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“A Serious Man” A Serious Film
Nov 5th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
A Serious Film
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A SERIOUS MAN is the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who write their films together, direct them together, edit them together, and finally share their awards together, which this film is likely to win more for them.
Ostensibly it is a comedy, because it contains many laughs even into the closing credits, but it also contains serious themes that can cause the audience to think about it long after the last laugh has burst forth.
After all, any film that mentions quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and Schroedinger’s cat, as well as has its basis in the Book of Job from the Bible can’t be all comedy.
The story takes place in 1967 in a suburb of Minneapolis, and it is about the life and hardships of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a local college.
Everything seems to be going just fine in Larry’s life, until one day from out of the blue his wife, Judith, tells Larry that she has been seeing one of Larry’s friends, Sy Ableman, and she says, “In short, I think it’s about time that we started talking about a divorce.”
Larry is stunned, especially about the part that Judith would be romantically involved with Sy Ableman, who even comes over to the house to talk to Larry in his unctuous manner.
Then everything that Larry thought was one way turns out to be another.
Larry is asked to move out of his own home and to stay at the Jolly Roger Motel, which he does.
He is being considered for tenure at the college where he teaches, and he keeps getting regular updates from the head of the tenure committee, but whereas the updates were favorable at first, eventually they become worse and worse.
One of Larry’s students appears to have offered a bribe of substantial money in exchange for a better grade in the class.
Larry’s teenage son and teenage daughter are constantly complaining to Larry about what he considers to be trivial matters.
Larry seeks the counsel of one local rabbi after another, but gets no help whatsoever.
And to top it all off, Larry keeps getting called by a representative of the Columbia Record Club about payment for records Larry never ordered or received.
A SERIOUS MAN is a serious film disguised as a comedy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
A Serious Man – Movie Trailer
Oct 20th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
Filmmaking duo Joel and Ethan Coen write, produce, and direct this period black comedy set in 1967 concerning a Midwestern physics professor whose staid and stable life slowly begins to unravel after his wife announces that she’s leaving him. As if the failure of his longtime marriage wasn’t enough for Larry Gopnik (Tony-nominated Michael Stuhlbarg) to contend with, now his socially inept brother refuses to move out of the house as well. Larry is a modest man of science. Up to this point, his life has been uneventful at best, but things are about to get interesting. When his wife, Judith, announces that she is leaving him to move in with his smug colleague Sy Ableman, Larry does his best to contend with his failed marriage while barely tolerating his unemployable brother, Arthur, who appears to have grown roots on Larry’s couch. Meanwhile, Larry’s son, Danny, is getting into trouble at Hebrew school, and his daughter, Sarah, is stealthily snatching money from his wallet so she can afford a nose job. As Judith and Sy merrily begin making plans for their new life of domestic bliss together, Larry begins receiving a series of anonymous letters from someone who seems intent on sabotaging his chance for tenure at the university. To further complicate matters, a graduate student with failing grades is attempting to bribe the professor while simultaneously threatening him with a defamation lawsuit. Larry is in some serious need of equilibrium, though it’s hard to focus on getting your life in order when your beautiful neighbor insists on sunbathing in the nude just outside your window. Perhaps by seeking the advice of three trusted rabbis, Larry can finally learn to cope with his afflictions and become a genuine mensch. A Serious Man is the second in a two-picture deal that the siblings made with Focus Features and Working Title. The first film in the deal, entitled Burn After Reading and starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Frances McDormand, was released nationwide in September 2008.
“Surrogates” Derivatives
Sep 30th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
Derivatives
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SURROGATES is a classy looking science-fiction thriller starring Bruce Willis, and the first thing you are going to notice is all the weird-looking blond hair he has.
No, wait! That isn’t Willis’s character with all the hair. That is his surrogate, a realistic android that most people use to go out into society in place of them while the owners stay at home in a room hooked up to a device that allows them to be the “operators,” the eyes, ears, mouth, and flesh of their surrogate.
So, right away the audience is going to be confused between knowing what is a surrogate and what is a real person, and that confusion is going to result in more than one plot point.
Now, here is where I should say that the film is based on a series of comic books–Excuse me! “graphic novels”–called “The Surrogates,” written by Robert Venditti, who went to college with the dream of becoming a novelist.
In fact, in an interview Venditti said, “I was going to be the next Hemingway.”
Venditti is 35, and I am surprised he even knows anything about Ernest Hemingway.
Anyway, back to our movie.
Willis and his surrogate play FBI Agent Tom Greer, who are investigating a seemingly random murder that involves an unregistered surrogate.
Agent Greer has a partner, Agent Jennifer Peters, and she is a beautiful young woman played by Radha Mitchell.
After all, this is based on a comic book, remember?
Their investigation leads them to Dr. Canter, played by James Cromwell, the man who invented surrogates and ran the company that built them.
But before you say, “Uh oh! Wasn’t this already done in the 1982 BLADE RUNNER?” you are going to be reminded of the 2002 MINORITY REPORT when we learn about Agent Greer’s dead son.
And, in fact, when Cromwell shows up, you are also going to be reminded of the 1996 STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT.
Now, I used to make fun of recycled plots by saying that Hollywood has run out of ideas. Now I am going to say that writers have run out of ideas.
The frame of reference for young writers isn’t literature anymore. It is old movies, and by “old,” I mean within the past 30 years.
SURROGATES is not bad, but should be called DERIVATIVES.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”