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Damon and Brolin May Get Gritty For the Coen Brothers

BuzzSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:12 -0700

The freight train that is Matt Damon's career is still chugging away at full steam: while he's off filming The Adjustment Bureau, the actor is in talks for yet another upcoming project. Ethan and Joel Coen want Damon, along with Josh Brolin, to star in their upcoming remake of True Grit.

Jeff Bridges is already on board to play US marshal Rooster Cogburn, and Damon would play a lawyer who joins Cogburn and a 14-year-old girl to track down the killer of the girl's father. Josh Brolin would play the murderer, which doesn't seem like much of a stretch of imagination after his recent role in Milk.

Bridges and Brolin are obviously already pets of the Coen Brothers, and I could see Matt Damon fitting perfectly into their repertoire. I was a bit disappointed with A Serious Man, but I'm already looking forward to seeing the talented filmmaking siblings take on another drama with a star-studded cast.

A Serious Man: Seriously Hard To Wrap Your Head Around

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:00:10 -0700

I like the Coen brothers. I loved No Country For Old Men, I still enjoy quoting Frances McDormand lines from Fargo - I even appreciated their most recent project, Burn After Reading despite lukewarm reviews. So I went into A Serious Man with high expectations. Perhaps a bit too high.

The Coens go incredibly dark and thought-provoking this time around, and unfortunately without any big-named stars attached like Clooney a la Reading or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man probably won't live on as one of their more memorable films for viewers. In fact, many people will probably feel put off by it. To see what I mean, read more

A Serious Man opens like a horror movie, which isn't surprising given the Coen's propensity for heavy themes (and often a few stab wounds) in their stories. The music is a big player, creating tension that doesn't let up for the audience even when the screen goes to black. But the antagonizing score fits well within the nightmare existence of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor and devoted family man in '60s suburbia. First, his wife announces that she's leaving him for a touchy-feely close-talker; his unemployed brother spends entire 24-hour periods in his bathroom; and one of his foreign students is threatening to sue him. Really, the only thrill Gopnik ever gets in life is when his neighbor Mrs. Samsky sunbathes nude.

Poor Gopnik is a wound-up guy, and you feel for him and with him. (It's true; I had to decompress after this movie.) His world is spiraling out of control, so he seeks out three rabbis for a solution. Does Gopnik get the enlightenment he seeks? Not exactly, and neither do we as the audience.

There's not a single bad thing I can say about any of the actors. Each one was believable and charmingly offbeat in their role. The Coens are brilliant with character nuances - even some of the small two-minute parts managed to get laughs - but the larger picture just seemed murky from the get-go. The first five minutes of the film starts with a man in a village who accidentally invites a ghost home for dinner. It's all in Yiddish with subtitles, and it's almost like watching a stand-alone play, but I'm still not sure what it had to do with the rest of the plot, other than the Jewish religion and setting a dismal tone. So right away I felt semiconfused, but entertained nonetheless - which is pretty much how the duration of it went for me.

The film does have some great scenes - I loved the interaction between Gopnik and his foreign student, and his wife's new boyfriend Si is particularly funny - but trying to piece it together is a bit like banging your head against the wall (just like in the movie's trailer). I get that Gopnik's life sucks, but other than that, it's hard to tell exactly what we're supposed to glean from the story. I think that was sort of the point the Coens were trying to make - Gopnik doesn't get the answers he seeks, and neither do we.

Go see it if you're a hardcore Coenaholic, and enjoy the funny scenes without trying to analyze it too much. But if you prefer to dissect your movies, I'd say rent this one at home, because you may need to watch it twice.

What movies are you seeing this weekend? Review them in our Movie Review Group!

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Movie Preview: A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers

BuzzSugar — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:30:40 -0700

Seeing as this one minute, 40-second teaser trailer for the Coen brothers' latest film, A Serious Man, is like a little short film in itself, I can say with certainty that I'll be eagerly waiting in line for this one come October. The synopsis: "A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother (Richard Kind) won't move out of the house." Seeking some kind of balance, Larry approaches three different rabbis for advice.

In the trailer, the sounds of destruction, confusion, and desperation in this man's life weave together to make a mesmerizing kind of music. It looks dark and weird and funny - everything we've come to expect from the Coens. A Serious Man opens in limited release Oct. 2. To check out the trailer, read more.

Buzz News Roundup, 3/23

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:30:13 -0700

The Coen Brothers are planning a remake of the John Wayne film True Grit. - Zap2it
Mary McDonnell is joining The Closer for several episodes to go head-to-head with Kyra Sedgwick's character. - Entertainment Weekly
Speaking of which, here's a rundown of what's coming up at Sci Fi – er, Syfy - post-Battlestar Galactica. - The Hollywood Reporter
Two Jimi Hendrix albums and some live DVD footage are expected to be released later this year. - Billboard
DirecTV will begin airing more canceled shows, including Smith and The Nine. - Variety
A biopic of Steve McQueen is in the works. - The Hollywood Reporter
Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain has reportedly left Smashing Pumpkins. - New York Times
Chad Michael Murray says One Tree Hill doesn't want him anymore. - E!

Source and Source

Burn After Reading: A Smart and Sinister Spy Comedy

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:31:51 -0700

As the opening credits of Burn After Reading blip across a satellite image of Washington, DC, viewers may find themselves wondering if they've wandered into the wrong movie - a Bourne Identity type thriller filled with high-tech secrets and evil intentions. But for every spook with high-security clearance in DC, there is a goofball at Jamba Juice, waiting for his afternoon smoothie. And when that iPod-wearing dude wanders into the tropes of a spy movie, the results are wonderfully absurd and fraught with a different sort of intelligence.

The Coen brothers have given us stories of bumbling criminals time and time again, but with Burn After Reading, the filmmakers approach the familiar theme in an entirely fresh way. The "criminals" in this case are more accidental than bumbling, their deceptions adorably mundane against an ominous, thundering soundtrack and spy-camera cinematography. For all the details, read more.

Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand play Chad and Linda, two gym employees who find a CD in the locker room that contains data belonging to a former CIA analyst. Assuming that someone will pay big bucks for the return of the sensitive info, they attempt, with childlike naivete, to blackmail the analyst, a Princeton man named Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). But old Ozzy is far more concerned about his recent unemployment and impending divorce from his wife (Tilda Swinton), who's having an affair with a pinhead womanizer played by George Clooney.

When Cox doesn't bite on the blackmail, Chad and Linda attempt to sell the secrets to the Russians, inadvertently setting off a series of plot twists that entangle everyone and provide plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. At one point, a CIA boss (played by JK Simmons) is briefed on the case - and utterly baffled: "Just report back to me when - I don't know. When it makes sense."

The way the story unfolds makes perfect sense, and at the same time, it's entirely senseless. Like kids playing spy games, the characters talk like actors trying to up the drama while waiting for something to happen. But when things happen - and believe me, some serious stuff happens - it is simply real, without cinematic spectacle, and more powerful as a result. Where other filmmakers hold might back in the name of mystery or add a cheeky twist, the Coen brothers just give us mundane reality at its most absurd.

Photos Courtesy of Focus Features