Poland (and framed in the old 1.33:1 format), the picture shifts to the region and era of the Coens' own upbringing, a Minneapolis suburb in 1967. A Serious Man Questions and Answers. Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence, Look for ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ to get some love from guilds for period details, The Vigil Acquired by IFC Midnight, Release Planned for February 26th, 2021, IFC Midnight Picks Up Supernatural Horror Movie ‘The Vigil’. In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. I hesitate to suggest that this is now my favorite C-Bros film. A Serious Man Questions and Answers. It is a philosophical and dramatic masterpiece, and interpreting it completely is an impossible challenge. A comedy of discomfort -- and one of their (Coen brothers) best, most insightful and most provocative films. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Not being able to figure anything out. For outsiders--goys--A Serious Man is an indoctrination, a can opener to an ethnic world with deep roots (Eastern European in this case), great integrity, and many internal (modern) conflicts. And the rabbis he visits for advice only dole out platitudes. It's a particularly thin slice-of-life look that peers at a '60s Midwestern Jewish family as if through a microscope.Ethan A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. The always surprising Coen brothers have finally made a very serious movie with A Serious Man. Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Yet, scenes and lines from the movie kept replaying in my mind, leading me to either laugh out loud at a funny line (of which there are many) or stare at the wall trying to figure out what the hell it all meant. Was Sy writing the derogative letters to the tenure board? And, as is always the case, the story takes its share of sudden, unexpected turns - usually as a result of deaths. But I’ll try interpreting it a little bit, anyway. and to the Cohen Brothers......COME ON. Maybe the Coens' best work. It's about God, man's place in the world and the meaning of life, so naturally it's one of their funnier movies. If you're married with kids you WILL get this picture. As we say in Yiddish, he is a mentsch, a good person who tries to do the right thing. So it’s with much satisfaction we can report that A Serious Man is a suburban dysfunctional-family drama-cum-metaphysical mystery. Pure crap. The second time I had an epiphany! In this case, that language is Yiddish, as our hapless protagonist Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) looks to Judaism and the world of the synagogue in order to try and make sense of his rapidly unraveling life. A Serious Man – with its oblique opening set in a richly atmospheric but historically and geographically indistinct Polish-Yiddish past; and its sudden ending, where earlier reconciliations are thrown to one side as plot elements are introduced and left implying an uncertain and unwelcoming future – has faced each of these related criticisms. © 2020 METACRITIC, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. As usual, though, the Coens have more venal satisfactions in mind. A Serious Man had me gripped from the first frames, and the film conjures a woozy, weightless feeling, combined with an almost hallucinatory clarity and heightened sense of itself. 101 of 181 people found this review helpful. Very Coen Brothers--moving, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes very hilarious.For insiders--American Jews--the references and send-ups will be moving and funny and familiar. Yes, ti's bleak but it's SO funny and subtle while being genuinely moving and affecting. As the year comes to a close, we present the top TV shows of 2020, including "Money Heist" and "The Mandalorian. ", Title: A Serious Man is challenging cinema, but it's also rewarding. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman, who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. A Serious Man (Coen Brothers, 2009) This is one of the richest, deepest, saddest, most mysterious movies ever made. A Serious Man is a movie that revels in its paradoxes and ambiguities, but its ending does have something to say about American Judaism. Is this about the survival of some kind of Judaic history in contemporary America? (For us, at least.). It's a comedy with deeply serious undertones, not the other way around. Set in 1967, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading him to questions about his faith. Some of the acting is amazing, Michael Stuhlbarg playing the line between tragedy and farce in every scene, and the filming is expert without ever drawing attention to itself. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. —Rashi FADE IN: SNOWFLAKES FALLING IN BLACK The flakes drift lazily down toward us. Uptown Vision Clinic, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. If. A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Check box if your review contains spoilers, A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. Please enter your birth date to watch this video: You are not allowed to view this material at this time. Ask Your Own Question I hesitate to suggest that this is now my favorite C-Bros film. Shouldn't have been nominated for best pictue. A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam. Use the HTML below. So it shouldn't bother you. I found this beautifully crafted movie to be frequently hilarious, consistently surprising and rigged with spring-loaded narrative bombs, from its opening scene to its devastating final shot. The Uncertainty Principle. They were on to something with this film but decided to take the easy way out and leave the topic barely scratched. A Serious Man is an