Overview
A darkly comedic exploration of a man's unraveling life amidst chaos and confusion.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- bleakly comic
- witty
- disquieting
- thoughtful movie night
- dark comedy night
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the Coen brothers' mature blend of dark humor, personal themes, and unsettling existential ambiguity.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Larry's divorce, family crises, legal bills, neighbor dispute, and student bribery echo the Book of Job while remaining rooted in suburban Minnesota.
Larry seeks guidance from multiple rabbis, but their platitudes deepen rather than resolve his crisis of faith and meaning.
The university, divorce lawyers, criminal court, family home, and rabbis all fail to provide Larry with dependable order or justice.
The opening Yiddish folktale involving a possible dybbuk may connect to Larry's later misfortunes without receiving a definitive explanation.
Films like A Serious Man, and why
The Big Lebowski
shared darkly comic suburban misfortune, moral anxiety, and eccentric characterizations
Inside Llewyn Davis
shared bleak humor, religious and existential questioning, and ordinary people overwhelmed by absurd circumstances
The Ice Storm
shared suburban dysfunction, midlife crisis, and sharply observed tragicomic family conflict
Barton Fink
shared Coen-esque fatalism, biblical undertones, and escalating everyday calamity
Movie Details
- Directors
- Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- Release Date
- 2009-10-02
- Runtime
- 106 min
- Rating
- 6.7 / 10 (2468)
Cast
- Michael Stuhlbarg
- Richard Kind
- Fred Melamed
- Sari Lennick
- Aaron Wolff
- Jessica McManus
- Peter Breitmayer
- Brent Braunschweig
- David Kang
- Benjamin Portnoe
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is A Serious Man about?
- A beleaguered 1960s physics professor searches for moral clarity as family upheaval and inexplicable misfortune dismantle his carefully ordered life.
- What is A Serious Man like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of A Serious Man as measured, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as layered.
- Is A Serious Man violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in A Serious Man as mild.
- What did critics think of A Serious Man?
- Critics broadly praised the Coen brothers' mature blend of dark humor, personal themes, and unsettling existential ambiguity.
- Which films are like A Serious Man?
- Films with a similar feel include The Big Lebowski, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Ice Storm, and Barton Fink.
- How long is A Serious Man?
- A Serious Man runs 106 minutes.
- Where can I watch A Serious Man?
- In United States, A Serious Man streams on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads.
