A Serious Man with a Sense of Humor
Like Job, Larry can’t understand what is happening to him and can’t find answers in all the usual places. In a highly amusing sidebar, one of his counselors tells him the tale of a dentist who discovered Hebrew writing inscribed in the teeth of a (non-Jewish) patient. He became convinced that he was being sent a secret message. But like Larry, he was unwise to spend much time searching for meaning.
So is the film nihilist, a quality some have detected in the Coens’ earlier work? Not really. Toward the end, Larry’s choices, difficult as they are, also become clear.
He may not know it, but he is being tested to make the right choice, and few films these days take conclude with such an unblushing stance in favor of principles.
The world is changing in exciting as well as frightening ways for Larry — a sexy neighbor introduces him to pot and the Jefferson Airplane songs his son loves dominate the soundtrack. But for all of these disruptions, what remains is morals, and though much of their film is tongue in cheek, the Coens take a stand in favor of timeless values over the disposable 60s variety. If the title hadn’t been used before, the Coens could have called this film Do the Right Thing.
I love the Coen’s films. Nihilist? I find them among the most moral of film makers working today. Haven’t seen this yet but I look forward to it.
Yawn! Another hyperSemetic movie out of Hollywood? Again? I’m still waiting for something good to come out of Hollywood.
Sounds worth seeing as I really enjoy the Coen films.
Have they joined the “Free Polanski” Hollywood pervs yet? Club membership gets an instant boycott.
Razing Arizonia needs a sequil.
“Have they joined the “Free Polanski” Hollywood pervs yet?”
I believe Ethan Coen signed the petition. Too bad. I was really looking forward to this movie.
I agree w/Thomas L. Having seen every film they’ve ever made, and remain torn between Fargo & The Big Lebowski when it comes to a favorite, I can’t wait to see this.
Why boycott? I mean even if one or both of them caved in to Hollyweird peer pressure on Polanski (or worse ACTUALLY subscribe to clemency as a bonus to earning his swiss lifetime ‘little Lebowski junior achiever’ award) why should I deprive myself of the guilty pleasure of paying to see great film making?
I hope Polanski spends whats left of his life behind bars. But I didn’t burn my Chinatown DVD. Its as brilliant today as the first time I saw it and one of my all time fav’s.
Nothing about what Debra Wingnut (I didn’t know she was still alive) said or any of the disgusting ‘protests’ have surprised me the least. Standard operating practice on the left coast. Not just another planet – it’s another universe in a different dimension.
I used to be a fan until the Hudsucker Proxy. That movie was just such an obvious lefty message movie – ah, yes, big business is evil. No nuance, no balance, no ambiguity – none of the usual tropes that are demanded and insisted upon when the film is one that has a positive view of some part of American culture. Nope. None of that. Once they did that, unconsciously, my political antennae were up. From then on I would cautiously approach their films, and view them through a very political, hyper critical lens. In my mind they were branded as liberals first and filmmakers second. As a result, I can’t enjoy a mostly good and funny movie like The Big Lebowski. Why? Because of the right-wing-republican-fake-crippled-ex-military character. It wasn’t merely the fact that this character was an absurd lefty cliche. It was that combined with the fact that that characters righty baggage is totally unnecessary for the structure of the plot or the movement of the story. When a director unnecessarily inserts a politically charged cliche into a film that’s not artistic storytelling it’s political preaching. When it happens the film begins to lose truth, honesty and credibility as a story. The more absurd the cliche, and the greater number of them placed in the story, the worse the movie becomes (as a non Coen Brother example of this see the ex-military-right-wing-republican-wall-street-journal-reading-Nazi-memorabilia-collecting-Ronald-Reagan-movie-watching-abusive-husband father character in the movie American
Beauty). I could go on about the liberal politics in Fargo – the last movie of theirs that I saw – but I won’t. In short I’m upset with them. And other liberals in Hollywood like them that I used to like. They’re talented and creative but insist on making a lefty political message, even if it’s just through a small character or sequence, a priority in their films. They either don’t know, or don’t care, the extent to which they’re branding themselves and alienating much of the country and many of their former fans. Am I being hypersensitive in all this? Maybe. Am I being unfair? I don’t think so. They are the ones that decided to put liberal politics in their movies. Oh, well. So, this latest movie sounds like it might not have overt liberal politics in it. Great. But let’s just say I’ll read up and ask around more before I’ll go see it.
raskolnikov is hypersensitive but i sure know what he is saying. everytime i see some character in a movie saying something about nixon (it will be bush in the future)which is not relevant to the story, plot or character it is really irritating. the eternally left wing hollywood writers just can’t help themselves. even so, it’s small potatoes compared to their idolization of people like Gore or M. Moore.