“A Serious Man” is not an easy movie to classify. The reason for this likely is the fact that Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote and directed the movie, did not set it up in any way to be a movie that would appeal to the box office at large.
Ethan Coen describes the movie as follows, “The picture takes place in 1967 among a Jewish community in an unnamed Midwestern suburb; Joel and I are from the Midwest and so it’s reminiscent of our childhoods. The milieu, the whole setting is important to us and was a big part of what got us going on this story. Where you grew up is part of your identity. That doesn’t go away, even if you’ve been away for a long time.”
It’s a tough sell to begin with, but the Coens then chose to cast an unknown in the lead: Michael Stuhlbarg, who has been Tony nominated, but is a complete unknown to movie audiences.
The Coens are telling what obviously is a very personal story, and thus wanted to best service that story, without bowing to the demands of the Hollywood star system.
The R-rated film will have a limited release on Oct. 2, in the United States. The newly-released poster for the movie is below.
Follow Sean Gerski on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DoubleDown44.
This probably won’t even play in a theater anywhere near where I live. 🙁
That is an interesting poster. It looks old school.