You ask yourself, “Do I deserve all of these?”

A Serious Man (2009)
Written, Produced, Directed by: Coen Brothers


You follow all the rules laid out by elders before you. You think living should be easy when you stick to the teachings of your religion of your belief. You know that God should pave a beautiful life when you follow His teachings. You think you made it when all these are followed and you are in the upper crust of society. Then it hits you; one malady after another - people whom you are under your wings are beyond control; values that you taught to your offsprings go to the drain; the humility that you think is a virtuous trait that makes a man is taken advantage of; you lose grip on the things you hold dear and then you start questioning, “Why God, why are doing this to me? Have I not followed all your guidance?”

Professor Larry Gopnik thought he had a leash on everything in life, just like his ability to explain mind boggling equations in physics and to solve the equation of uncertainty! Almost overnight, everything crumbles. His wife wants a divorce to marry his friend. His student tries to bribe him for better grades but instead accused him of lying and threatens to sue for slander when he reports. There is no peace in the house as his two kids are forever fighting.  His son has his own set of problems in school. He is experimenting with dope. His daughter is pilfering money from wallet to get a nose job. Larry’s brother who bunked in turns out to take permanent residence in his house. He is engulfed in his own world and the police walk in when he gets involved in gambling. Larry also has to babysit him to give emotional support. He fears his hostile neighbour may be an aggressive anti-Semantic as Larry is a Jew. His tenure at the university may not be renewed. He gets into a nasty accident. His wife’s soon-to-be new husband too gets involved in another accident but dies! Larry also has to support his funeral arrangements. He realises that his finances are low as his wife had been withdrawing on the sly from their joint account. He seeks religious solace from people of high standings in the temple to rectify the matter. Unfortunately, they are all withdrawn from reality. They talk in riddles, probably not knowing the answers themselves! What he gets instead is a runaround.

There is plenty of temptation to stray from the path but he stays steadfast to his ways. Somehow, everything seems to fall into place after his son’s religious initiation, the bar mitzvah. His tenure gets renewed. But wait, is it all really all right? He gets a call from the hospital asking him to come in urgently to discuss his recent Xray....

At one point in everybody’s life, he is bound to question the meaning of it all. When the tide is low, he may ask whether his Maker had abandoned him. He will seek explanations as he always does in the hope of rectifying the shortcomings as most problems in the world can be solved if the cause is found. He would soon realise that all his pondering does not yield any answers but instead more questions. People will give tangential responses. They would say that He will overcome. At the end of the day, you get by, coming in term with the predicament. You would interpret an individual event as a favourable, renew your faith and carry on with life.

Not just a barber

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Written: Coen Brothers; Direction:Joel Coen

Another quirky movie from the Coen brothers, only, this time, it in black and white. The trademark is their story is written all over. It is a story set in the late 1940s of a small town barber who is a loser, who does not say much but does all his talking in soliloquy. He is so withdrawn and is living in his world, still trying to make out the meaning of life right till the end of the movie. (Spoiler Alert!) At the end of the film, as he sits in the electric chair, he hopes that his uncertainties would all be answered in the afterlife, he hopes, if there is one!

Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), the chain-smoking barber, like he says, “is just a barber” who works as an assistant to his brother-in-law. His wife, Doris, is a book-keeper who has an illicit affair with her boss. A mysterious customer hoodwinks the gullible Ed into investing $10,000 in a dry cleaning business venture. To procure the cash, he blackmails Doris’ boss (Ed knows about the affair) and successfully signs the deal.

The boss, after a showdown with Ed, is fatally wounded. Somehow, Doris is implicated when she is accused of cooking up the books for the boss to pay the ransom. Now, Ed has to hire an expensive attorney, with the help of his brother-in-law, to defend Doris. Just as the trial dates get near, Doris commits suicide!

Life goes on. Ed runs the barber shop as his brother-in-law buries his sorrows in the bottle. Ed’s life gets complicated when he gets involved in an accident and is accused of killing the earlier conman (of the dry cleaning business)! I guess poetic justice was served.

Memorable quote:

The final soliloquy (as he is strapped on the electric chair) 

I don't know where I'm being taken. I don't know what waits for me beyond the earth and sky. Maybe the things I don't understand will be clearer there, like when a fog blows away. Maybe Doris will be there, and maybe there I can tell her all those things they don't have words for here.

The lawyer, creating the element of doubt,

The more you look, the less you really know.

