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comedy which seemed to end far too soon--- how many films roll the credits and leave the audience screaming for more?
Brilliant writing, acting, editing.
The paucity of fine comedies proves the adage that it's far more difficult than drama. Run and see this outrageous, pitch-perfect film. Yes, it's very much a Jewish culture film but it could just as easily be about Italians, Irish, Hungarians, etc. It's a human comedy, first and foremost.
Follow Ups:
My problem is that the Coens are stuck on this black comedy, life is meaningless track. They've made this movie over and over again starting with my favorite Coen brother movie (Blood Simple) and they REALLY made this movie a couple of years ago (No Country for Old Men). Besides the Jewish archetypes populating this movie which I can appreciate and the laughs in there, I feel that the Coens are in a complete rut trying to make and remake the same movie themes again and again. The setting changes, the characters change but the message is always the same. I want to say "I get it, life is absurd and meaningless. Please now do something else."
Edits: 11/15/09
I agree with your take on Serious Man, but most of the Coens' other movies are very different and have a lot more to say than "life is meaningless". Serious Man gave its message of "meaninglessness" in the context of religion. On the other hand, No Country brings McCarthy's novel to life in showing how the fight against evil, while it can never be won, is a noble pursuit that requires energy and conviction. I took the message as being very meaningful, and the triumvirate of law, lawlessness and the common man embodied in the three main characters was very interesting, I thought. The Coens were in a rut before that, with Intolerable Cruelty and Lady Killers, but No Country showed they pulled themselves out of it. Serious Man, was just a misguided, uninspired effort with a deeply flawed story and message, and uninspired performances from the actors.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
you can scroll down to see my prior comments in response to tunenut's post. Not a good Coen bros effort for a variety of reasons, most notably the failures of the casting/lead actor.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
The role called for a nebish.
I was surprised at how good I thought this film was. Based on other's comments, my expectations were not high before viewing. But now that I've seen it, I find myself very pleasantly surprised. While I wouldn't rank it among their very VERY best, I still thought it was a fine return to form after the dismal Burn After Reading.
He did a tremendous job.
That said, the movie didn't do much for me in terms of emotional engagement but I definitely appreciated the craft that went into it.
And the 13 old boys getting high was hysterical, some of the best stuff in the movie... and right on point for my life experience.
"The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
...but I was raised Catholic and went through 12 years of parochial school. I assure you, at Catholic achool in the late 60s, there were undoubtedly stones altar boys (and girls). So the getting high scenes didn't seem outlandish to me - I also thought they were funny and didn't slight the actual relisious ritual itself. The tone while mocking was, I thought, affectionate - much less mocking than the Coens usually are.
I was surprised how much I did emotionally connect with this movie...especially the ending. Perhaps its because I've been through some life altering experinces in the past few years.
Being Bar Mitzvah'ed is a bit different than being an altar boy. If you've ever read a language that doesn't use English characters, you know it requires concentration. Now imagine reading that language from a holy book in front of a congregation of friends, strangers and family. Each syllable has a unique inflection that must be recited in a specific melody or you change the meaning of the sentence. Finally, this is part of a ritual stretching back thousands of years that symbolizes you taking your place among adults in the community.
If you think you can do this stoned, good luck. And to portray such a ceremony as given to stoners is, again, doing no favors to Judaism. While I could appreciate it as a somewhat nifty cinematic technique by a pair of reclusive filmmakers, I think they could have made a far more powerful statement by avoiding that portrayal.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
...of being in the modern version of the Roman alphabet that we use every day.
Having had a few rudimentary lessons in Hebrew, I can attest that the language/alphabet are daunting for those of us used to speaking/reading/writing in the Western alphabet. ("What do you mean it's not read from left to right?!")
Thank goodness "Confirmation" required no such preparation. Having had couple friends (or their children) Bar Mitzvah'ed/Bat Mitzvah'ed I totally respect the amount of study and preparation it entails. I often wish our non-Jewish western culture had a more meanigful rite of passage into adulthood than high school graduation or getting the keys to one's first car.
Our young hero wasn't a disaster at the cermony, but being high sure didn't help him get through it smoothly.
However, I would also argue that learning the responses to RC mass in Latin (and many of us learned it in plainchant), reading from the Holy Book during service, along with all the ritual accompanying it, impressed with the solemnity and myssticism of the rite, all of which takes place in front of a large congregation of friends, family and strangers also takes concentration and can also be a daunting proposition. (No extended reading in a foreign tongue required, I realize.)
I have great admiration for the Jewish faith and the Bar Mitzvah ritual. This movie didn't demean Judaism for me any more than Life Of Brian or Monty Python's Meaning Of Life crushed out the good things about Christianity/Catholicism - the Coens are equal opportunity satirists when it comes to religion and culture. In my book, religion is legitimate subject to satirize, especially as in this example where the religion itself is not poked fun at so much as it's used to explore character...and that through exaggeration.
I'm looking forward to the Coen treatment of 'True Grit' with Jeff Bridge’s as Rooster Cogburn, apparently they will be sticking closely to the original novel with a focus on Mattie.Due late this year or early next.
