Comments on: Weekend Box Office: Boring “Wild Things” & “Game,” Pointless, Gory “Law-Abiding,” Anti-Semitic “Serious,” Rerun “Stepdad”

By: dvds: March 02 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud…

dvds: March 02 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud… — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:42:59 +0000

[...] Reviews: Carl Kozlowski at Big Hollywood Debbie Schlussel Christian Toto Kurt Loder parcbench John Boot movieguide.org Christian [...]

By: dvds: February 16 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud…

dvds: February 16 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud… — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:06:04 +0000

[...] Reviews: from Kyle Smith from Debbie Schlussel from [...]

By: Oh, The Movies I Gotta Destroy

Oh, The Movies I Gotta Destroy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:30:09 +0000

[...] perfectly good copies of Warner Brothers’ “The Blind Side” (read my review) and “Where the Wild Things Are” (read my review), two movies I didn’t particularly like, one of which only debuted in theaters on Friday. I [...]

By: patrick luna

patrick luna — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:00:22 +0000

Debbie,

I love you, you’re fabulous. Yes, you look pretty cute in the photo above, but I have never seen you or read your reviews before…it is your honesty, from the LeBron fiasco(where Drew can never be spelled an un-ebonics way)to the oh-so self-deprecating style of the Coens that keeps them
“cutting edge,” to the fact that Where the Wild Are really wasn’t so wild and marvelous. You’re right…but you know what?
Watch Death Wish again (one, two, three or whatever):it wasn’t very good either -even back then.

By: ExJew

ExJew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:10:09 +0000

I disagree, as an atheist who thinks of himself as a “cultural jew,” with your assessment of “A Serious Man” as Anti-Semetic. Jews have a long history of self-degrading humor, and A Serious Man falls into that tradition. Often, it was a survival technique used to cope with the horrors of everyday existence. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when you consider that openly mocking their oppressors could lead to sever punishment. Now it is an integral part of our tradition, from the Jew-Chasing festival in the Orthodox Sacha Baron Cohen to traditional jokes whose creators are long forgotten. Some are made uncomfortable by this mocking. You may be one of them, but it’s no excuse to dismiss the Coens as self hating Jews.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:19:12 +0000

You are not wrong with your characterization of the Coens, and I say this from direct personal experience. I grew up in Lexington, MA literally across the street from their aunt (their mother’s sister) and uncle. Their first cousin has been among my closest friends from the time we were small children, and remains so today as we both turn 49 this month, and my own first cousin was Joel’s classmate at NYU film school, and so I had a few interactions with them before the Coens put their family in their rearview mirror.

The Coens are talented, but more than anything else, they are immature. Like so many of their ilk, they are desparate for validation as not just great moviemakers but great intellectuals; in point of fact, to be considered by whom they see as their peers as “serious men.” Much as they try, however, they have nothing truly profound to say. Their movies are well-made and often amusing, but essentially all fall into two categories: the screwball character study (e.g., Barton Fink and the Hudsucker Proxy), and the violent yet screwball-comic chase movie (from Blood Simple to Fargo to No Country for Old Men). The Oscar is now their curse, because to get what they really yearn for, they will need to top “No Country …” with something more substantial, and in my estimation they lack the intellectual candlepower (and, thinking about Barton Fink here, I suspect they fear the same thing, too). Picking on their own father and mother (may she rest in peace) strikes me as an act of desparation; having no actual insight into much beyond themselves, they went with what was easiest. I agree with your analysis, they failed miserably, in more ways than one.

Thus, while the self-hatred of and malign towards Jews in this film is evident, I see more of the Coens personal self-hatred than anything else.

Love the site, Debbie

By: saveher

saveher — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:33:24 +0000

Well, like the sitcoms on TV, the writers for the movies today seem to all be videogame enthusiasts with the scattershot, unfocused imaginations of teenagers who never grew up. Movies don’t have messages anymore. They’re only made to make money for special effects people and overpayed move stars, producers and directors. My question is HOW exactly DO they make money? Usually any movie you go to see nowadays is sparsley attended. When will reality catch up with the money train?

By: mr. smart guy

mr. smart guy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:52:13 +0000

I am not going to see ‘Wild Things’, but not because of your review. While the book was a fun kid’s fantasy, and the movie was promoted as such, it lost me when Maurice Sendak, the book’s author who worked closely with the filmmakers, told parents wondering if the film would be too scary for their children to “go to hell”.

By: Gary Rosen

Gary Rosen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:59:24 +0000

“Moe, Larry, and Shemp would have more class than most of the low grades performing today.”

Yes, even without Curly!

By: Douglas Q

Douglas Q — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:56:07 +0000

Maybe I’m off, but until this review of “A Serious Man” the fact that the Coens are Jewish hadn’t occured to me. They’ve made some great films, and more good ones than bad.
I would pass on this movie even without the “plus one arafat” rating. (sidenote-Wow!) I only saw their last few movies when friends loaned them to me. While they may be good craftasmen, their movies always seem a bit cold, their characters almost too reserved, standoffish, to touch my heart. It just occured to me that I don’t have a single movie of theirs in my collection.
Maybe I’ll buy “Raising Arizona”