Monthly Archives: December 2013

Movie Review: Inside Llewyn Davis

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Cat in the big city. Image via Rotten Tomatoes

Yes, Joel and Ethan Coen have given us a musical biopic. It doesn’t mean they had to give you one about a real musician. Or even make the movie you wanted to see.

“Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Coen Brothers’ first film in a very long three years, is a welcome return to the big screen. It is the perfect awards season film that is also an anti-awards season film. It’s a tale for the holidays that wears its icy heart on its sleeves.

Like most Coen Brothers films, “Inside Llewyn Davis” is based on something else, but how much it’s based off of that thing is questionable. Davis is based on Dave Van Ronk. Most the songs in the movie are his, but Davis’ personality is different. This mystery just adds to the charm.


“Inside Llewyn Davis” takes place in the winter of 1961 and follows, well Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), a struggling folk singer who is just trying to get his voice heard. Llewyn is very talented and he has even released a few albums, yet no matter what he does he can never quite reach success. He has no permanent roof over his head, a cheap manager, and a former love interest who is convinced that he is the worst person on earth.

Adam Driver’s character on “Girls” would also wear that outfit.

And maybe he isn’t so great. The Coen Brothers don’t like perfect and kind protagonists. That is part of what makes all of their films so interesting: they are more interested in the people who keep on going, despite never quite getting what they want.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is damn near close to perfection, and I get the sense that it is a result of all the right people meeting at the exact right time. Isaac’s musical ability coincides beautifully with his acting talent. Justin Timberlake continues to show why he is more talented than all of us. Meanwhile, as Llewyn’s ex, Carey Mulligan serves as Llewyn’s reality check. She sure gets a lot of mileage out of the word “asshole.” Together, the three of them bring new life to old tunes, and make 1960s Greenwich Village feel so alive. Just like “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” before it, you will want to buy the soundtrack the minute you get home.

Mainly, this film would not have been possible under any other writer or director. The Coen Brothers have one of the most distinct voices in modern cinema. Every time they portray the past, it is a past that did not quite exist: it is a Coen Brothers universe filled with unfortunate circumstances and off-beat, mumbling side characters.

While every Coen Brothers film has a sense of humor, “Inside Llewyn Davis” might be the funniest one they have done in years. Usually, it takes multiple viewings to find the humor in their films (“A Serious Man,” for example, becomes more of a comedy than a drama the more times you watch it). There is an unavoidable humor to John Goodman’s mean-spirited Roland Turner, and so many jokes mined at the expense of the oblivious kindness of the Gorfeins. Still, I refuse to ever call the Coen Brothers mean-spirited.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” relishes in its musical moments because the Coen Brothers, in collaboration with T-Bone Burnett and Marcus Mumford, are so good at recreating the magic of watching a live performance. Yet, “Inside Llewyn Davis” is also an anti-musical. The songs do not teach lessons or move people to tears. “Inside Llewyn Davis” uniquely portrays a performer who’s central problem is that he cannot connect with others. Watching a portrayal of artistic failure might be sad, but it is important to know that sometimes those with talent can go completely unnoticed. Llewyn is honest and authentic, and those seem to be the exact qualities that get in the way of his success.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is often so grim yet it never feels tragic to watch. It does not follow a fluid plot but rather a series of situations that Davis is thrown into. The film is never meandering or dull, especially when this dark world is populated with such colorful characters. “Inside Llewyn Davis” strays away from all of the directions that similar films would have taken. The Coen Brothers don’t want to give you the ending that will necessarily satisfy you; they want to show you the world as they see it through their eyes as filmmakers.

After watching “Inside Llewyn Davis,” you too might realize that there might just be no better way to view a film from now on.

