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Despite the title of this film’s association with the dance world, its subject is not the stuff of bouncy, bubbly musicals. It concerns the struggles and challenges faced by a military family. This was explored last year in a couple of films, most notably Thank You For Your Service. Though sharing a similar service setting, the Middle East, this new film comes from Israel, where a stint in the military is mandatory for citizens (we learned that from the media frenzy surrounding one of last year’s biggest stars, Gal Gadot). The story bounces back from the home front to just a few hours away. Watching the drama unfold, the title makes sense. This particular dance is highly structured, with an exact number of steps which leads you right back to where you began. That’s the basics of the Foxtrot.

The film is structured much like a play...

Samuel Maoz’s Israeli drama “Foxtrot” is willfully confusing, emotionally chaotic, and occasionally anarchic. It makes complete sense from one angle, but no sense at all from another. In other words, it reflects its subject perfectly. As the movie opens, Michael Feldmann (Israeli superstar Lior Ashkenazi, “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer”) has just learned that his soldier son was killed on duty. But is Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray) actually dead? No. Maybe. Yes? Maoz (“Lebanon”) isn’t going to make this easy for anyone. He shoots the story in three uncomfortably interconnected acts, with multiple perspectives and...

Beware the Ides of March! Which, in cineplex terms, means an odd couple of releases set in different (but equally violent) eras of Russia; an outstanding Israeli film about grief; and not one, not two, but three sci-fi-inflected blockbusters. (Warning: Only one of them features Oprah.) Plus Wes Anderson makes a welcome return with stop-motion figurines in tow and a pair of deliciously disturbing indie releases find women in various perils. Here's what's coming to a theater (hey, remember those?!) near you this March.

The Death of Stalin (Mar. 9th)

Bad news,...

Director/screenwriter Samuel Maoz on Foxtrot: "The hero is creating his own punishment. And fights against anyone who tries to save him." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Foxtrot, Silver Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival and Israel's shortlisted Oscar submission, begins with every parent's worst nightmare happening to the Feldmann family. We see a mother fainting because she knows that the Israeli military officers who have come to her home are here to inform them that their son Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray) had fallen in service.

The mother, Dafna (Sarah Adler) is given morphine to make her sleep, as we get to follow the father Michael's (Lior Ashkenazi) response to the devastating news. He descends into a private and national hell with fine subtleties of suffering and broad kicks of sadism. It is a marvelous, wickedly truthful performance because it balances so many emotions.

Michael Feldmann (Lior Ashkenazi) with his wife...

"Did you know the foxtrot is a dance?" Sony Classics has finally unveiled an official Us trailer for one of the best films of 2017, titled Foxtrot, which is Israel's main entry into the Academy Awards this year. Foxtrot premiered at the Venice, Telluride & Toronto Film Festivals and we posted a teaser trailer during its festival run. Now we finally get a full trailer and you can get a glimpse at this masterpiece. Foxtrot is about a family who must face the facts when their son is killed at a desolate military outpost. The film tells both sides of the story, starting with the parents. Featuring Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Yonaton Shiray, and Shira Haas. I caught this in Venice and flipped for it (read my review), a phenomenal film with exceptional sound design, cinematography, performances, and an emotional rollercoaster of a story that you will never forget. Here's the official...

Lior Ashkenazi: "I admire David Bowie. The thing he had the biggest success with, let's say Ziggy Stardust, and then he changed to something else." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2017, Lior Ashkenazi starred with Richard Gere in Joseph Cedar's Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer and opposite Sarah Adler as the parents of an Israeli soldier (Yonaton Shiray) in Samuel Maoz's Venice International Film Festival Silver Lion winner and Oscar Foreign Language shortlisted film Foxtrot.

Coming up for Lior is his portrayal of Yitzhak Rabin in José Padilha's 7 Days In Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike (Cédric Jimenez's The Man With The Iron Heart, based on Laurent Binet's novel HHhH) and Daniel Brühl, and Julie Delpy's My Zoe with Gemma Arterton, Richard Armitage, and Brühl. In Dragos Buliga's The Wanderers: The Quest Of The Demon Hunter, with Armand Assante,...

Foxtrot star Lior Ashkenazi with his director Samuel Maoz and Anne-Katrin Titze at Sony Pictures Classics Photo: Gary Springer

Foxtrot, Israel's Oscar submission, directed by Samuel Maoz, stars Lior Ashkenazi (terrific in Joseph Cedar's Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer opposite Richard Gere), Sarah Adler (Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette) and Yonaton Shiray (Natalie Portman's A Tale Of Love And Darkness).

Maoz, whose last film Lebanon won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, teams up again with cinematographer Giora Bejach to produce an emotionally charged drama of man-made destiny. It begins with every parent's worst nightmare. Lior told me earlier that in Israel audiences knew from the first second what kind of news the military officers were bearing to the Feldmann family.

Michael Feldmann (Lior Ashkenazi) with his wife Dafna (Sarah Adler)

It might take international audiences a moment longer...