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. A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam. A SERIOUS MAN Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen . 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. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking. (For us, at least.). View production, box office, & company info. 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 (Coen Brothers, 2009) This is one of the richest, deepest, saddest, most mysterious movies ever made. I hesitate to suggest that this is now my favorite C-Bros film. Marshal to track down her father's murderer. —Rashi FADE IN: SNOWFLAKES FALLING IN BLACK The flakes drift lazily down toward us. Summary: 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 film has a bleak side, which predominates - there are no answers - and a hilarious side, with some good laughs. A joy! Not just hilarious, but quite haunting. Certainly their most emotionally potent. A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood. Pure crap. Our angle looks straight up. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. The surrealism sprinkled throughout is just smart movie-making, keeping it from becoming a deep, ironic, and serious movie. A Serious Man “A Serious Man” is, like its biblical source, a distilled, hyperbolic account of the human condition. I recognized everything here from my own childhood--everything except everything Jewish.And that's the point, taken well. And it’s on you, of course. 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. (Focus Features). ", Title: There are no definitive answers. 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. . Is this about the survival of some kind of Judaic history in contemporary America? 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 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. 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. He became a young man the 1950s – a few short years after World War II and the … 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. The Uncertainty Principle. A Serious Man est un film réalisé par Joel Coen et Ethan Coen avec Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking. Non-jews will not get much of the humor. 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. I hesitate to suggest that this is now my favorite C-Bros film. Have I mentioned A Serious Man is so rich and funny? R | 1h 46min | Comedy, Drama | 6 November 2009 (USA) 1:41 | Trailer. The HFPA revealed its Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday morning, and... Hurt's So Good: More Critics Lock on to "Locker". The story is at once hilarious and horrific, its significance both self-evident and opaque. 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. It is a philosophical and dramatic masterpiece, and interpreting it completely is an impossible challenge. "The fun of the story for us," they crow in the notes for this loathsome movie, "was inventing new ways to torture Larry.". What is the best film directed by the Coen brothers? Best of 2020: Television Critic Top Ten Lists. Synopsis : 1967. Was this review helpful to you? 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. Bloomington, Minnesota, 1967: Jewish physics lecturer Larry Gopnik is a serious and a very put-upon man. If they had dug a little deeper, taken a few more risks and been willing to possibly offend some religious people, then this film could have soared. A Serious Man seems designed to baffle, but it actually lingers long after its small, sly jokes and plot complications finish. I think the Coen brothers have gotten lazy. It proves we can't ever really know... what's going on. And made well, brilliant from start to finish. Another 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. 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. This isn't a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. A Serious Man (2009)Such a vivid recreation of late 1960s suburban America is a remarkable enough basis for a movie, making the real meat of the thing almost transcendent. Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. The Question and Answer section for A Serious Man is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.. 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. "A Serious Man," I didn't like it and I can't say why without spoiling the ending. No need to waste time endlessly browsing—here's the entire lineup of new movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix this month. About the clash between rationalism and superstition (or faith). The cast is spot-on and the story is intricate with a very articulate and witty script. Serious men tend to be the kind of people who enforce authoritarian governments or proclaim that things should be judged in terms of their “usefulness.” Other films have broached the Coens’ Jewishness, such as The Big Lebowski and Miller’s Crossing , but none have … They were on to something with this film but decided to take the easy way out and leave the topic barely scratched. 17 wins & 78 nominations. very hard to even try to comprehend the story (especially the beginning). and to the Cohen Brothers......COME ON. don @ minifie-1. Uptown Vision Clinic, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. A Serious Man Questions and Answers. Job. I felt the guy's pain! In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. Shouldn't have been nominated for best pictue. A movie with humor and pathos, funny lines and ultimately no conclusion. 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's a particularly thin slice-of-life look that peers at a '60s Midwestern Jewish family as if through a microscope.Ethan This seriously funny movie, artfully photographed by the great Roger Deakins, is spiritual in nature, barbed in tone, and, oh, yeah, it stings like hell. Not being able to figure anything out. Maybe the Coens' best work. A Serious Man is an exquisitely realized work; the filmmakers’ technical mastery of their craft, always impressive, has become absolute. A comedy of discomfort -- and one of their (Coen brothers) best, most insightful and most provocative films. Insted it barely caused a ripple on the big pond of life and cinema. A Serious Man is challenging cinema, but it's also rewarding. The Question and Answer section for A Serious Man is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.. 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. If. Unfortunately got put off the scent by David Denby's review in the NYer... NEVER AGAIN... he's dead to me. 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. And the rabbis he visits for advice only dole out platitudes. As we say in Yiddish, he is a mentsch, a good person who tries to do the right thing. 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? It's just as funny as last year's Burn After Reading, although some of the comedy is more intellectual. Just like the other Coen Brothers favorite "O Brother Where are Thou" is a very clever satire based upon Homer's Odessey, "A Serious Man is the story of Job, a righteous man … Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man? White letters on a black screen: Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you. Use the HTML below. 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. Yes, ti's bleak but it's SO funny and subtle while being genuinely moving and affecting. 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. Please enter your birth date to watch this video: You are not allowed to view this material at this time. (2009). 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’. A Serious Man is a movie that revels in its paradoxes and ambiguities, but its ending does have something to say about American Judaism. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. If you're married with kids you WILL get this picture. I felt the guy's pain! They were on to something with this film but decided to take the easy way out and leave the topic barely scratched. So it’s with much satisfaction we can report that A Serious Man is a suburban dysfunctional-family drama-cum-metaphysical mystery. And, as is always the case, the story takes its share of sudden, unexpected turns - usually as a result of deaths. Was Sy writing the derogative letters to the tenure board? So it shouldn't bother you. A Serious Man Questions and Answers. Yes, ti's bleak but it's SO funny and subtle while being genuinely moving and affecting. A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line. 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. Ask Your Own Question Written by At the conclusion of their new movie, “A Serious Man,” the Coen brothers pull off a neat little joke. 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. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Bloomington, Minnesota, 1967: Jewish physics lecturer Larry Gopnik is a serious and a very put-upon man. Tom Reagan, an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss, tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties. In their latest film, A Serious Man, the Coens once again are steeping themselves in language. A stubborn teenager enlists the help of a tough U.S. Maybe because an ancestor invited a … If they had dug a little deeper, taken a few more risks and been willing to possibly offend some religious people, then this film. Very entertaining for people familiar with jewish culture. 8 VIDEOS | 119 IMAGES. The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. Those can be funny too. 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. Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like nobody else's, but even by their standards A Serious Man is in a class by itself: a complete original that's one of the brothers' best. A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong. 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. Probably not for middle america, I think the Coen brothers have gotten lazy. Ask Your Own Question Larry Gopnik is a serious man. This film will stick with you long after the credits roll. 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. (with a little interest) it was hard to understand what they were saying. The second time I had an epiphany! A Serious Man is a 2009 black comedy-drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Larry, an American, is the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. The New York Film Critics Circle added to The Hurt Locker's growing list... 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