J.B.
Edits: 11/11/09
has little or no sense of humor regarding his religion, according to his prior thread post. That's okay. But, having been raised a Catholic, I have no problem laughing at my "old" religion, or any other.
Actually, generations of Jewish comedians have found their faith a fertile source of mirth, from Mel Brooks through Woody Allen.
Would NO Jewish boy get stoned and attend his ceremony? I don't know, that's an awfully large assertion by JI. Cannot Rabbis be a rich source of humor, too? How about attorneys and doctors? Fact is, the Coen's lampooned pretty much everyone in this film, including the WASP neighbors, the Jewish Princess/Queen neighbor's wife (gosh, I wonder if ANY Jewish middle-aged wives smoked pot in those days?).
This was a hysterically funny film: the theater was rocking during many scenes. Like I mentioned, when it ended, there was a general wave of disappointment which flowed through the crowd: it wanted a lot more and so did I!
The film was a major let down.
I don't mind humor that pokes fun at Judaism, especially if there's a point to it. This had no point except to say there are no answers in the faith. That is a fundamentally stark, serious message. And what humor there was failed more than succeeded. The characterizations were little more than cliches.
You frequently lie and your characterization of the theater "rocking" is suspect. When I saw this, there were all of five other people in the entire theater. If you're saying you saw it in a packed house i call BS. If you're saying what audience was there was hooting and hollering i gotta call BS again. It was tedious and boring. I found myself prying my eyes open throughout. It bombed and it deserved to. Burn After Reading was a blockbuster success compared to this feeble effort.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
I dunno if Tin is exaggerating for effect or not. Could be ;-) I know Tin does tend yo puch your buttons.
I can say for certain that I saw A Serious Man at Landmark Theater in Indianapolis, on a week night (Monday or Tuesday), and there must have been at least 30 people in the audience - it was in one of their larger auditoriums. And yes, people laughed out loud. And I presume the audience were both Jewish and gentile. It was predominantly a middle class crowd, but there was everyone from twenty-somethings to senior citizens. More middle American you cannot get. In fact, the Coens are very popular amongst the Indy arty crowd.
I'm sure other people share your disdain for the movie, but they weren't in evidence the particular night I saw it.
You appear to hold the minority opinion here too.
For the record, I can't agree with your first paragraph or your assesment of Burn After Reading either. But this is really enough...it's OK...I loathe Jaws despite all its success and popularity. But I try not to beat people up over it.
I laughed out loud too, especially during the anecdote about the gentleman with Hebrew lettering on his teeth. That was kind of clever. But even that anecdote didn't go anywhere. Nothing in the film did. It was stagnant.
Burn After Reading will kill A Serious Man at the box office, so if that's what we're measuring for success, it's no contest. BAR did $60 million in box office sales. So far A Serious Man did $6 million. That's an order of magnitude less. You can chalk most of it up to Clooney and Pitt being in BAR.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
The film, JI, was aimed at people like you, no wonder you couldn't laugh. The film showing I attended was at the Bijou cinema in Eugene; it was an evening performance, and the theater was 4/5s or so full. The disappointment was that the film had ended, not at the content. The crowd was buzzing as it exited, laughing.
Anyone that found "The Big Lebowski" funny will roar at this one, too.
It is unfortunate that this is marketed so heavily as a "Jewish" comedy. It applies to any belief system. Heck, you could imagine the Rabbis as Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Rice. Well, maybe you wouldn't find that humorous, either....
and having struck oscar gold, the Coens are mainstream by any definition. I wouldn't even characterize Big Lebowski as a cult film anymore. It's mainstream hollywood.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
You didn't like it.
Burn After Reading was brilliant in its farcical approach to personal affairs bordering on the fringes of international intelligence. A Serious Man was an atrocity with no redeeming value whatsoever, except perhaps as a period piece as tunenut pointed out. But how could a return to humdrum middle America ca 1967 be exciting? Snoozers!
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
An "atrocity?" I quite enjoyed it after all. I found it evocative. I will probably see it again. I probably will not see Burn After Reading again.
Spoilers below:No, I meant atrocity in the literal sense, not hyperbole. The rabbis were buffoons, the family was nuts, the relative was brought up on sex charges and gambling. The protagonist acted like a space cadet, not a professor. And for what? Another hollywood gem that we can't get any answers from religion? It's been done to death. Thanks, but no thanks.
I've seen Burn After Reading four times already and it just keeps getting better.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
Edits: 11/11/09 11/11/09
d
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
Don't you get enough exercise cheerleading that POV over on the Outside board? And FYI, just so you don't try tarring me with that brush: it isn't anti-semitic behavior to question the subjective criticism of a film that others haven't found objectionable.
AuPh
but anti-semitism does exist--difficult as it may be for you to face reality--and it's best not to feed the monster with unflattering, misleading images of Judaism. Why would you even want to portray a Bar Mitzvah or rabbis like that? It really added nothing to the film, which was devoid of any meaning or redeeming quality.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
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