Review of A Serious Man (2009) by Rameshkumar T — 25 Mar 2012

The Coens make a different kind of movie. In 2009, they released this small-town-Jewish-American-in-the-1960s movie, which on the outside (and even to a certain degree while viewing it) seems weirdly irrelevant: it has nothing to do with the modern American culture or crisis, and it isn't a vehicle for escapism.

So to that point, it feels like something the Coens looked at while deciding what to do next, and said, "Shit, I can't really think of anything else, we might as well make this movie." But even at that, it has the level of professional filmmaking and hey-isn't-life-fucking-crazy that you get from every Coens brothers movie.

It isn't life-changing, and in the wake of all their other work, doesn't even seem poignant, but it's a rather fun B-side to their best work -- another good movie on the shelf of a career full of good or better movies.