A Serious Man (2009)

Larry Gopnick is a schmendrick. He is also a serious man trying to keep his life from spinning out of control. Problem is, one smack upside the head follows another and Larry turns one way and then the other but never quite sees where the last one nor the next one is coming from. A schmendrick. I can identify, a therapist once called me that. What clinches my ability to identify is Larry’s pre Bar Mitzvah pot-sucking son who gets chased home every afternoon after religious school. For me it wasn’t Fagelman trying to collect the $20 I owed him for buds that made me run. It was big, blonde, bue-eyed Mitchell Mason who did it just for fun, and of course because I was obviously Jewish. My guess is for the Coen brothers this stuff also passes for nostalgia. This is a warm-hearted paean to middleclass life lived by typical Jews in the 1967 Midwest, with a lot of accompanying mishegass.

Not that it lacks the characteristic dread and suspense that the brothers are so good at conjuring up. The first scene takes care of that. Some primordial village dwelling predecessor of the Gopnick family encounters what the wife swears is a ghost in the woods. The hapless husband invites the ghost in, he thinks the revered rabbi is alive, she disproves it by sticking an ice pick in the rabbi’s chest. Unfortunately for the couple, eventually he bleeds. What does this scene have to do with the movie? Who knows, it’s the Coen brothers.

Poor Larry, a Physics professor seeking tenure at a Midwestern university, he is beset on all sides. His wife is furious with him for not knowing why she is furious. She takes it out on him by having an affair with Sy Abelman, an unattractive pompous ass. His unemployable eccentric brother lives with them, and his teenage children ignore him except when they need money. One of the members of his tenure committee is receiving anonymous letters accusing Larry of improprieties with coeds. Larry is not a devout man but seeks advice from the town’s rabbis. He wants to know why Hashem (God) has afflicted him. What does he want from him? If this reminds you of the story of Job from the Old Testament you know what kind of answers Larry is likely to find. The three rabbis talk in parables, or they talk about parking lots as a way of explaining the glory of God’s plan.

The casting of Michael Stuhlberg as Larry is brilliant, as is wife Sari Lennick. Familiar faces abound but none have the prominence which would stand out in this fine ensemble. Together they transport you back to a younger time; Jefferson Starship, F Troop on TV, fuzzy reception, and antennas. The film will not go down as the Coen brothers’ finest work but I found it funny and entertaining. Just watch out for that --------- at the end.




A Serious Man. Written by and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Adam (2009)

The range of human emotions in relationships is expansive, for most people. From the very stunted to the exquisitely delivered, the expression of these emotions can be a high wire act for even the most evolved people. How is it for those who lack the sensing/feeling antennas that allows a person to anticipate what the “other” thinks, feels and needs to hear, in communicating emotions? “Adam” is a love story about a young man with Aspergers Syndrome* who has just lost his father. An attractive and friendly young woman, Beth (Rose Byrne) has just moved into the apartment building where Adam (Hugh Dancy) lives. They begin a relationship that develops with fits and starts as he deals with his awkwardness and she learns to accept it.

A sweetness pervades the halting, gentle interaction between the two New Yorkers as they draw closer to one another despite coming from very different backgrounds. Beth is the daughter of a gregarious, successful accountant (Peter Gallagher) and a mother (Amy Irving) who dote on their accomplished daughter. Adam has only a faint memory of his mother and lived with his engineer father in the same apartment all of his life. Beth teaches in an elementary school and wants to create children’s books. He works for a friend of his father who owns a toy story and creates ingenious mechanical toys too expensive for the owner to sell.
Dancy portray’s Adam’s disability as an endearing shyness and his social inadequacy through his inability to look directly at people. However, he has a winning smile and his intelligence and enthusiasm differentiate him from the more severe forms of autism. When Beth first comes into his apartment he shows her the universe, as a planetarium he has created on his ceiling. Adam socializes with difficulty but his enthusiasm for the stars is infectious. Beth knows what she is getting into but lets her heart lead. Adam has never been in love before, only knows what he feels long before he can express it. They come together but are separated by an annoying subplot involving Beth’s parents.

