A Serious Man
2009 (USA)
Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen
Viewed: October 29, 2009
Format: Theatrical Print (Landmark Tivoli Theater)
Is it even conceivably a coincidence that A Serious Man, which draws more candidly from the autobiographical outlines of Ethan and Joel Coen than any of their films to date, is also one of their most desolate and sobering meditations on human suffering? The film brims with mordant wit and a plethora of grotesque, wretchedly amusing characters, but it doesn’t aspire to be a black comedy-of-errors in the mold of Burn After Reading. Rather, the Coens have delivered a work of spiritual and mortal terror that manages to be both absurd and disquieting, a much closer relation to Barton Fink and No Country For Old Men than any of the brothers’ screwball pleasures. In the hands of the Coens, the tribulations of a Jewish professor in 1967 suburbia become the stuff of hoary musings on misfortune, culpability, and the seeming uncaring cruelty of God. Make no mistake: A Serious Man is a miserable film. It’s also an exquisite example of the Coens’ unparalleled talent for blending the grim and the droll into a bewitching cinematic gestalt.
Paranormal Activity
Zombieland
2008 (France / USA)
2009 (USA)
C+ - Uli Edel’s blood-spattered marathon retelling of the Red Army Faction’s rise and fall succeeds at establishing a fitting mood of social disintegration and open intra-cultural warfare. Feverishly tearing through two decades of history while piling on endless, brutal setpieces, The Baader-Meinhof Complex foregrounds thrills and atmosphere, while neglecting character and context. Writer Bernd Eichinger, who scribed the captivating Downfall, at least acknowledges the notion that the RAF was the ugly endpoint of the post-Nazi generation’s recoil from fascism. The violent radicals depicted in Complex, however, are caricatures of unquenchable rage, not the best proxies for psychological delvings or an exploration of the origins of revolutionary zeal in affluent societies. What Edel delivers is a relentless film that works primarily as grim entertainment, albeit one that non-Germans may have difficult absorbing, as the historical arcana come fast and furious. Yet even as a depiction of revolution as process, Complex falls far short of last year’s mesmerizing Che, which was both more artistically daring and more coherent. While Edel is adept at conjuring the madhouse spirit of the RAF’s murderous glory days, Complex is undemanding globetrotting drama at bottom, a grueling thriller with a dash of chilly Teutonic style.