CONSCIOUS CINEMA
life of Jewish everyman Larry Gopnick (Michael
Stuhlbarg), a physics professor who strives to be
a loving husband, a good provider and a competent professional. However, despite his well-meaning efforts, he’s repeatedly put upon by ungrateful
kids, a ne’er-do-well brother, his unfaithful wife, a
bigoted neighbor and judgmental colleagues. And,
when he seeks guidance from a trio of rabbis, he’s
met with cluelessness, irrelevance and indifference. But, as Larry comes to discover, life’s tests
are nearly always accompanied by meaningful rewards—which, in turn, are followed by new and bigger tests with new and even bigger rewards. How
Larry chooses to respond to these circumstances
thus serves to frame the prevailing perspective he
holds about his life, his reactions to those subsequent experiences and how his reality fundamentally unfolds, all of which, in turn, make it possible
for him (if he so chooses) to assess (and, if needed,
to alter) his viewpoint going forward.
Similar circumstances shape the narrative of “I’ll
See You in My Dreams” (2015). Having lost many
of the things that she loves about life, Carol, a vi-
brant but lonely widow (Blythe Danner), must decide whether she’ll spend her remaining days in
relative seclusion