Performances involving mental disabilities are a formidable challenge for any actor. Hugh Dancy plays his role with a deft touch, not overdoing the handicap, nor minimizing the obstacles it creates. As the romance unfolds the audience is reminded that with love all things are possible. It is a hard storyline to reject.

*Asperger Syndrome is named after a Viennese doctor who treated young male patients with, “normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills”. (http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/)

Adam. Written and directed by Max Mayer. Starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Amy Irving, and Peter Gallagher.

Taking Woodstock (2009)

“I came across a child of god he was walking across the road and I stopped to ask him where are you going and he told me.” If you know what he told Joni or if you are old enough to have these lyrics burned into your cerebral cortex than you will love the flashbacks Taking Woodstock evokes. Joni Mitchell and so many other amazing musicians of ‘60s folklore were there, and so were about a million stoned out freaks and fairies. What a three days it was! Waiting to greet the gathering were a few hundred simple folk of the rural upstate New York community. Needless to say, they had no idea that anything could ever make their sleepy home so popular that the New York State Throughway would be closed because of the number of people headed their way. The interaction between the locals and the hippies headed there is depicted with wry humor and warmth by director Ang Lee.

Nostalgia for the uniqueness of the age and the freshness of the music permeates the film. Leonard the 21 year old menschy son of the proprietors of a rundown resort motel attempts to stave off the imminent bankruptcy of his aging immigrant parents. When Leonard hears that a music festival has been banned from a neighboring town he quickly sends an invitation to the producers to come to his sleepy Catskills resort. In short order, a bevy of suited agents and erstwhile rock impresarios pull up in their Lincoln Town cars and strike a deal with Max Yazgar the biggest landowner in the area for the use of his seventy five acres. Leonard realizes the deal is about to transform his world as he is handed thousands of dollars in cash in brown paper bags for the use of his parents’ resort and the construction crews and flower children start pouring in. The locals of the Woodstock area first plot how to profit off of the music festival then watch in horror and amazement as it becomes the iconic cultural event of the rebellious, music-loving era.

As the protagonist of the story Leonard represents the conflicted good son who tries to bridge the generation gap produced by drugs, sex, and Rock and Roll, the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. For many families in the America of the 1960s this was a hopelessly lost cause. Leonard is swept up in the momentousness of the event and feels the stirring of his own desire to break away from his home and hang-ups and join in the pleasures of his contemporaries. Wandering into the festival he meets a couple who invite him into their van where he is introduced to LSD. Needless to say the psychedelic experience is transformative. Leonard leaves the festival having heard little of the music but having seen beautiful visions both real and imaginary. For those people who experienced the age as an awakening to the possibilities of freedom this film is a joyous memory. For those who did not, like the couple who sat next to me all they may see is the soggy mess that was left behind, not three days of peace and love, the ideal of a generation.

Taking Woodstock. Directed by Ang Lee, written by James Schamus. Starring Dimitri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Stauton, Emile Hirsch

The Hurt Locker (2008)

By 2004 the Bush administration had turned a successful invasion/liberation of Iraq into a deadly insurgency. The US army of occupation under appointed “Pro-consul” Paul Bremer failed to show any intention of turning self-government over to the Iraqis or even an interest in turning the electricity back on. Terrorists haunted the streets of Bagdad and their weapon de jour is the IED, a bomb hidden in the roadsides and streets. The pivotal unit in the US forces countering this weapon is a three man team whose job it is to find and disarm these explosives. Instantly, the viewer is immersed in this operation and watches as the close-knit team loses its confident, veteran diffuser (Guy Pierce) to a deadly explosion in the very first scene. Welcome to the Hurt Locker.