exquisitely realized work; the filmmakers’ technical mastery of their craft, always impressive, has become absolute. Have I mentioned A Serious Man is so rich and funny? Our angle looks straight up. The Question and Answer section for A Serious Man is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.. Still God moves in mysterious - and not always pleasant - ways, as Larry and his family will find out. Academy Award-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen return to their comedy roots with this original and darkly humorous story about one ordinary man's quest to become a serious man. don @ minifie-1. very hard to even try to comprehend the story (especially the beginning). . R | 1h 46min | Comedy, Drama | 6 November 2009 (USA) 1:41 | Trailer. A stubborn teenager enlists the help of a tough U.S. (with a little interest) it was hard to understand what they were saying. When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated. No need to waste time endlessly browsing—here's the entire lineup of new movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix this month. Bloomington, Minnesota, 1967: Jewish physics lecturer Larry Gopnik is a serious and a very put-upon man. Or is it larger, about the meaning of Judaism period, on a worldly level? Really. A Serious Man is a 2009 black comedy-drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The ending will leave many people talking and it isn't appropriate to do that here, except to say that in some ways it leaves you thinking so hard you may read more into the events than is really there.Or not. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. Marshal to track down her father's murderer. A Serious Man ( 2009) A Serious Man. A disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell it. A Serious Man est un film réalisé par Joel Coen et Ethan Coen avec Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick. I felt the guy's pain! I recognized everything here from my own childhood--everything except everything Jewish.And that's the point, taken well. Those can be funny too. Really. The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. In fact, the whole movie has men who are wise, who laugh at their fate, who do good things, and women who, one way or another, stick the knife in you.And who (or what) is the dybbuk here? Yes, ti's bleak but it's SO funny and subtle while being genuinely moving and affecting. A Serious Man is Joel and Ethan Coen’s most personal film in many ways, particularly with its deep engagement with the brothers’ Jewish heritage. And the rabbis he visits for advice only dole out platitudes. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? "A Serious Man," I didn't like it and I can't say why without spoiling the ending. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. A Serious Man (2009) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. I felt the guy's pain! The film has a bleak side, which predominates - there are no answers - and a hilarious side, with some good laughs. The punch line is a little different, but you know the joke. Best of 2020: Television Critic Top Ten Lists. The story is at once hilarious and horrific, its significance both self-evident and opaque. If they had dug a little deeper, taken a few more risks and been willing to possibly offend some religious people, then this film. Larry Gopnik is a serious man. About the clash between rationalism and superstition (or faith). Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking. “A Serious Man” is, like its biblical source, a distilled, hyperbolic account of the human condition. Snide, obnoxious, vapid people doing awful things to each other, this movie is total garbage. But both Arthur and Larry get turfed out into a motel when Larry's wife Judy, who wants a divorce, moves her lover, Sy, into the house and even after Sy's death in a car crash they are still there. She has fallen in love with one of his more, A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It's just as funny as last year's Burn After Reading, although some of the comedy is more intellectual. A SERIOUS MAN Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen . His daughter is stealing from him to save up for a nose job, his pot-head son, who gets stoned at his own bar-mitzvah, only wants him round to fix the TV aerial and his useless brother Arthur is an unwelcome house guest. Not just hilarious, but quite haunting. Or larger still, is it simply a movie, like Do the Right Thing or My Big Fat Greek Wedding or any of thousands of others, about life, and love, and the struggling of one person against the woes of the world as he or she faces them, in their own context?Or is it a comedy, a really funny comedy, making fun, having fun, and rising above the tawdry enough to remind everyone, Jewish or not, of the need we all have for community and connection and continuity. (2009). Metacritic User Poll: Vote for the Best of 2020! The serious man dedicates his life and energies to some cause, values, or “idol” that he considers absolutely good, and for which he is willing to sacrifice absolutely anything. This film will stick with you long after the credits roll. Maybe because an ancestor invited a … This isn't a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. Written by Ask Your Own Question Was this review helpful to you? Very entertaining for people familiar with jewish culture. Non-jews will not get much of the humor. Academy Award-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen return to their comedy roots with this original and darkly humorous story about one ordinary man's quest to become a serious man. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. 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