A Serious Man (2009): A film that could have only been made by the Coen brothers. It has such a Barton Fink like quality that I was really surprised that John Turturro was not a part of it. Larry Gopnik (Michale Stuhlbarg) is a mathematics professor that has a plate full of problems. His wife wants a divorce, his daughter is stealing from him, his son is a pothead, and he is being blackmailed by people who clearly don't understand the first thing about how blackmail actually works.
Throughout the course of the film Larry visits three different rabbis trying to discover why his life is falling apart. The only information he gets is how wonderful a parking lot can be, a story about a Hebrew message on the back of some random guy's teeth, and that a Jefferson Airplane loving elder is too busy 'thinking' to even meet with the poor guy. On top of all this he has to help out his socially inept brother, spend time with his wife's uncomfortably pleasant new boyfriend, and is constantly harassed by Columbia's record club.
Like most Coen films the whole experience is an odd yet fascinating one. It is constantly dark, depressing, and spiked with moments of dry humor. I loved that even when things seemed to be turning around the film ends on such a haunting and uncertain note. By the film's conclusion you may ask yourself: "What does it all mean?" Please, accept the mystery. A-
The World According to Garp (1982): Garp's world is a strange one indeed. It's full of disturbing sexual exploits, airplane related disasters, and even an instance of dog biting man and man biting back. Garp (Robin Williams) was conceived when his ultra feminist mother (Glenn Close in her first and one of her finest performances) took advantage of an invalid soldier who died shortly after.
As Garp grows up his life becomes a hodgepodge of success and failure. He becomes an excellent writer forced to live in his mother's shadow when she decides to become a writer at the same time. His books are better, but hers are more successful simply because they are timely and marketable. He wins the affections of his dream girl (Mary Beth Hurt), and when they have two children Garp couldn't be happier as a father. Then infidelity and a freak accident are thrown into the mix resulting in death, partial blindness, neck braces, jaws wired shut, and an act of fellatio that ends in the worst way possible. There is also the ex-NFL receiver turned transsexual (John Lithgow) that Garp and his family remain close with over the years.
One of my favorite directors George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot) has made a film that knows hows to balance the bizzare, the humorous, and the melodramatic occasionally all in the same breath. A-
I'll end this with a quote by Kyle Broflovski of South Park with his thoughts on the subject: "Job has all his children killed, and Michael Bay gets to keep making movies. God doesn't exist" Funny and blasphemous to be sure, but it certainly does make one think.
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