The Hurt Locker has little discernible plot beyond the exquisitely realistic depiction of several days in the life of one of these three men teams. The daily routine involves patrols into areas of Bagdad that are identified as suspect by advanced marine units. The three man team we know from the opening scene now has a new diffuser, James. The team moves in and James dons the heavy uniform that makes him look like a ’60s era astronaut and the deadly game begins. One member of the unit provides cover, the second communicates with the diffuser, whose job it is to do his work under the watchful eyes of Iraqis, any one of whom can detonate a bomb by hitting a button on a cell phone. In one scene James (Jeremy Renner) discovers half a dozen bombs intricately interconnected and hidden in the trunk of a car. His response is to back away from the car, take off the useless suit, and go about his work. When the unit coordinator tries to communicate with James to tell him the job is too dangerous and to pull back James throws his earphones to the ground in frustration. Then he methodically disarms the six bombs and smiles as he finishes the job.

What makes such a man tick? How does he and the rest of the team function under the unremitting pressure? Sanborn (the command leader) played by Anthony Mackie hints at the answer when he socks James in the jaw for the violation of orders. He doesn’t want to get killed because of recklessness, nor does Eldridge the cover man, played by Brian Geraghty, who is counseled by a medic daily for his fear. Only James seems to have reconciled himself to the possibility of death as if it is a partner in a dance which entrances him.

No one can really know war unless they have participated in it. However, producer and director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, depict the Iraq war with an intensity that radiates with the heat of a desert patrol on a 120 degree day. The viewer knows that the film has elevated his/her understanding of the existential nature of war, an enervating and terrifying experience like no other.

The Hurt Locker. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Writen by Mark Boal. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty.

Funny People?? (2009)

Pardon the sarcasm so early in the review but the movie is about being “star struck in LA” if nothing else. After knocking out consecutive comedy hits, “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and Knocked Up”, Apatow over-reaches himself with a two and a half hour comedy/drama/family portrait epic that had me questioning his intentions and the premise of the movie, are these people really funny? Adam Sandler certainly can be but his performances often reflect juvenile humor featuring cock, cunt, and can’t get any jokes. That seems to be the staple of jaded comedian George Simmons’ shows and they have brought him fame, fortune and boredom. He lives alone in a Hollywood mansion reflecting on the outrageous material success he has achieved juxtaposed with the emotional emptiness of his loveless life. Into this Hollywood cliché enters the Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment) dilemma, a fatal illness that causes the protagonist to reassess everything.

George does this by reviving his stand-up comedy career and hiring a struggling young comedian, Ira Wright (Rogin) as his personal assistant, joke writer and whipping boy. Ira plays the young guileless foil to the depressed George’s existential mid-life crisis. George does somber stand-up hinting at the futility of life and Ira tries to lighten him up with mediocre material. They banter quite a bit, mostly Sandler ridiculing Ira for his naivete and futility with women. How much of this is funny? Not enough if you laughed a lot at Apatow’s earlier movies.

Where things really go off Is when George re-ignite his relationship with his one true love, Lesley Mann who happens to be Apatow’s real life wife. She is married now and only agrees to see George when he hints about the seriousness of his illness. Sandler confesses his anguish at losing her and she acknowledges that he was always the one for her. George and Ira wind up driving to Marin county and getting enmeshed in her family while the traveling husband played by Eric Bana is away. Her family includes two young daughters played by Mann and Apatow’s two young daughters. The scenario take’s an awkward but not particularly funny turn upon the husband’s unexpected return and then continues far too long. Seeing home movies of the couple’s daughter convinces me there is too much Apatow and not enough entertainment to warrant either the hype or length of this project. I say back to hair removal and uncomplicated outrageous comedy in the next one.

“Funny People?” Written and directed by Judd Apatow starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogin, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Maude and Iris Apatow, numerous cameos by famous and semi-famous personalities such as Eminem, RZA, Azi Anzari and others, not to mention James Taylor(Bruuuuce’s people declined).