alishakeri-44280 I tried a lot to not sleep, but I failed after one hour. What was that stupid schroedinger's cat thing?Three stars just for Michael Stuhlbarg act.

erosthanatosfilms What could be said about this film that hasn't been poured over by film geeks already? The absurdist humor that fills each scene serves as a double for the exploration of life as a whole. After an interesting, albeit unrelated prologue we are introduced to a protagonist whose life is soon to be turned upside down when his wife asks for a divorce, both legally and religiously, so that she may marry a man whom with she may or may not be having an affair. He's up for tenure and the review board is receiving obscene letters in an attempt to damage his character. There's many factors at play, slowly working on him that act as cathartic humor to release the tensions of our own existential angst by seeing someone else go through all of the worst first world problems that a middle aged white man could go through in a lifetime. Definitely a must see for anyone that enjoys laughing at uncomfortable situations.

ravitchn This movie is a wonderful assessment of the defunct quality of American Judaism in the current period, or the last half century. Larry Gopnik, for reasons I cannot see, seems inclined to want to understand his dilemmas and woes, as well as his successes, as the work of God, calling Him by the orthodox Jewish evasion Ha Shem (the Name). Trying to do this he encounters Jews, both rabbis and ordinary Jews, who give him Jewish answers to his questions, answers which have been unsatisfactory since the writing of the Book of Job many centuries ago. The rabbis are evasive, superficially knowledgeable, self-righteous, and in general ridiculous. The ending, which I will not reveal, is pure Coen Brothers: sardonic and outrageously true.The Jews portrayed could be considered anti-semitic caricature: all have big noses, loud voices, unpleasant expressions, etc. But the Coen Bros. are Jewish and know the tribe pretty well. The only Jew in the whole movie who comes out looking good is the old bearded rabbi Marshak. The start of the movie, in some Galician shtetl, is funny but misleading. The Yiddish spoken there is the Galizianer type which is very different from the Yiddish of the much more educated Litvaks in pre-Hitler Europe. I doubt many who even know Yiddish would understand it, but there are subtitles.In short not a happy movie but one which Jews need to take seriously lest they pretend their obsolete religion can have any relevance today. Christianity is just as irrelevant but in different ways.

peterm1 It kind of cracks me up when I read people saying they do not understand this movie and that makes it a bad movie. (People today love simplistic answers - even if they are wrong. It is much more reassuring that having to think). In this case at least isn't this the point though? Life IS like that. The core of the movie seems to be about the inscrutability of the universe and of God's purpose. Or is there a God? It does not ask this question outright - but it is hanging there. Together with the question we all have - we are convinced there must be an answer to - what is OUR purpose? Poor old Larry Gubnik, always being a serious man. Always doing what's right and in return being served up a big steaming pile of drek. Seeking answers from God (or the Rabbi) and getting nonsense - or getting no answer at all. Very dark. But I have been there myself at times in my life when all of my plans have been crapped upon by the universe - trying the same things Larry tried, asking the same questions Larry asked but - Silence. So I get it. I get what Larry is going through. And of course some reviewers have pointed out the similarities to the biblical story of Job. But did anyone else pick up the symbolism in the movie of Larry, up on the roof, twisting the TV antenna to get a better reception - a message from the ether? When this is also exactly the theme of the movie. Poor old Larry cannot even get "F Troop" clearly. How can he expect to get a clear message from God. This was not a coincidence, folks. Those sneeky Coen brothers!The movie also raises issues many Jews specifically have had to ask themselves in the face of say, writ large, the holocaust. Jews confronted by outright malice and evil or by just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time ask themselves that eternal question. If there is a God, why does he let bad things happen. For some this was the trigger to turn off religion. For others it strengthened their faith somehow. So at another level the movie is about what is it about to be a Jew and to ask yourself the same questions that Jews have asked themselves down the ages. In this case "What's going on?" as the Coen's express it.Also I have a sneeky feeling this movie is also biographical in a way. The Coens grew up in the twin cities area of USA in the 1960s I have read. They would have been Bar Mitvah'd in a synagogue much like the one depicted and the Jewish characters would have been much like those depicted too. The life questions they may have asked themselves as they became adults would have been much like those asked in the movie and even if all the bad stuff did not happen to them personally they may well have feared it would - will I get an urgent call from my doctor about a routine xray? Will my kid's Bar Mitzvah go OK. Will my wife run off with another man, taking everything I have including my family, self respect and my understanding of who I am? In other words perhaps all the normal stuff of life. But written in bold type both because us Jews are a neurotic bunch and because it is damn good material for black comedy. As Woody Allen found out before them.But of course the Coens would not have gotten any answers to these questions just as Larry did not. Silence. Zip. Bupkis. But there is one thing I learned that life taught me and maybe this is part of the message too. Nice guys too often DO finish last. If you are too nice, too compliant, too good, people will take advantage and crap on you. And maybe the universe does too, although in its case, not because it is malicious, but rather, just uncaring. And that is a lesson poor old Larry never learned.