On Demand picks

November 12, 2011

A SERIOUS MAN ****

(Max on Comcast) The Coen brothers remake the Book of Job in 1967 suburban Minneapolis. It’s Jewish Bergman and one of their very best films - a pitch-black Old Testament farce in which God is either absent, absent-minded, or mad as hell. Love it or hate it, it’ll haunt you for a long time. Michael Stuhlbarg plays the hapless hero. (R; runs through Nov. 24) TY BURR

AMELIA **½

(Max on Comcast) It’s Oscar season: Time to wheel out Hilary Swank for her annual viewing. This biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart is a big, hollow white elephant with a sharp idea struggling to get out: How does a woman marketed to the public as a star turn herself back into a human being? Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor play the men in Earhart’s life. (PG; runs through Nov. 24)

TY BURR

JOHN CARPENTER’S ESCAPE FROM L.A. **½

(Max on Comcast) Having escaped from New York, Kurt Russell’s outlaw, Snake Plissken, goes bicoastal, saving the day in 2013 for the new religious dictatorship running the United States by plunging into the new island Los Angeles - split off from the rest of the country by The Big One, and turned into a penal colony. Not much story; the real fun comes from the film’s ruined versions of LA icons. (R; runs through Nov. 24)