Weekend Movie Forecast: A Serious Man or The Invention of Lying

Published October 2, 2009

Modified October 2, 2009

The Coen brothers' latest, A Serious Man, tells the story "of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him." Most critics are seriously digging it, and David Edelstein at New York writes, "The fourteenth feature of Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man is the first that seems vaguely personal, which means just outside their ultracontrolled comfort zone: I got the feeling they had little idea what they would end up with when they sat down to write. Is it a comedy? A tragedy? Itâs right on the border, a broad Jewish joke that morphs into a jeremiad, a tale of woeâthat keeps you wondering if the punch line, when it comes, will make you laugh or want to kill yourself, or both."A Serious Man is not only hauntingly original, itâs the final piece of the puzzle that is the Coens. Combine suburban alienation, philosophical inquiry, moral seriousness, a mixture of respect for and utter indifference to Torah, and, finally, a ton of dope, and you get one of the most remarkable oeuvres in modern film." — <p>The Coen brothers' latest, <em>A Serious Man</em>, tells the story "of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him." Most critics are seriously digging it, and David Edelstein at <em>New York</em> <a href="http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/59466/">writes</a>, "The fourteenth feature of Joel and Ethan Coen, <em>A Serious Man </em>is the first that seems vaguely personal, which means just outside their ultracontrolled comfort zone: I got the feeling they had little idea what they would end up with when they sat down to write. Is it a comedy? A tragedy? Itâs right on the border, a broad Jewish joke that morphs into a jeremiad, a tale of woeâthat keeps you wondering if the punch line, when it comes, will make you laugh or want to kill yourself, or both.</p><p></p>"<em><strong>A Serious Man</strong></em> is not only hauntingly original, itâs the final piece of the puzzle that is the Coens. Combine suburban alienation, philosophical inquiry, moral seriousness, a mixture of respect for and utter indifference to Torah, and, finally, a ton of dope, and you get one of the most remarkable oeuvres in modern film."
Gothamist

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include The Invention of Lying, Whip It, Zombieland, After the Storm, Afterschool, An American Journey: Revisiting Robert Frank’s "The Americans", Chelsea on the Rocks, More Than a Game, Where is Where?, The Wiz, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.