A Serious Man & Trucker earn **** 4 stars from Ebert

Two more titles join the elite (and occasionally eccentric) list of films awarded 4-stars by Roger Ebert. Expanding on last night’s tweet, he has this to say about Trucker:

There’s one of those perfect moments in “Trucker” when I’m thinking, This is the moment to end! Now! Fade to black! And the movie ends. It is the last of many absolutely right decisions by the first-time writer-director James Mottern, who began by casting two actors who bring his story to strong emotional life. Both of them show they’re gifted and intelligent artists who only needed, as so many do in these discouraging times, a chance to reveal their deep talents…

Monaghan makes Diane more sad than off-putting. She isn’t a caricature. She works hard, values her independence, is making payments on her small suburban home on an unpaved street, is living up to her bargain with herself. The movie spares us any scenes where she’s “one of the guys.” It opens after a one-night stand with a guy who tries to be nice, but she doesn’t need a nice guy in her life. Nor does she need to be nice with Peter, but one thing she does do: She’s always honest with him and speaks with him directly, and I think he knows that. Her performance clearly deserves an Oscar nomination.

A slightly more oblique reference to Oscar in Ebert’s review of A Serious Man:

“This is the kind of picture you get to make after you’ve won an Oscar,” writes Todd McCarthy in Variety. I cannot improve on that. After the seriously great “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen brothers have made the not greatly serious “A Serious Man,” which bears every mark of a labor of love…

Have I mentioned “A Serious Man” is so rich and funny? This isn’t a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. Those can be funny, too. The Coens have found mostly unfamiliar actors, or those like Stuhlbarg, Kind and Melamed you’ve seen before, but you’re not quite sure where. I imagine (but do not know) that Joel and Ethan have been kicking this story around for years, passing time by reminding each other of possible characters, seeing an actor and observing, “There’s our Mrs. Samsky.” Their actors weren’t cast, they were preordained.

With his 4-star reviews, Roger Ebert preordains a collection of the year’s most interesting films, providing clues about his eventual year-end Top 10 List (which I believe doubled to 20 in 2008). Currently, I count roughly 2 dozen movies receiving the 4-star seal of approval so far this year — though only about half of them look to stand much chance of cashing in those chips for an Oscar nomination. You can find the list, divided into hopefuls and nopefuls, after the cut.

Trucker
A Serious Man
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
(500) Days of Summer
The Informant!
The Cove
Disgrace
Ponyo
Julia
Up
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Tyson
Knowing
Watchmen
Sin Nombre
Goodbye Solo
Munyurangabo
Sita Sings the Blues
The Beaches Of Agnes
The Girlfriend Experience