This issue, a trifecta: The Coen Brothers, Sam Rockwell, and the funniest movie of the year.

A Serious Man
(R, Now Available)

A new Coen Brothers movie is an event for some people. I am some people. "A Serious Man" is their 14th feature film but it seems that, for the first time, they've made something that is at least slightly autobiographical.

Set in the world in which the brothers grew up, suburban Minnesota in 1967, it tells the story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a college professor whose stable professional and family life suddenly comes apart at the seams. His wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants a divorce so that she can marry the sleazy and condescending Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), the tenure he's been promised has been threatened, his brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is a gambling addict living in his home, and his teenage children are teenage children.

Larry has tried his best to lead a good and honorable life but when it all comes cosmically crashing down, he turns to help from the rabbi. Actually from several rabbis, none of whom seem to provide Larry with an answer to his many questions or a solution to his myriad of problems.

As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Coen Brothers, I have to say that "A Serious Man" was actually strange even for them. It doesn't have quite the sharp focus of their best work (which I deem everything they've made with the exceptions of "Intolerable Cruelty," "The Ladykillers," and "Burn After Reading"), but it is full of intriguing ideas, strong performances, and some powerhouse scenes. Larry's telephone conversation with a representative from Columbia House is a quietly powerful moment. "But I didn't do anything," Larry says again and again. Like the record that showed up in his mail, he didn't ask for any of this and yet it just arrives at his door.

It doesn't stand up to "Fargo," "O Brother," or "No Country," but "A Serious Man" is still a Coen Brothers movie and one that is definitely worth your time. 8/10.

Moon
"Bowie's in space." - Flight of the Conchords

Well Bowie's not, but his son is. First-time director and Bowie progeny Duncan Jones does something wonderful with "Moon." This isn't to say it's a spectacular film. It's good, but what's truly wonderful about it is that it is a showcase for one of the most talented actors working today, Sam Rockwell.

You've seen him in an array of films. In movies as different as "Galaxy Quest" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Rockwell has shined brightly.

Here, Rockwell is Sam Bell, a man in the final few weeks of his three-year mission on an isolated moon base (is there any other kind?). Amazingly, with no one to talk to but a robotic smiley face named GERTY (who sounds an awful lot like Kevin Spacey), Bell hasn't completely lost his mind. He is getting there though. The thought of seeing his wife and daughter again is keeping him going, but when he goes out for a routine drive around the surface, he ends up buried in a pile of rubble. Not knowing how much time has passed, Sam awakes back on the base with GERTY watching over him.

"How long have I been out?" Sam asks. "Not long," replies GERTY, but what does that mean?

To say what happens next would be to enter Spoilertown, so I'll just say that we get to see a whole lot of Sam Rockwell talking to himself the rest of the way. As a fan of great acting I had absolutely no problem with this. Rockwell is, as always, not just brilliant, he's surprising. The way Bell reacts to the situation wasn't how I might expect a person to handle it. He seems strangely unfazed by it, almost as though he was expecting it. Rockwell makes us believe it though, and Jones trusts him enough to let him go.

The story and screenplay by Jones and first-timer Nathan Parker is definitely derivative at times, but as a character study of Bell it's well thought-out, and the character of GERTY is an inventive twist on HAL 9000.

"Moon" is a movie that will definitely require a second viewing to solidify some things, but Rockwell's performance is so outstanding that I anticipate giving it another look. 8/10.

Black Dynamite
(R, Avail. 2/16)

I have saved the best for last. This film is about as funny as you could ask a movie to be. Michael Jai White stars as the baddest brother on the planet, Black Dynamite. He's out to avenge the death of his brother by declaring war on anyone who sells drugs to the community.

"But Black Dynamite," one character protests, "I sell drugs to the community."

"Black Dynamite" is a successful film in two ways. It parodies the blaxploitation films of the seventies with a broad sense of humor while managing to subtly capture what those movies were. The grain, the bright colors, the cheap sets, the boom mics, the actors reading their lines off of cue cards. It's all there!

The screenplay, written by White with Byron Minns and director Scott Sanders, is razor sharp and consistently laugh-out-loud funny. The moment Black Dynamite and his cohorts unravel an insidious plot inside a restaurant is easily the funniest moment in any movie from 2009. Maybe for a few years. And I defy anyone to come up with a more bizarrely funny (yet perfect in its context) line than, "Donuts don't wear alligator shoes."

"The Hangover" is a good time, but "Black Dynamite" is the real best comedy of 2009. 9.5/10.

Comments or suggestions? Contact Bob at [email protected].