CINEMANIA:

Nebraska  (Alexander Payne, 2013, USA)

Ben Livant:

Having just slapped around The Wolf of Wall Street for not being funny enough to compensate for being amoral, I now turn about face to poke at Nebraska for not being funny enough to compensate for being so very moral.  Gosh golly shucks.  What a wholesome and heartwarming road trip.  The prairie ain't just a vacant lot 'o nuthin' after all.  It is truly full of noble bearing and the ties that bind.

Though the region be land-locked, a river runs through it.  But enough references to Robert Redford and his own private Utah.  Suffice to suggest that if you're looking for the positive antithesis of the Coen Brothers' negative mid-Western Americana,  Alexander Payne relief is available.

My Name is Joe (Ken Loach, 1998, UK)

Ben Livant:

I know I am supposed to live up to Pete Townsend's lyric, but damn if I didn't get fooled again.  You would think that I would have seen enough Loach by now.  But no.  My Name Is Joe (1998) made it not so.  Really good film.  Loach in fine form, at the peak of his craft.  Proletarian realism does not get better than this.

Anyway, that is correct, I started to believe that all would be well that will end well.

American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013, USA)

Ben Livant:

Ya gotta like this movie.  Me and three other people happened to find ourselves out on the town looking at a theatre marquee.  Our other option was The Wolf of Wall Street.  We agreed on American Hustle and boy did we make the right choice!

I have since seen TWOWS and have already trashed it here at Cinemania.  I will not now rehash that trash except to observe that these two films are just asking to be compared.

The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, USA, 2013)

Ben Livant:

The Wolf of Wall Street is a sheep in wolf's clothing.  It is a black comedy that is too comedic and not enough black.  But what else could have been expected from the source material?  Not that I've read Jordan Belfort's autobiography or ever will do so.  If this movie is even remotely faithful to the book, it is plain enough that Belfort is incapable of even the mildest critique of the racket, never mind his own conduct.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Brothers, USA, 2013)

Ben Livant:

http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Inside-Llewyn-Davis-review-Folk-era-an-empty-5075992.php

I think this review is right on the critical money; indeed, it goes to the heart of why the Coens in general are incapable of making truly great art - they refuse to respect the concrete historical placement of their chacters.