Brain Farts From The Edge

  • I went to a screening riddled with technical issues. There were sound and image problems, so the film had to be started over. Then, the reels had to be changed manually. Every time, a reel ended, we had to sit there and wait for the next reel to change. I definitely need to see this film again straight through. However, watching it this way was definitely an interesting experience. Call this a Coen Brothers Grindhouse experience.
  • Once again, the Coen Brothers nail the regional accent, dialect, and attitude. 
  • The Coen Brothers love them some characters with hard to pronounce/spell names.
  • “Inside Llewyn Davis” is set in 1961. In the Coens’ universe, that is exactly 20 years after “Barton Fink,” and just a few short years before The Dude would occupy various administrative buildings and smoke a lot of thai stick.
  • The cat itself is a great extra character. His name, which I won’t reveal, probably has a symbolic meaning which I have no idea of.
  • That ending. Will have to discuss it further in a spoiler-heavy review.
  • My favorite song in the film: the beautiful and moving rendition of “Five Hundred Miles.” I do have to give Adam Driver some credit for his hilarious vocal contributions to “Please Mr. Kennedy.”
  • I still am not sure whether or not this is intentional, but this poster for the film looks remarkably similar to this poster for “Taxi Driver.” It makes sense, as “Davis” has the mentality and feel of a 70s film as well as Scorsese’s understanding of New Yorkers. 
  • People Who Look Exactly Alike: Oscar Isaac, David Krumholtz, Jake Johnson
  • I like how Garrett Hedlund immediately left “On the Road,” took mumbling lessons from Rooster Cogburn, and then walked right onto the set of “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

Movie Review: Nebraska

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Image via Buzzsugar

Watching a director who has always directed their own writing suddenly bring somebody else’s vision to life is always interesting. “Nebraska” marks the first occasion that Oscar winning writer Alexander Payne has directed a screenplay written by somebody else. Maybe the fact that it takes place in his beloved home state helped out a bit.

“Nebraska” marks Payne’s first foray back into his home territory since 2002′s “About Schmidt.” However, it takes some time to get there. “Nebraska,” like “Fargo” and “Chinatown” before it, are about more than the setting that their titles suggest. “Nebraska begins in Billings, Montana, the current home of the Grant family. Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is the patriarch of the family, whether he is aware of it or not. Woody is a sad man living a sad life. He walks with a slouch and acts like he never wasted any potential because he never had much to begin with.


Yet, Woody finally has some big ambitions. While he won’t trust the postal service to mail out a letter for him, he trusts an ad from a magazine claiming that he won a million dollars. The catch is that he can only claim that money if he goes to Lincoln, Nebraska. Woody, an alcoholic who is too mild-mannered to speak too much and too nice to burden other people, tries to make the trek on his own two feet. The mission is crazy, but his son David (Will Forte) decides to drive his father to claim his “prize.” David knows there is little hope, but he wants that sweet father-son bonding time. Mainly though, he doesn’t want his life to become as stagnant as his father’s, which tends to happen when you’re selling electronic equipment in Montana.

Stagnant is probably the best word to describe what the film portrays. “Nebraska” inhabits a Middle America in which the people grow older, yet their beliefs never change. The world immediately surrounding them remains about the same in order to accommodate their consistent attitudes.

“Nebraska” is shot in black and white, which is funny because it also looks like a painting by Grant Wood or Edward Hopper. There is something very melancholy about the grey sky in Big Sky Country or the endless hay bales that line the highways that cut through Nebraska, yet there is also something defining and quite beautiful about it. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, but it feels like a piece of Americana that we all need to get back in touch with.

“Nebraska” is a story that would not be as effective if it were told in any other time or in any other place. Alexander Payne and writer Bob Nelson are to Nebraska what Springsteen is to New Jersey: a sharp voice on the problems of their land. They have earned the right to say these things because they also get what makes the people tick. I could have mistaken half of these people for actual residents of Hawthorne, Nebraska, where the most important scenes of the film take place. Based on the lack of IMDB credits for many of the actors, it is possible that most of them were plucked from obscurity to play themselves.

Payne has always had a knack for getting the best performances out of his actors. Whoever he casts manages to live up to his bleakly funny vision of the world. In his first dramatic leading role, Forte manages to tailor his comedic chops splendidly for a much more serious performance. In everything from “Saturday Night Live” to “MacGruber,” Forte always underplayed and was so funny because he could deliver hilarious lines while playing it completely straight. In “Nebraska,” he manages to lead the way as a dramatic straight man, acting like he has it all together even when he actually doesn’t.

