A Serious Man

BySheikh Javed Mansuri
A Serious Man

This dark comedy from Joel & Ethan Coen is a distillation of some of the duo’s most potent themes. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is our Job figure, a physics professor in suburban Minneapolis who finds his life falling apart both personally and professionally. The principle of uncertainty, introduced early in the film via Schroedinger’s famous cat, becomes a kind of guiding metaphor as Larry navigates the limits of 1960s Jewish faith. Both riotously funny and tempted towards the nihilistic, A Serious Man isn’t ultimately concerned with theodicy or the existence of God; Hashem’s presence is taken for granted. Rather, the question is “What does he want from me?” and even more frighteningly, “Does it really matter?” – Anders Bergstrom (2014)

  1. Directed by: Joel Coen Ethan Coen
  2. Produced by: mDKHWRbK2_Q
  3. Written by: Joel Coen Ethan Coen
  4. Music by: Carter Burwell
  5. Cinematography by: Roger Deakins
  6. Editing by: Ethan Coen Joel Coen
  7. Release Date: 2009
  8. Running Time: 105
  9. Language: English, Yiddish

Arts & Faith Lists:

2020 Top 100 — #68

Similar Posts

  • Bicycle Thieves

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Most everyone has heard of Bicycle Thieves. Even those who have never heard of neorealism. Even those who might not know the name Vittorio De Sica. It is the original film celebrity — famous for being famous. Woody Allen named it one of his five favorite films. Martin Scorsese introduces it for Turner Classic Movies in…

  • Faust

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    A useful starting point when approaching Friedrich Wilhelm (F. W.) Murnau’s Faust is Rembrandt’s 1652 etching of the same name. In it, we see Faust alone in his library, poring through parchments, surrounded on all sides by scientific paraphernalia. But Rembrandt pays little attention to the things in the room and, instead, directs our focus toward Faust’s desperate…

  • The Promise

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Though set in Texas, Tender Mercies is a poignant reflection on experiences and challenges that are universal. It moves unhurriedly through the struggle of a middle-aged man to understand why, even after he seemingly made every effort to ruin his life, God still blessed him. His struggle, like the movie itself, isn’t always pretty or smooth. When…

  • Cave of Forgotten Dreams

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    On a Top 100 list that threatens top-heaviness with clergy, saints, and organized religion, Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a welcome outlier.  Its writer/director, Werner Herzog, professes no interest in God or religion, except as a subject for cultural exploration, a manifestation of our humanity. Yet his films, across a career spanning almost 60 years, are suffused with…

  • The Burmese Harp

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Kon Ichikawa’s deeply humane, spiritually resonant masterpiece is routinely but reductionistically described as “pacifist” or “anti-war.” War, though, is the occasion for the central theme, not the theme itself, which is nothing less than the intractable mystery of suffering and evil, affirmation of spiritual values, and the challenge to live humanely in evil circumstances. Adapted…