A Serious Man

A Serious Man (2009)

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R - 106 min - Comedy, Drama - 20 November 2009
Big Blue Sky Rating : 7.0/10

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Director : Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars : Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed

Bloomington, Minnesota, 1967: Jewish physics lecturer Larry Gopnik is a serious and a very put-upon man. His daughter is stealing from him to save up for a nose job, his pot-head son, who gets stoned at his own bar-mitzvah, only wants him round to fix the TV aerial and his useless brother Arthur is an unwelcome house guest. But both Arthur and Larry get turfed out into a motel when Larry's wife Judy, who wants a divorce, moves her lover, Sy, into the house and even after Sy's death in a car crash they are still there. With lawyers' bills mounting for his divorce, Arthur's criminal court appearances and a land feud with a neighbour Larry is tempted to take the bribe offered by a student to give him an illegal exam pass mark. And the rabbis he visits for advice only dole out platitudes. Still God moves in mysterious - and not always pleasant - ways, as Larry and his family will find out.

Magnificent. The Coen Brothers take a detour.

Let me say up front that most fans of the Coen brothers' early films might be disappointed if they're expecting "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski" or even "O Brother". Unlike those movies, here we don't have a lot of plot, comedy or action. The message of the film is very challenging, and it requires a lot of thought to figure out what they're saying.

I'd say this movie is for fans of the recent American films "Synecdoche NY", "Doubt", and the recent Japanese films "Departures", "Yureru" and of course the classics by Kurosawa like "Rashomon". What I'm saying is that this is a film that tackles philosophical questions of perception, faith, and in particular, uncertainty.

If you've had some physics, you're in for a real treat because much of the theme centers around Schrödinger's "Uncertainty Principle", briefly touched upon in the Coens' excellent 2001 film "The Man Who Wasn't There". Here they give us a more powerful dose. If you've never heard of this principle, don't worry, you can look it up on Wikipedia or you can accept my synopsis of it, which I'll warn you might be flawed because I ain't no physicist:

The Uncertainty Principle (or "Schrödinger's Cat") proves mathematically that certain events are unknowable. It proposes the idea of a cat that might be alive or dead, but we cannot know without looking inside the cage. At the same time, the minute we look inside the cage, the cat will be killed by a toxic gas. The bottom line: we can't know the answer. Ever.

From there, the movie explores how different people react when confronted with the unknown. Some form prejudices. Some fall back on faith. Some become faithLESS. And some just don't care.

This is a beautifully crafted film that shows us the nature of human beings in that respect. No, there's not really a story. But it does even better than that: it challenges our minds to see elements of our own lives within the life of this ordinary schmuck. I am truly amazed at the Coens' accomplishment, and I hope they continue in this direction in the future, though I'm sure it may hurt their mainstream appeal.

If you see this film & like it, I think you'll really enjoy the other films I've listed as well as the Hungarian masterpiece "Werckmeister Harmonies", anything by Wim Wenders ("The End of Violence" touches on the same Uncertainty Principle) and Orson Welles' "The Trial".

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Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

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R - 105 min - Drama, Music - 20 December 2013
Big Blue Sky Rating : 7.2/10

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Director : Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars : Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund

Follow a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles -- some of them of his own making.

Oscar Isaac is Incredible! Coens Best Since 'Fargo'

I am completely smitten. I have long admired Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and what they have offered the realm of cinema. I am in love with "Fargo" still until this day, and they've provided solid efforts on nearly every outing since. Their newest endeavor that focuses on the folk scene in 1961 is an absolute dream. Everything from the impeccable Oscar Isaac to the music that enriches the deepest trenches of the soul, "Inside Llewyn Davis" is one of the best pictures of the year, plain and simple. It's the Coen Brothers finest film since "Fargo."

Our story begins with a folk singer, Llewyn Davis that has continued to pursue a music career in 1961 despite being penniless and lacking any real stability. Migrating from couch to couch, we get a deep look into a character with a dream that just won't die. As he fights for his chance to share his voice with the world, following an unexpected loss of his singing partner, Llewyn is hard to love. He makes poor choices and seems to lack any responsibility in his life. It's a wonderful creation of a character that offers insight into a changing time in our history.

First of all, I can't get the amazing music out of my head. All the songs used are absolutely brilliant. Oscar Isaac's richly matured tone is so soothing and authentic; I'm surprised a music company hasn't nabbed him up to make a record yet. His opening and closing songs are his, as well as the film's, pivotal moments that encapsulate the endearing message and theme. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" and "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" are astonishing records that may not just fall into an Oscar race but a Grammy wouldn't shock me in the least. It has the same magical effect as "Searching for Sugar Man," two films that seemed to capture the innocence and culture of a generation that seems lost. In terms of performance, Isaac is incredible. So raw and genuine, it's one of the year's finest performances by any actor. He has made himself one of the most exciting actors to watch in the coming years. This will lead him into more challenging and accessible roles. This guy could become one of our finest actors in just five years' time. This is something that should land him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. It's very much deserved.

In their respective but short screen times, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Carey Mulligan are all infectious and notable. Goodman plays a character similar to his "Harling Mays" from Robert Zemeckis' "Flight" and makes the most out of his appearance. Mulligan is volatile and I loved every second of her. She brings lots of dark humor and fire to a role that shows the depth of her abilities as an actress who can perform impeccably in any genre. We even get her singing again which had me melt two years ago during her "New York, New York" in Steve McQueen's "Shame." Hedlund comes and goes but makes his mark as he often does.

