A Serious Man

Being that the Coen brothers are by-far my favorite contemporary film makers, this opinion is just a bit biased: their new film "A Serious Man" looks awesome.

Here's the trailer:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/check-out-the-trailer-for-the-coens-a-serious-man,31054/

Lazy-length movie review: "Burn After Reading"

I finally got this in from Netflix this week, and immediately added it to #3 on the 2008 roundup blog.

It makes the year in film look a little bit better.

While watching "Burn After Reading," I couldn't help but think of the character in "Rounders" who said "If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker."

That quote applies to all the idiots wheeling and dealing for a piece of questionably important intelligence, lost by John Malcovich's low-level CIA data analyst in "Burn After Reading."

But the quote might also apply to the members of its audience still waiting for the "jokes" to start as the credits began to roll. In other words, chances are you're one of the crass Americans being satirized. The Coens find the dumb in all of us, not just the crowds that flocked to "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." I'm alright with that, and then again, not everyone has the same sense of humor. People do stupid things, and the Coens have made a career of writing and filming dumb people executing extraordinarily dim-witted plans that eventually lead to their own demise.

"Burn After Reading" is funny as hell. The humor is at times as painfully black-hole biting as the Coens' darkest work, and absurd as their lightest. All of the main characters think they are sharks in a tiny pond, unaware that the pond is actually a fishbowl sitting on the desk of an indifferent owner. Brad Pitt goofs it up as a dorky physical trainer at a suburban gym, Francis McDormand plays a knuckleheaded middle-aged women who will do anything for plastic surgery, George Clooney completes his "idiot trilogy" with the Coens as a sex-addicted glorified security guard for the U.S. Treasury Department, and Malkovich is a pretentious wannabe sophisticate with delusions of grandeur. It's all way more fun than it sounds — and as one of the few sane characters says while trying to find out what all the fuss is about "they're all sleeping together."

By films end, the Coens include a few scenes of ultra violence and its near-subtle social commentary, but they never pose in political stances other than showing how mindless and inevitable violence has become in America and how little any of it makes sense.

Grade (I don't think I've kept the same scale yet): 86/100

A film (or more) for every year

I can't help myself, I had to do a list for movies also. I'll probably keep updating it as my mind changes, or remember things I forgot. The first listed under each year is my favorite, and then the others are runner ups.

1985 Back to the Future
Classics often ignored - Better off Dead, Brazil

1986 Ferris Bueler's Day Off
Stand By Me
Aliens
Platoon
Classic often ignored - Blue Velvet

1987 Full Metal Jacket
The Princes Bride
Raising Arizona
The Untouchables
Robocop
Spaceballs
Lethal Weapon

1988 Die Hard
Big

1989 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Major League
Batman

1990 Goodfellas
Miller's Crossing
Total Recall
Home Alone
Edward Scissorhands
Classic often ignored - Wild at Heart

1991 Terminator 2
Barton Fink
Slience of the Lambs
Cape Fear


1992 Reservoir Dogs
Wayne's World
Alladin

1993 Nightmare Before Christmas
Jurassic Park
Groundhog Day
Classic often ignored - True Romance

1994 Pulp Fiction
Shawshank Redemption
The Professional
Classic often ignored - Ed Wood

1995 Se7en
The Usual Suspects
Get Shorty
Toy Story

1996 Fargo
Trainspotting

1997 L.A. Confidential
Jackie Brown
Boogie Nights
Austin Powers
Goodwill Hunting
Lost Highway

1998 The Big Lebowski
Saving Private Ryan
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Dark City
American History X

1999 The Matrix
Office Space
Fight Club
Being John Malkovich
Magnolia
American Beauty
Classics often ignored - Eyes Wide Shut, Election

2000 O brother, Where Art Thou?
High Fidelity
Reqium for a Dream
Classic often ignored - American Psycho


2001 Memento
Mulholland Drive
Donnie Darko
Royal Tenenbaums
Classic often ignored - Ghost World

2002 The Pianist
Adaptation
City of God

2003 American Splendor
21 Grams

2004 Oldboy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Incredibles
Mean Girls


2005 A History of Violence
Capote
The 40-Year-Old Virgin

2006 Pans Labyrinth
The Prestige
Little Miss Sunshine
V for vendetta
Borat
Classic often ignored - Children of Men

2007 No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
Ratatouille
Superbad

2008 The Dark Knight
In Bruges