A Serious Man and New York, I Love You
I saw two really good films today. I will say a few words about each.
The Coen Brothers have given us another wonderful film. A Serious Man is their most personal film to date. It takes place in St. Louis Park, Minnesota which is a heavily Jewish suburb of Minneapolis. This is where the brothers grew up.
Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a college professor who is going through a hell of a time. His wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants a divorce. She wants to marry their friend Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed). His son Danny (Aaron Wolfe) is about to Bar Mitzvahed. The boy is a heavy pot smoker. His daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) wants a nose job. His brother Arthur freeloads off of him and has many problems. On top of this Larry is having problems with a student who wants to bribe him for a better grade or sue him for defamation of character. Oy, what is a man supposed to do?!
Larry goes to rabbis but they offer no answer to his dilemma. Is there anyone who can help this man? Well, I won't tell you. You will have to see this terrific film for yourselves to find out. The Coens have done a marvelous job of directing the film and their screenplay is witty but also quite serious. Yes, you laugh but underneath it all they pose some very hard questions about God, faith, destiny, etc.
I don't remember seeing Stuhlbarg in a film but he was great as the put upon Larry (I understand that he is a theater actor). The rest of the cast was spot on as well. The first ten minutes of the film features a Yiddish folk tale starring the wonderful Fyvush Finkel among others. Some people told me that they couldn't see the connection between that short section of the film and the rest of it. Ah, but look deeper and you will see the connection. Highly recommended to those of you who like challenging, well made films.
I loved Paris je t'aime and I love the next film in the series of cities we love - New York, I Love You. I will say that I liked Paris a bit better but New York is still so very enjoyable. I don't understand why the critics didn't like the film but they are very often wrong.
There are several short films interwoven into one big one. The main star is NYC. But among the directors are Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Shekhar Kupur (his piece was written by Anthony Minghella and was supposed to be directed by Minghella but, sadly, he passed away), Mira Nair, Joshua Marsten and Natalie Portman. Among the actors we have Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Orlando Bloom, Robin Wright Penn, Cristina Ricci, Drea de Matteo, John Hurt, James Caan, Andy Garcia, Chris Cooper, Julie Christie, Eli Wallach, Irfan Khan, and Ugur Uycel. There are others but I can't list them all.
I liked all of the shorts with varying degrees. Of course, some are better than others. But take all together they make up a very good film. I won't get into the various stories but some of them really hit home. Most of the them are filmed in Manhattan. One takes place in Brooklyn. It would have been nice if there were stories from each of the other three boroughs but the producers chose to use Manhattan for the most part. All I can say that this is a highly enjoyable film and I hope you will see it despite the fact that most of the critics did not like it.
New York can be a tough place to live in. It can be a lonely place despite all of the people. It is overly crowded and the pace is too fast. It is very expensive. I sometimes feel that I would like move somewhere more quiet. I have mixed feelings about that. But there is something special about this city and even with all of its flaws in the end I have to say NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU!
The Coen Brothers have given us another wonderful film. A Serious Man is their most personal film to date. It takes place in St. Louis Park, Minnesota which is a heavily Jewish suburb of Minneapolis. This is where the brothers grew up.
Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a college professor who is going through a hell of a time. His wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants a divorce. She wants to marry their friend Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed). His son Danny (Aaron Wolfe) is about to Bar Mitzvahed. The boy is a heavy pot smoker. His daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) wants a nose job. His brother Arthur freeloads off of him and has many problems. On top of this Larry is having problems with a student who wants to bribe him for a better grade or sue him for defamation of character. Oy, what is a man supposed to do?!
Larry goes to rabbis but they offer no answer to his dilemma. Is there anyone who can help this man? Well, I won't tell you. You will have to see this terrific film for yourselves to find out. The Coens have done a marvelous job of directing the film and their screenplay is witty but also quite serious. Yes, you laugh but underneath it all they pose some very hard questions about God, faith, destiny, etc.
I don't remember seeing Stuhlbarg in a film but he was great as the put upon Larry (I understand that he is a theater actor). The rest of the cast was spot on as well. The first ten minutes of the film features a Yiddish folk tale starring the wonderful Fyvush Finkel among others. Some people told me that they couldn't see the connection between that short section of the film and the rest of it. Ah, but look deeper and you will see the connection. Highly recommended to those of you who like challenging, well made films.
I loved Paris je t'aime and I love the next film in the series of cities we love - New York, I Love You. I will say that I liked Paris a bit better but New York is still so very enjoyable. I don't understand why the critics didn't like the film but they are very often wrong.
There are several short films interwoven into one big one. The main star is NYC. But among the directors are Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Shekhar Kupur (his piece was written by Anthony Minghella and was supposed to be directed by Minghella but, sadly, he passed away), Mira Nair, Joshua Marsten and Natalie Portman. Among the actors we have Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Orlando Bloom, Robin Wright Penn, Cristina Ricci, Drea de Matteo, John Hurt, James Caan, Andy Garcia, Chris Cooper, Julie Christie, Eli Wallach, Irfan Khan, and Ugur Uycel. There are others but I can't list them all.
I liked all of the shorts with varying degrees. Of course, some are better than others. But take all together they make up a very good film. I won't get into the various stories but some of them really hit home. Most of the them are filmed in Manhattan. One takes place in Brooklyn. It would have been nice if there were stories from each of the other three boroughs but the producers chose to use Manhattan for the most part. All I can say that this is a highly enjoyable film and I hope you will see it despite the fact that most of the critics did not like it.
New York can be a tough place to live in. It can be a lonely place despite all of the people. It is overly crowded and the pace is too fast. It is very expensive. I sometimes feel that I would like move somewhere more quiet. I have mixed feelings about that. But there is something special about this city and even with all of its flaws in the end I have to say NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU!
posted by Film Fanatic | 7:04 PM
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