New Coen Bros, A Serious Man

do east asians count as gentiles? i think they're beyond that biblical scope tbh.

JILF?

Chosen moms choose JILF.

hot stoner jews

So reductive! She has freedoms that are new.

Also, a John Boehner tan.

Chosen moms choose JILF.

lol

asians are the jews of asia

all jews are buddhists now

jewddhists

40 is kind of young for a cougar (or jougar), innit?

It's all about the size of the gap, innit?

Oh come on, ppl. Not even a groan?

i don't think mrs samsky had kids so technically that would make her a JOUGAR

― elmo leonard (elmo argonaut)

Seriously, how can you not call it JEWGAR?

Oh come on, ppl. Not even a groan?

I closed my laptop for a bit to watch Fringe on the DVR, but I lolled after the fact.

Did I imagine Arthur specifically bemoaning a 'curse' as the source of all their trouble during the pool/breakdown scene? It's the only thing I could link back to the prologue.

Did not love the ambiguous ending, but definitely made sense tying in with 'no questions answered' theme of the movie, rabbi's advice, schroedinger, etc.

enjoyed very much, on the whole. would echo the comment that a better workign knowledge of jewish culture would maybe have given me a bit more to take from it.

the movie struck me as a little self-loathing jew, tbh, but it was really the wife/daughter that came out of the whole thing stinking- at least the son got a little bit of fleshing out from being just another pain-in-the-ass for Larry to deal with every day.

I found the portrayal of Jews a little overly negative too, although I found the rabbis rather likable and almost zen-like -- which makes me wonder if I either got something some other people missed or just misread it out of wishful thinking (I didn't want to believe that the Coens would go for a trite cheapshot at the 'emptiness of religion').

At the same time, looking for antisemitic stereotypes is kind of an infinite feedback loop and for that reason a game I like to avoid where possible. I had a slight problem with the portrayal of a few characters because they seemed inhuman (the wife), but I think the film may be asking us to understand this as partly a product of the main character's perception.

Oh I guess I sort of said some of those things upthread.

i liked the rabbis too!

Also I feel like there has to be some kind of separation between kinds of stereotypes - particularly when they're being used in a knowing way by someone who grew up in a community as opposed to someone from outside. I mean if you grew up in a Synagogue you probably knew a few nebbishy Jews, and there is such a thing as a familiar cultural type. There's a difference between having that in a film about a Jewish community and placing a lone caricature of a nebbishy Jew for comic relief in a film otherwise devoid of Jewish characters. Like there's a difference between a Jewish stereotype as a token of a type of Jew and a Jewish stereotype as a token of The Jews.

I liked the first half of this but it wore on me by the end. I did like the rabbi scenes, though. "The story of the goy's teeth" was probably the best part.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ky2g5scLwk1qa9bmvo1_1280.png?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1273528616&Signature=c62ktsUwAhj8fAr%2FivoG%2FC9toLs%3D

a serious max

i keep meaning to rent this, but every time i'm in the video store, something holds me back. i guess in all honesty i don't like any of the coen brothers' films very much, and i'm a little wary of this one, more out of instinct than thoughtful consideration. should i bother?

i'd say no, given that you don't like any of their others very much, but then i think that maybe makes you a little bit crazy anyway.

i'm a bit insulted. i can't formulate a general objection to them, and i grow tired of those who insist on doing so. but i just don't have particularly warm feelings about anything i've seen by them, and i have pretty negative feelings about some of their films, like 'man who wasn't there.' none of their films sticks in my mind as an experience i want to linger over or return to.

are you the same darragh mac who writes for senses of cinema?

nope.

the 'ur a little bit mad' was me just being confused btw, sorry if it came over a little strong.

amateurist i share your discontent w/ most of the coens' stuff but 'srs man' is every bit as good as this thread would suggest

amateurist i share your discontent w/ most of the coens' stuff

YOU'RE BOTH CRAZY

ok i'll stop

amateurist fwiw i really loved this one and hated the man who wasn't there so... i say go for it

i'm a bit insulted. i can't formulate a general objection to them, and i grow tired of those who insist on doing so. but i just don't have particularly warm feelings about anything i've seen by them, and i have pretty negative feelings about some of their films, like 'man who wasn't there.' none of their films sticks in my mind as an experience i want to linger over or return to.

― by another name (amateurist), Monday, May 10, 2010 11:32 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

i'd say 1) this is fairly atypical, 2) i don't like "man who wasn't there" (or any of their films from the 2000s really) but liked this, 3) imo this and "lebowski" are their best films. idk you might not like it, but im sure you'll watch much worse films in any given year.

the man who wasn't there is probably one of their worst movies. they def. have stinkers in their catalog.

this movie, tho, is amazing

so, what's everyone's problem with the man who wasn't there? curious because I've seen it but honestly don't remember much about it.

my reaction at the time was, "yeah, it was alright."

terrible cast, pointless plot, half-assed screenplay, an homage that adds nothing to its sources, empty

I liked this movie a lot but generally I agree with amateurist re the Coens.

i like everything they have done, to varying degrees – with the exception of big liebowski, which i kind of just feel is just silly and aimless, and oh brother! where art thou, which never really connected with me.

man who wasn't there was super boring iirc

I think I liked it enough when I watched it, but can't for the life of me remember ANYTHING about it.

the movie that wasn't there iirc

The Movie That Wasn't There

lol

man, who wasn't there?

Basically the two Minnesota-set Coen movies are, imo, their best. Except maybe No Country.

I liked The Man Who Wasn't There, but I'm a big fan of the source material. It's definitely better than the Hudsucker Proxy or the Big Lebowski.

this movie was kind of like a cohen brothers's' napoleon dynamite

sorry I have no idea what I meant by that I just wanted to type it

this movie wasn't bad by any means but I felt like it wasn't doing anything new/I really never felt a connection to it for whatever reason

I liked The Man Who Wasn't There, but I'm a big fan of the source material

I am too, but this movie didn't even come close to the moody intensity oc the best Cain screen adaptations imho. cast, as I said, was terrible.

It's definitely better than the Hudsucker Proxy or the Big Lebowski.

totally disagree on both counts but I tend to be the lone Hudsucker stan around here

nah man i like it

definitely better than TMWWT

"cast, as I said, was terrible"

I liked the cast generally. Sco-Jo was miscast though.

I love Hudsucker, actually.