Justin Timberlake has made a seamless transition from musician to actor and back to musician. Great in roles like "The Social Network" where his star power doesn't distract from the story at hand, in a Coen Brothers film, where he sings (in a very current pop way), he becomes a bit distracting. I was very aware that Timberlake, probably this generation's Michael Jackson, was sharing the screen. More than likely not his fault, it could be a case of being "too big" for your movie.

One thing that the film has taught me…we need to give Adam Driver more movie roles. Timberlake, Isaac, and Driver put their marks on one of the songs "Please Mr. Kennedy," and make it one of the year's most fun and remarkable numbers.

Joel and Ethan Coen continue to show their ranges in directing and writing. Flawlessly executed in character understanding and keeping our story moving. Llewyn Davis is such a complex and interesting man and their screenplay gives Isaac room to breathe and explore the subtle nuances that make his character unique and real. As their alter ego Roderick Jaynes, the film moves like a smooth monorail, hitting all its marks and picking up new and exciting quirks along the way.

An almost silver-green canvas evokes the dark and grey tones of the New York scene in 1961. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel masterfully captures the ticks and beats of Isaac as he sings with heartbreaking emotion and walks through the frigid cold streets. Jess Gonchor's production design places us all in the folk scene, with intimate bar settings, old-time music studios, and even the classic feel of a Greenwich Village apartment building.

CBS Films has a gem on their hands with "Inside Llewyn Davis." A sure- fire Oscar contender in several categories including Best Picture. If there's any justice in the film world, Oscar Isaac would firmly sit near the top of the finest performances of 2013 in Best Actor and nab nearly every award he comes in contact with. "Inside Llewyn Davis" is sensational and an instant classic to be remembered.

Read Oscar Predictions @ The Awards Circuit (http://www.awardscircuit.com)

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True Grit

True Grit (2010)

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PG-13 - 110 min - Adventure, Drama, Western - 22 December 2010
Big Blue Sky Rating : 7.7/10

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Director : Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars : Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.

Print the legend..

Few directors working today in America have mastered form like the Coens, I discover this with every new film they make. True Grit is a commercial film made to please but I don't see a compromise in the making and it's still a distinctly Coen film if you pay notice. Try to take out the Coen character from the film and the film breaks apart, it's that tightly woven in the fabric of it.

A Coen film works for me in the face of it, but I'm always on the lookout for what goes on behind, for the unseen cogs that grind out the fates of their characters. As with No Country, I came to this film looking to see is there a statement on violence, does it happen in a certain way and is the universe indifferent to it, is life worth a damn?

This one here works very much like the Henry Hathaway film from '69, except everyone's better, where John Wayne played a character, Jeff Bridges plays a man, and even Barry Pepper betters my beloved Robert Duvall's turn as Ned Pepper. This probably won't do it for Jeff Bridges because we've been accustomed to expect a certain degree of po-faced seriousness from a great performance (he snarled and staggered in Crazy Heart but he was serious about it), but he's one of the great actors of our times and I find this again in his Rooster Cogburn. Clint Eastwood also fell from a horse in Unforgiven and couldn't shoot a tin can to save his soul, but Munny "was" a scumbag, Cogburn still is and I like that. I like the courtroom scene where it's gradually revealed that he won't only bushwack those he needs to bring to justice, he will lie to make himself out to be the hero.

Another interesting aspect here is how the concept of the gunslinger and the western with it has evolved. When John Wayne played Cogburn in the Hathaway film the reward for the audience was the smirk of watching John Wayne be that drunken failure. The casting mattered in our appreciation. In the remake, most comments seem to point out that it's a fairly traditional/entertaining western. The dastardly revisit of something that was revisionist in the 70's oddly seems to give, in our day, a traditional western. We've been accustomed to heroes who are not heroes, and maybe the erosion of that heroic archetype says something about the way we view the world now, as opposed to 30-40 years ago. Then we were beginning to realize that wars are not gloriously, justly won but survived and endured, now we know there is no clear struggle between dual opposites and have grown disenchanted as that knowledge has failed to prevent the same wars. Now we know there is stuff about the legends that don't make the print, or we are suspicious enough about legends to imagine them.

Is this a traditional western then? Watching True Grit through the eyes of the brass 14yo girl reminded me of Winter's Bone, another film from the same year. In both cases a young girl is determined to plunge herself in a dark world of hurt and walk a path fraught with perils on all sides to achieve a moral purpose, both films maintain an appearance of realism, but what I get from them is a magical fantasy. This becomes more apparent when Mattie falls in the snakepit, but what about the hanged men who are really hanged high? The Hathaway film, ostensibly based on the same material, missed that note and played out a straight western. The Coen film unfolds as a hazy dream of that West. Although I wished for more open landscapes, it makes sense then that film narrows our gaze and clouds the margins. Perhaps we are even seeing the film as Mattie relives the experience in her old age, an affair shaped by memory and time.

This is the marvellous touch effected by the Coens on the material; the minute recreation of the Old West as a historical place and the odd, incongruous moments found within it annihilate any authority over the material.

The epilogue is important in that aspect.

It's not only that Mattie's revenge didn't accomplish anything, that it was for her merely another practical inconvenience to be bargained, paid for, and settled, like her father's ponies and saddle or the service of the US Marshall before, but that she clings to the memory of it so fiercely. What's horrifying then is not so much the violence of the West but the idealization of that violence. The film closes in a time around the turn of the century, people like Cogburn roosted in Wild West shows for a cheering audience, and Mattie is one of the people who lived to tell the tales. Out of those tales, the western of John Ford and Raoul Walsh emerged to print the legend. In a roundabout fantastic way, the Coens give us the true account, the creation myth behind the western.

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