Main characters aren’t usually supposed to be this quiet, but Bruce Dern (father of national treasure Laura Dern) gives a show-stealing performance. He is funny and a little sad all at once and does so by using so few words. When he does speak, it often comes off as beautifully poetic revelations from a simple man (when visiting his now empty childhood home: “I’d get whipped if I came in here…guess I can’t get whipped anymore”). Dern plays Woody as an old man who is grizzled and bitter yet he has gone through so much that it just doesn’t bother him anymore. He is less oblivious than he is in a child-like state of ignorance. Expect a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Dern this year.

I wouldn’t be able to finish this review properly without mentioning June Squibb. As Kate Grant, Woody’s loud and pushy wife, she at first comes off as downright despicable. Then, with a little more time to talk, she suddenly becomes the hero of the story, and then Woody and Kate’s marriage makes a lot more sense. Also, the scene where she visits a cemetery is one of the funniest scenes in any movie that came out this year.

Overall, “Nebraska” is a road trip movie and a story of finding second chances in times when redemption seems impossible. It’s the holidays now. You will be spending a lot of time with your family. “Nebraska” is a reminder that “family” and “dysfunctional” naturally go hand-in-hand. Just as David is like Woody without even trying to be, family makes us who we are, sometimes in the strangest ways possible.

The MPAA Fails Again: “Nebraska” is rated R, solely for use of language. While the sex talks gets a little explicit once or twice, its more funny than sacrilegious. Come on, your grandparents have probably said worse things than June Squibb ever says here.

Another Note: Stacy Keach gets punched in the face a lot (also see: “American History X,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”).

Eight Nights of Hanukkah, Eight Entertaining Jews: Night #8

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This is what I found when I Googled “Adam Sandler Jewish.”

The old insult goes, “Jews run show business.” To that I say “thanks.” 

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population yet they have always been a loud (emphasis on the loud) and prominent voice in film, television, music, and comedy. 

The next eight days are Hanukkah, which is not the most important Jewish holiday, but we do get presents. For each night of Hanukkah, I will share one Jewish entertainer who has had a big impact on me. For the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, let’s talk about Adam Sandler:


Out of all of the possible candidates (there were way too many), Adam Sandler seemed like the only possible choice for the final Jew of Hanukkah. 

It would probably be easier to write about how far Sandler has fallen. His last movie was “Grown Ups 2″ and “Jack and Jill” possibly set Jews back about 50 years. 50 years is nothing. We can recover. Instead, I want to talk about the Sandler I know, the one that I grew up with.

I recently purchased the Best of Adam Sandler which compiles some of his best sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” Watching it today seems almost surreal. I wonder if those live audiences knew while watching it that they were witnessing a future comedy superstar in the making. Yes, Opera Man still holds up. It’s hard to have a verdict on any sketch that also has Chris Farley in it though; he is pretty impossible to compete with.

After leaving “Saturday Night Live,” Sandler launched an extremely successful movie career consisting of a string of films that were panned by critics yet loved by every teenager and Paul Thomas Anderson. I am beyond proud to say that I can recite nearly every line from “Billy Madison” by heart. Despite the fact that Sandler is loud and obnoxious, the other characters still manage to be funny and produce some of the movie’s best lines (“If peeing in your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis”).

I could possibly understand why some people might be annoyed by “Billy Madison,” especially if it wasn’t one of their first introductions into comedy. Maybe you might consider “Happy Gilmore” juvenile, too if you are a bad person who hates fun. But “The Wedding Singer” is an undeniably great romantic comedy, a movie that is even more rewarding than getting paid in meatballs. In addition, “Big Daddy” is also more moving than it has any right to be. More importantly, his performances were good enough to get him cast in “Punch Drunk Love,” where all of that rage was targeted towards building something deeper. It really is a shame he hasn’t been in more movies like that since.

Since this is Hanukkah we are talking about here, I have no choice but to mention Sandler’s contributions to the holiday. He helmed “Eight Crazy Nights,” which to date is still the only mainstream Hanukkah movie that I can think of. Years before that, he made the holiday way cooler than it had any right to be with “The Hanukkah Song” (to date, three versions of it exist). A key line in the song is “so if you still feel like the only kid in town just like you and me/here are some people who are Jewish/just like you and me.” Sandler captures the sad feeling any Jewish kid might feel during the Christmas season (and I am guessing he experienced it, too, seeing as he grew up in New Hampshire). But the song is heart-warming and shows this sense of connection every Jew feels for another that is so hard to explain. To see another Jew succeed gives one a great sense of pride like they would for a close family member. And Sandler, during his best years, was our rock star. He is the real reason I felt like I needed to make a list for myself.