Quirky one..

Barton Fink (1991)
Written, Directed by Coen Brothers

Another quirky unconventional movie which escapes any genre by the Coen brothers. It is supposed to a satire of some kind which unfortunately passed me by. My research shows that it a swipe at the politicians, Nazi, showbiz and the religious institutions. Some of the symbolisms and metaphors it refers to remain left in viewers' discretion.

Barton Fink is a successful playwright who just feels unhappy with life who yearns to hit it big in Hollywood. He gets a stint to write a screenplay in LA. The story, in essence, is about his misadventure getting things written on paper.

Fink, stuck in a strange hotel with strange staff and next door neighbour, an insurance agent who is actually a serial killer. Having writer's block, he wonders around meeting other successful screenwriters. He befriends one's secretary and hold behold she is stabbed.

Barton's neighbour (John Goodman) helps him out and puts him back on his train of thought.

Not your usual fare...

A quirky dark comedy

Fargo (1996)
Story, Production, Direction: Joel and Ethan Coen

Homespun murder story on embroidery frame?
Get the punch line?

This movie can be said the most successful one coming from the Coen brothers with their special brand of quirky dark comedy. They start the film with a caption with says...

"This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."

At the end of the credits, however, the usual inter-title claiming that the characters are all fictitious still appears. Now which is which?

It is set in dead cold winters of Minnesota. People who are native to Minnesota who are well versed with the Minnesota accents will appreciate the sing-song nature of their speech. The film goes at length to poke fun at their accent and some mannerism which sounds more like Swede or Norwegian - with the yaahs...

Along the way, you also notice the subtle jibes towards modern living where people are eating all the time and people tend to go agape over food that look so gross and unappetising!

The story is essentially about a docile car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), gets into money trouble after some bad investments. Even though he is a manager, the business belongs to his domineering father-in-law who thinks that his son-in-law is good for nothing! Jerry hires a duo of bungling gangsters from the neighbouring town of Fargo to kidnap his insecure wife to ease his financial woes.
The brutal gangsters leave a trail of destruction and dead bodies, including a policeman.

In comes an almost fully pregnant investigating police officer, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand who went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress), to the fore.
William H. Macy gives a sterling performance as a domesticated son-in-law who tries to cover up his deficiencies and his crime at the same time tries unsuccessfully to deal with the ruthless hoodlums.

The joy in watching the movie is not guessing the outcome of the story as it quite predictable but in the subtle jokes can be seen 'in between the lines'.

Folk music galore

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Written and Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen

The Coen brothers are known to have made many quirky movies with plenty of toilet humour which may satisfy the need of most movie buffs. This particular offering seem to stray from their usual fare but ended up as a dark biography of a folk singer.
It takes a certain kind of madness to be able to repeatedly withstand the frequent hard knocks of life and still hold steadfast to your belief that you may indeed change the world one day. Most would follow the path of least resistance and the path frequently travelled on, especially when you next meal is a question mark.
I suppose that is the difference between a socialist state than one that does not compensate for their jobless citizens. In a social state, the country at least takes care of their basic needs whilst the individual can dwell into non-rewarding careers like developing the arts, music and talent. In a country like us, artistes have to kowtow to capitalistic businessmen who will showcase them under their CSR or be lapdogs to conniving politicians who would promise the moon and the stars only until their own interest is fulfilled.
'Inside Llewyn Davies' is the story of a chapter in the life of a struggling folk musician who is putting the pieces of his life together after the loss of singing partner who committed suicide and the poor reception to his music. It is set in 1961 in Greenwich Village, New York.
He gets by playing sporadically at small gigs without little money to go around. He bunks in with acquaintances and friends. The sales of his only record is dismal and the small record label manager that is managing seems not interested in expanding the sales and his career.
Meanwhile, Davies' friend's wife is pregnant by him and he has to sort that out. That is when he discovered that his previous girlfriend did not terminate her pregnancy as they had planned and decided to keep his baby. Than there is a cat of a friend who is stuck with him.
He decided to take a ride to Chicago to see a record label there only to be told that he is not good. Our hero also thinks too highly of himself, refusing to be part of a trio or duo.
He also issues with his father and his sister. In summary, he is a big mess and live does not seem to change for the better. An interesting scene towards the end of the film sees an apparently young unknown Bob Dylan trying a gig at the place he sings, Gaslight Cafe.
The music is quite mesmerising and the story is pretty absorbing. 4/5.