O Despertar da Juventude

An exceptional, moving performance all the way around. Every aspect exuded excellence yet this is a film that isn't for everyone. Deep dive into an ethnic that most of us only very slightly know and even fewer understand without being one of them. It's one of those rare glimpses into the unknown and still one can never thoroughly understand unless it is YOUR story.

I can not imagine y'all watching it. Painfully slow but so exacting in every detail. Beautiful in the extreme when it explores things you are familiar with, but mystifying in the unknown pieces of those lives and loves.

And the soundtrack featuring clarinetist David Krakauer takes you on a wild ride to heaven and back. Just took my breath away...

Minyan (2020) was co-written and directed by Eric Steel. It stars Samuel H. Levine as David, a young yeshiva student, who has to come to grips with the fact that he is gay, and the fact that he is not certain that he believes in God.

Sadly, coming out as gay in a traditional family is a problem for many people. The centrality of this problem is reflected in the number of movies about gays coming out. What makes this movie different is the superb acting, and the uncanny rendering of Orthodox Jewish life in Brooklyn in the 1980's.

A minyan is ten men (or ten people) that are required for a full Jewish prayer service. As do people in other religions, Jews pray all the time. But it requires a minyan to bring out the Torah. Part of the plot depends upon the fact that David and his father can make a minyan where they live.

We saw this film as part of Image Out, the excellent Rochester LGBT Film Festival. This isn't a great movie, but I think it's worth seeing. The film has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.7. I thought it was better than that and rated it 8.

I didn't have high expectations when starting this film, and yet it crept up on me. Expertly crafted, it's a subtle, yet powerful piece. A dark humor runs within it, but I found it illuminating in so many ways- the love, support, idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies of family and communities.

A worthwhile watch when you want to be moved by a film.

Extraordinary film. Feels completely real. Great cast and directing.

I didn't mind this at all, slow burn but not boring. There was something intriguing about the narrative, some left of field scenes and plot holes not explored but mostly a good film. I'm a fan of anything set in New York City and this was a side of it I'd never seen before.