An old college friend on Facebook thought this latest from the Coen Bros was fun but "couldn't decide what it was supposed to be."
I have to disagree. I think the fact that it's kinda hard to tell what the point of the movie is, is exactly the movie's point. In that sense, it's a cinematic exegesis of Quoheleth (aka Ecclesiastes).
To a world full of folks looking for their 15 minutes of fame and/or their big jackpot moment, the movie says "All is vanity." To a world fixated on a certain standard of superficial beauty, the movie says "this too is a chasing after wind." To a world overrun with both excessively revealing navel gazers and obsessively voyeuristic surveilance, the movie says "there is nothing new under the sun" - for as much hoopla as we make of them, really, our lives are not that fascinating, and all that we consume ourselves worrying about is ultimately in vain.
Once again, the brothers Coen masterfully portray how the effects of sin continue to ripple out through our lives and the lives of others, how one bad choice can suddenly trap you into a series of even more bad choices. Truly, Joel and Ethan are theologians trapped in filmmakers bodies! :)
So, I liked it. Thumbs up.
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