A Quick Tip by Fionnchu

I thought this would work, but like "Burn After Reading" or "Barton Fink" it let me down. The Bros Coen keep getting more self-hating about their Jewish suburban angst; this curdles their arch narratives. Their smugness given their status as critical darlings contrasts with how Philip Roth or Bernard Malamud's novels from this 60s period managed critique of this oft-critiqued milieu without making you feel cheapened. Parts of this film were great, as in the twists at the end, but the pacing seemed off, the opening scene while intriguing failed to gel with the rest, and the rabbi's silly recital seemed puerile, pandering to the Baby Boomer audience while diminishing the moral heft that had built up in other parts of this film. Do we need another exposé of the Chosen People as out to rip off the gentiles when not at their elegantly appointed shul at a sham bar mitzvah? C'mon. So, we're materialistic, we're hypocrites, we aim for higher principles but are held back by fate and prejudice, so religion's a sham? Tell us something we haven't heard if you're such geniuses. No way this merited a Best Picture nomination (albeit to boost sales, from the year the Academy went back to a field expanded to 10, otherwise I doubt even by Hollywood's self-congratulatory standards it'd have made it). Ponder the Book of Job instead.