New Coen Bros, A Serious Man

Loved this. I don't think I've ever seen a film that so effectively captured American synagogues - the detail was just incredible. And the stoned bar mitzvah was amazing - it really captures what a bar mitzvah FEELS like - you get shoved up onto stage, a metal pointer gets pushed into your hand, and a few minutes later you're uncomfortably parading past all of these old, wrinkled faces that you have no idea how to react to and a strange sense of being judged in a way you don't understand.

I also liked the almost zen parable feeling of the goy's teeth scene - though the person I was with took it as critical of rabbis, it actually reminded me of all the things I like about the Jewish tradition - the kind of shrugging, comic unknowingness of it.

I don't think it was full on "stoner cam," just an extremely shallow depth of field.

I heard some behind-the-scenes stories from the Sht3tl Husb4nd on Thursday night! Nothing scandalous, obv he was thrilled w/ the role.

Also, a friend tested for the Coens for the Richard Kind part!

I thought the megaracist next door was a little silly, and I had a few other minor quibbles, but otherwise I liked this quite a bit.

that neighbor was great tho. "is this guy bothering you?"

I realized after the film that the neighbor WASN'T actually a megaracist. He had a realistic degree of xenophobia, but the more horrific elements were just in Gopnik's mind (the jew-hunting dream, etc.). I think this ties in to the "perception" theme.

they really didnt get each other

Lousy limited release in the UK for this - only 27 screens nationwide by the look of it, despite five star reviews from nearly all quarters. Means a drive over to the other side of town for me, or a trip to the (rubbish) arthouse cinema. Broken Britain indeed.

Going tonight...

OK so I was totally verklempt. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but remembering the to-and-fro about the goyim neighbours, they may not have been friendly 24/7 but they did challenge the cops who came to hassle the Gopniks - and in one tiny scene you get my town, in a nutshell.

last scene so good

School friend who went to film with me lived next door to the Meshbeshers, so we were in LOL heaven. Many of our town's stories end with a bill from that lawyer.

haven't seen but black comedy by coens bros. zzzz

^^ morbius acolyte?

it may be a black comedy, but it's about as far removed from Big Lebowski as I can imagine

lol @ slocki - hoping to get to see this tomorrow, if the one decent screen round here has tickets.

ssshhh u guys moullet is sleeping, all tuckered out from not watching the movie

uh, I like SEVERAL black comedies by the Coens including this one. And dislike others.

thought this was pretty great. that ella taylor article was O_o

I think this might have held a lot more resonance for me had I been Jewish, but I loved how the youngest rabbi turned out to be the least inept of all of them.

I do think I totally missed the significance of the opening scene though. Very funny throughout though.

Matt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dybbuk

still need to see this---my friend hated it but couldn't articulate why

The friend who I saw it with hated it too - he said 'I feel like I've seen that shit a thousand times before', which I don't really understand, said it was boring with which I don't agree at all, and took issue with the ending, which I can comprehend at least. I think he was in a bad mood. I enjoyed it quite a lot, found it very immersive in fact.

aside from the usual slapstick nihilism of recent coen, i didn't really get much out of this beside trying to show up sam mendes and all those other goys who specialize in suburban hell movies. ella taylor's article was over the top, but I definitely felt a little queasy with the film's wallowing, though my jewish future-father-in-law from michigan was very "finally, a movie for me" about it.

lol mendes is half-jewish apparently

this is not remotely nihilist.

like you'd notice

Wait -- what does the film wallow in?

I didn't at all get the sense that this particular suburb was hell.

I live five minutes from this suburb, it seems fine

well we know what you think hell is. :)

xp

I grew up in this suburb, and all it is currently missing is a good sit-down delicatessen. Ella Taylor article just struck me as 'does not know what the fuck she's talking about'.

Suzy I think I drove by a sitdown deli yesterday??

forgive the shorthand guys, but I'm just referring to the genre of movies about suburbanites getting thrown through the wringer (mendes, payne, solondz), not that I feel the suburbs are actually hell.

WHAAAAT? A proper Jewish deli a la Lincoln Del (RIP)? Where was this? Are you counting Crossroads on Cedar Lake Road - because that's in Minnetonka/Hopkins/GV DMZ.

The difference with ASM is emphasis: the Villains of Krypton have a thesis they want to prove (lookit what prefab houses and perky wives to sensitive men), whereas ASM makes it clear that the guy's problems could have taken place in West Palm Beach or Brooklyn.

yeah, cuz the guy's problem was apparently, in large part, being Jewish.

I don't think the environment is directly causative of the guy's hell, it just happens to be the setting. (ie, he could just as well be in a shtetl)

xxp yeah

xp yes but not really. This is the film my jobless Irish Catholic ass most related to this year.

Suzy it was fishmans but I just checked and that is technically mpls

i really liked the opening dybbuk scene, the goy's teeth story, the stoned bar mitzvah, and the ending, but i think i disliked it overall cause i hate job stories.

opening dybbuk scene really reminded me of this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_96uP6vDZMT8/SorEyk_9hzI/AAAAAAAACd8/W021WwNivBk/s400/BLACK+SABBATH3.jpg

I have no problem with Job stories featuring some kind of unternebbish.

LOL the deli's own site (which suggests amazing food) says it's in St. Louis Park - it's the new place that took over one of the Lincoln Del's old sites. But it is so close to being Mpls that it should serve as some kind of border marker.

I think it does, really. it's right where Minnetonka blvd splits off from 7, which I tend to associate with the beginning of slp.

History lesson: Jews were redlined to the suburbs north of 7 when they made the great exodus from North Minneapolis after WWII; south of there (where my family still live) are still many Jewish families but not in the same numbers, because synagogues are not nearby and Edina can be seen from my house.

always thought Edina was WASPy?

Oh god, I miss the Lincoln Del.

is Edina where the MST3K studio was? cuz I been there.

That was Hopkins, I think. Or maybe that's just where their fan club PO box was.

Edina is so WASP, its high school team mascot is a fucking hornet. Also forget living there before 1968 if you were black or Jewish.

Our corner of SLP is all about Excelsior Boulevard.

(the film I would make about Mpls. suburbs could well be a John Justen horrorshow called 'Schmucks versus Cake Eaters' BTW)