A Serious Man, Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009

The Coen Brothers' filmography is littered with overmatched protagonists pitted against ever-worsening odds, a thematic trend carried through in this, their latest film. Here, the filmmakers' near-hapless hero is viewed through a religious (mid-century Judaism), rather than geographic, lens, and while the Coens' stylistic senses are as sharply tuned as ever, the almost clinical distance they maintain from their characters renders the film cold.