NYC Sentinel

The Coens get personal

By Marlow Stern Following the critical and commercial disappointment of 2004’s “The Ladykillers,” filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen took some time off to think. Out of this brainstorming session came the concepts for future films: “No Country For Old Men" and “Burn After Reading” – and now, “A Serious Man," starring Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Jewish academic undergoing a spiritual and existential crisis.

Continue reading...

‘Inglourious Basterds’ hands Jews the smoking gun (or bloody Louisville Slugger)

By Marlow Stern For movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, it’s a bold move to pre-screen Quentin Tarantino’s brutal epic, “Inglourious Basterds,” at a museum that bills itself as “a living memorial to those who perished during the Holocaust.” But how are influential NYC Jewry – rabbis, film critics, Jewish historians and viewers – reacting to a film described by influential Jewish publication Tablet Magazine as “a failure of Jewish morality”?

Continue reading...