So while everyone else gets to decorate a Christmas tree, we get to sing “The Hanukkah Song.” I can live with that.

Eight Nights of Hanukkah, Eight Entertaining Jews: Night #7

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Image via Wikipedia

The old insult goes, “Jews run show business.” To that I say “thanks.” 

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population yet they have always been a loud (emphasis on the loud) and prominent voice in film, television, music, and comedy. 

The next eight days are Hanukkah, which is not the most important Jewish holiday, but we do get presents. For each night of Hanukkah, I will share one Jewish entertainer who has had a big impact on me. For the seventh night of Hanukkah, let’s talk about Stanley Kubrick:


Stop the presses! Stanley Kubrick was Jewish?

Yup.

(Glass Shatters)

That image of a quiet, reclusive Englishman may have now disappeared. This is precisely why I wanted to include Stanley Kubrick on this list: he does not fit the normal characteristics of a Jew in the film industry. He doesn’t parade around and declare that he’s Jewish. Even those who didn’t grow up religious (like Apatow) still incorporate Judaism into their work. If Kubrick ever did it, it was in a subtle way.

Like any good Jew though, Kubrick had a dark sense of humor about everything. Even in his most harrowing works, he still kept his sense of humor. After all, he did direct “Dr. Strangelove,” one of the most famous black comedies of all time. Black comedy is something that Jews seem specifically good at. Jewish history is marked by tragedy and bleak events. Besides work ethic, having a sense of humor was key to survival.

Even though he released so few films. Kubrick was as hard a worker as any director who releases a film every year. He just spent all of his time meticulously researching his projects. He is the complete opposite of Woody Allen: instead of putting out something new every year, Kubrick took extra long on each of his projects, which is probably why almost all of them were so masterful. 

If anybody was lucky enough to catch the Kubrick exhibition in Los Angeles (its traveling to other cities, if you can catch it you have to), then you would have been floored at the amount of thought and research that went into every film he made, as well as every film he worked tirelessly on that ultimately never got made. Among those were a Napoleon project (which will soon be a miniseries on HBO) and a very unique take on the Holocaust. 

Kubrick was intensely private, but that does not mean that he was this oddball hermit as many seem to think. I think he just liked to let his work speak for him. And while he doesn’t seem like somebody who’d be on a list of the most important Jews, I think it is important to have him on here. While he had no religious upbringing and no mention of Judaism in his works, boiled down, he was a Jewish kid from the Bronx who loved “Seinfeld,” boxing, and (American) football. 

Eight Nights of Hanukkah, Eight Entertaining Jews: Night #6

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The old insult goes, “Jews run show business.” To that I say “thanks.” 

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population yet they have always been a loud (emphasis on the loud) and prominent voice in film, television, music, and comedy. 

The next eight days are Hanukkah, which is not the most important Jewish holiday, but we do get presents. For each night of Hanukkah, I will share one Jewish entertainer who has had a big impact on me. For the sixth night of Hanukkah, let’s talk about Judd Apatow:


And the fourth face on Mount Rushmore of Jewish Comedians is Judd Apatow.

Unlike Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Larry David, Apatow’s work is done almost exclusively behind the camera. Yet, he is one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood. That is most likely because he is so good at what he does.

As discussed with Sarah Silverman yesterday, Judd Apatow endured a string of brilliant “failures.” Most notably, both “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared” were cancelled after just one season a piece. Now, “Freaks and Geeks” is in the pantheon of greatest TV shows of all time and “Undeclared” is slowly making its way there.

Judd has had a long history of comedy. You could call him the original podcaster, as he used to get private interviews with comedians for his high school radio station. He interviewed such big names as Steven Wright, Garry Shandling (whom he would later work with), and Jerry Seinfeld. 

Since his early years of struggle, Apatow has become the go-to writer/director/producer of good comedy in Hollywood. His first two efforts in the director’s chair, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” were master classes in free flowing hilarity. They turned two possibly unlikable leads into lovable anti-heroes. He made the Jewish Schlub into an archetype, made Seth Rogen a star, and thought of some genius one-liners along the way (“well you still have a tiny dick, Cartman”). Apatow has received mixed reviews for “Funny People” and “This is 40,” but I give him all the credit in the world for his insatiable ambition.

