(no subject)

[shadowkat]

I'm trying to watch A Serious Man (Superbowl? What Superbowl? There's a Superbowl on?) and it's putting me to sleep, which I guess is a good thing - since have to go there soon anyhow, having to get up at 6am and all that. Oh look, it's Howard from The Big Bang Theory playing an insightful Rabbi - providing marital advice.

Also apparently there's a Jewish version of a Catholic annulment, called a "ghet", personally I think both are absurd. Call it what it is - a divorce and be done with it.

I think it takes place in either the early 1960s or 1950s. Feels like the 1950s. Also it's reminding me a lot of Breaking Bad, except without the cancer, drugs and violence. So if you want to watch a movie about the disenfranchized American male, this time Jewish, without all that - go rent this movie.

Like most of the Coehn Brothers comedies - it's a satire or send-up of culture. This round Jewish culture. Which I think works better if you understand what they are making fun of and the time period they are sending up. Since, I'm unfamiliar with both - there's a distance between me and the material that makes it difficult for it to hold my attention or pull me in. It is well shot and with an attention to detail like most of their films. But since I don't care about any of the characters I can't quite get pulled into it.

Wait...someone important just died. Whoa.

Hmmm...maybe I should stop this and watch it another night when I'm less sleepy?

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

It follows the Book of Job very closely, and of course a lot of details of Jewish cultural traditions.... Joss had joked that the Coehn Bros had made it for an audience of the Coehn Brothers. But I really loved it (of course I'm a lot older than you and feel more connected to that time period).

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

A ghet actually isn't akin to an anulment. It's a divorce document in which the husband basically frees the wife of all claims he had to her. But it doesn't retroactively undo the existence of the marriage.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I loved that movie, but it does demand attention. There's a very good article on it here (http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/17457/taking-it-seriously/).