“While A Serious Man is funnier than No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading, it also has more gravity to it. This is not just because it represents something of a homecoming for Joel and Ethan Coen, who grew up in the heavily Jewish Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park in the 1960s. They are hardly the kind to be sentimental about the old neighborhood. But in that milieu their smart-alecky nihilism feels authentic rather than arch — you understand, maybe for the first time, where they are coming from.” — N.Y. Times critic A.O. Scott in his 10.2 review.