Part of comedy is about helping others, and Apatow has made a career of just that. Some of the people he has helped propel to stardom include Seth Rogen, James Franco, Steve Carell, Kristen Melissa McCarthy, Jason Segel, and Lena Dunham. This is just a few of the many names. Apatow simply has an eye for talent unparalleled in the comedy world (except maybe for Lorne Michaels). There is something special about having an eye for good talent, and then using your own power to help that person out. It takes a lot of self-confidence to know that you have found someone good, and a lot of heart to dedicate that much time to a person. Judd is a mensch of the finest order.

Judd Apatow has always been my gateway into comedy. In 2007, the magical year in which both “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” came out, comedy nerdom came full swing. I also didn’t even realize that he was influencing me from such a young age: Judd Apatow wrote “Heavyweights.” Yes, you heard me correctly. That movie where a bunch of Jewish kids (ex: Josh Birnbaum) from Long Island (“never heard of it!”) go to sleep away camp. If anyone gets the humor of the Jewish identity, it is Judd Apatow.

Fun Fact: Judd Apatow was born in Flushing and raised in Syosset. He probably knows your cousin.

Eight Nights of Hanukkah, Eight Entertaining Jews: Night #5

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Image via LA Times

The old insult goes, “Jews run show business.” To that I say “thanks.” 

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population yet they have always been a loud (emphasis on the loud) and prominent voice in film, television, music, and comedy. 

The next eight days are Hanukkah, which is not the most important Jewish holiday, but we do get presents. For each night of Hanukkah, I will share one Jewish entertainer who has had a big impact on me. For the fifth night of Hanukkah, let’s talk about Sarah Silverman: 

Of all of the best living comedians, Sarah Silverman might be taken for granted more than anybody else.

Silverman is basically a household name at this point, yet she has been plagued by some brilliant “failures” as well as a long history of being underrated. That’s okay, though, because she keeps doing what she just does best: providing laughs, as well as offense to those who feel the need to fall into that trap. 

The phrase “Female Jewish Comedian” seems to go hand-in-hand with Sarah Silverman. This is true despite the fact that Silverman always says that she never grew up religious. Yet, as she says herself in her wonderful new special “We Are Miracles,” she just cannot separate herself from that image. Without her Jewish side, her sense of humor would never be the same.

Along with “Female Jewish Comedian,” the words “dirty” “vulgar” and “offensive” get tossed along with Silverman, too. However, she is the most misunderstood dirty comic out there. Those who claim that she is offensive for the sake of being offensive are unfortunately the overwhelming majority, and they seem to miss just how layered her act is. In her act, she’ll drop the c-bomb followed by a huge smile as if she’s a child who just figured out how to swear for the first time. Everything she says is delivered with the subtlest of winks.

On her brilliant but short-lived “Sarah Silverman Program,” Silverman took her stand-up act into scripted territory and constantly redefined what it meant to cross the line. In one episode, she bets a black man that being a Jewish woman is even more difficult, so the two switch lives for a day. When she puts on blackface, she thinks that people are booing her because she is black but in reality it’s because, well, she’s wearing blackface. Silverman has found a way to turn offensive jokes into self-deprecating humor. She is clearly playing a goof much different than who she really is. The joke is always on her. Silverman can make this work because when speaking candidly, she comes off as so kind and sincere. Just read her heartwarming memoir “The Bedwetter,” which I hope is one day turned into a movie.

In addition to her comedic sensibility, Sarah Silverman is also a model cultural Jew. She shows that being a Jew is about much more than believing in God or the Ten Commandments (downgraded from fifteen). If someone is born Jewish, they remain Jewish so long as they feel that way and choose to continue to identify with it. Silverman represents every friend you have ever had who cannot help but bring up Jewish things constantly in conversation because their sense of identity is so overwhelming.

The point is that you can Anglicize your name as much as you want (*cough* Winona Ryder *cough* where’s my inhaler?), but your Jewishness does not simply disappear. Sarah Silverman, like any good comedian who finds something funny, embraces it and then owns the hell out of it.

Haha, the 90s! It’s funny because they dress funny because it’s a different year!