After his wife passes away, a Hasidic cantor enlists the aide of a community college biology teacher when he becomes obsessed with determining how long it will take her body to return to the earth. This movie is a very understated comedy. It's surprsingly clever and funny. It's wonderful to see Son of Saul's Geza Rohrig in something wacky and fresh. Matthew Broderick is absolutely hysterical. This is one zany buddy comedy! 5/5 |
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Mad is about a recently divorced bipolar woman who has a breakdown and ends up in the hospital. Meanwhile, her two daughters are rather selfish and self-centered and unsure of what to do with the mother they are kinda ashamed of, mad at, and a little scared of. This is one of the better psychward movies I've seen. Mad does a really good job at representing mental illness as something people live and deal with everyday, but that it can be a real struggle no matter how "weird" you think a person is. The performances are understated and lovely. I appreciated the care taken with this little gem. Maryann Plunkett is wonderful as mom, Mel. 4/5 Through the Wall is an Israeli romantic comedy about a hasidic woman who wants to get married but doesn't have a groom. It's a little predictable, but what romantic comedy isn't? Are we ever actually surprised by the coupling at the end? No. No we are never surprised. Through the Wall is quirky and funny and cute and delightful. It's easy and breezy with the right amount of silly and sad. It was a little as though Muriel's Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding had an Orthodox baby. I enjoyed this one. Give it a try! 4/5 Borealis is an enjoyable Canadian road dramedy about a gambling addict, single-father (Jonas Chernick) who takes his teenage, pot smoking daughter (Joey King) from Winnipeg to Churchill to see the Northern Lights before she goes completely blind. Of course Jonah, the father, owes money and so he's also on the lam with two gangsters (Kevin Pollack and Cle Bennett) hot on his tail. This is a delightful little Canadian film. King delivers as the daughter who is rapidly losing her vision. Chernick wrote and produced the film. This is the 5th collaboration between Chernick and director Sean Garrity. Ultimately, the film could have dispensed with the gambling debt/mob sub plot but truly, Pollack and Bennett are really enjoyable as Tubby and Brick. Give it a whirl. Support Canadian cinema. 4/5 Unlocking the Cage is a new documentary that follows the group NonHuman Rights Project that has set about to save incarcerated Chimpanzees by filing a Writ under Habeas Corpus. The argument being that Chimps (and Elephants and Dolpins...) can indeed communicate, are self-determining and autonomous beings, and are capable of empathy therefore they should not be incarcerated for medical testing or in improper enclosures in which they are isolated and treated poorly. Obviously the problem is in legally assigning personhood to a nonhuman. The argument is that the personhood would be equivalent to that of a small child--no legal rights that go with adult personhood and none of the responsibilities that go along with that personhood. This doc is a bit hard to watch if you're sensitive to witnessing the poor treatment of animals. 4/5 The Dwarvenaut is a crowd pleasing bizarre sub-culture doc. It follows entrepreneur/artist Stephan Pokorny as he leads his Bushwick based company "Dwarven Forge" through their third Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's company Dwarven Forge hand sculpts interchangeable miniature modular terrain for Dungeons & Dragons gaming such as dungeons, caverns, and "Valoria" a complete complex city with its own history and lore. The Dwarvenaut follows Pokorny to gaming conventions as he works to pull off a $2million Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's passion, talent, and skill combined with his likability and quirkiness make this a fun and delightful film going experience where the audience is rooting for Dwarven Forge's success even if they've never played a game like D&D before. 4/5 Tickled is one of the most intriguing and strange documentaries I've seen in a while. This is a film about a journalist from New Zealand who stumbles on a weird website about "Competitive Endurance Tickling" and in doing so, inadvertently happens to uncover a very tangled and twisted plot of blackmail and threats, reaching far beyond investigating a strange youtube video and the production company behind it and others like it. This is super fascinating and bizarre. 4/5 I often have a tough time with "Cripspiration" and stories of human triumph over illness. There's nothing really quite as dismissive than hearing from someone "Ooooh! You're soooo strong! You've been through so much! What a hero! What an inspiration!" No one is sick to inspire you. You're not a hero for having a chronic illness, that's just part of your daily life. It's heroic to be sick. That said, I quite enjoyed "Miss Sharon Jones!" the new music documentary from Barbara Kopple. Miss Sharon Jones! is about the soul singer Sharon Jones of the Dap Kings, focusing on a year in the life of Jones as she struggles to beat pancreatic cancer at the peak of her career. The cancer forced Dap Kings to delay their tour and record album Give Them What They Want in 2014. Jones was roughly 40 years old and a wedding singer when the Dap Kings started in the late 1990s, and she was nominated for her first Grammy for GTPWTW in 2014 at the age of 58. 4/5 |
LindseyHere is where I post new reviews as I see films throughout the year. Archives
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