News

Curb Your Enthusiasm returns to Max this month in what’s being called the show’s final season (for now). If you’re not ready for the Larry David-centric comedy series to end, you can binge all eleven of the show’s previous seasons on Max right now before hitting the new episodes.

Tokyo Vice will also be back in February for season 2. Stars Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, and Ayumi Ito are joined by Kubozuka and Miki Maya this time around, as Jake Adelstein feels the danger closing in on him. Max also welcomes you to the premiere of the highly acclaimed (and highly depraved) Dicks: The Musical this month, as a couple of self-obsessed businessmen discover they’re identical twins and decided to bring their divorced parents back together.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) HBO and Max this month…

HBO...

February may be the shortest month, but Max is staying true to its name with a jam-packed schedule of additions all month long!

In addition to dozens of library shows and movies getting added to the platform throughout February—from classics like “Citizen Kane” and “A Clockwork Orange” to recent A24 favorites like “Midsommar” and “Dicks: The Musical“—several major HBO premieres are coming this week to the cabler and its streamer, including Season 11 of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and the final season of the long-running “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Find out The Streamable’s top picks for February, and continue below to the full list of everything new on Max this month!

7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Max in February 2024? “Chasing Flavor” | Thursday, Feb. 1

“The Chew” host and “Top Chef” fan favorite Carla Hall hits the...

Curb Your Enthusiasm begins its 12th and final season and Tokyo Vice returns for season two as part of Max’s February 2024 lineup. The streaming service has also set a February 18th launch date for season 11 of the award-winning, critically acclaimed series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Chef and bestselling author Carla Hall’s Chasing Flavor makes its debut on February 1st, and one of the best seasons of True Detective, True Detective: Night Country with Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, wraps up its too-short season on February 25th. The popular animated series Clone High releases new season two episodes beginning on February 1st.

‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ (Photograph by Courtesy of HBO) Series & Films Arriving On Max In January 2024

February 1

Bad Education (2004)

Batman vs. Robin (2015)

Batman: Bad Blood (2016)

The Bling Ring (2013)

Brooklyn (2015)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Citizen Kane (1941)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Dying of the Light (2014)

Everest...

Visit Films has acquired worldwide sales rights for “Realm of Satan,” the feature film debut of seasoned editor Scott Cummings. The film, a documentary about Satanists, will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and also plays at Cph:dox. On its website, the festival warns potential viewers: “This film contains graphic sexual content.”

Cummings previously directed short film “Buffalo Juggalos,” which won the grand jury prize for live action short at AFI Fest. He has served as the editor on several films that premiered at Sundance including “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Monsters and Men,” “Menashe” and “Wendy.”

“Realm of Satan” is a portrait of Satanists in both everyday and extraordinary situations. Visit Films describes the film as “a ritualistic documentary that casts a spell on viewers, luring them into a mystical world of magic, mystery and misanthropy.”

“Realm of Satan”

Cummings worked in collaboration with members of the...

Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” charts a familiar path of resistance. Raised in the Hasidic Satmar sect of Williamsburg, Feldman escaped an arranged marriage at the age of 19, while pregnant with her first child, and resettled in Germany. While the particular circumstances surrounding Feldman’s flight hold unique power, Feldman’s story belongs to an emerging tradition of tales surrounding the oppressive nature of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, and the people who struggle with the impulse to move on. However, the four-part miniseries adapted from Feldman’s book, also called “Unorthodox,” gives this dilemma a fresh spin.

On one level, “Unorthodox” works within the same expanded universe of religious rebellion explored in recent cinema, from the lesbian drama “Disobedience” to the bittersweet Williamsburg-set father-son drama “Menashe” — which, like “Unorthodox,” largely unfolds in Yiddish. However, director Maria Schrader and creator Anna Winger (“Deutchland 83”) has transformed...

On Monday, after the International Feature Film Oscar committee disqualified the Austrian entry, Sudabeh Mortezai’s “Joy,” the film’s producer and director went over the film and did their own calculations again. “It was a nasty surprise and quite a shock of course,” said Martin Schweighofer, Executive Director of Austrian Films, who sent a protest letter to the Academy on Thursday signed by Mortezai and producer Oliver Neumann.

According to their math, characters speaking subtitled Bini, German, and Pidgin (which uses different grammar and is not intelligible to English speakers) add up to more than 53 percent.

Clearly the languages flow in and out of each other in a way that is tough to count for everyone involved, but the Academy’s six “testers” –including a Pidgin expert–independently calculated the percentages of the languages in the film and came to the conclusion that the English, even without Pidgin, was...

On Monday, after the International Feature Film Oscar committee disqualified the Austrian entry, Sudabeh Mortezai’s “Joy,” the film’s producer and director went over the film and did their own calculations again. “It was a nasty surprise and quite a shock of course,” said Martin Schweighofer, Executive Director of Austrian Films, who sent a protest letter to the Academy on Thursday signed by Mortezai and producer Oliver Neumann.

According to their math, characters speaking subtitled Bini, German, and Pidgin (which uses different grammar and is not intelligible to English speakers) add up to more than 53 percent.

Clearly the languages flow in and out of each other in a way that is tough to count for everyone involved, but the Academy’s six “testers” –including a Pidgin expert–independently calculated the percentages of the languages in the film and came to the conclusion that the English, even without Pidgin, was...

The Academy’s Best International Feature Film committee has disqualified the first-ever Nigerian entry, Genevieve Njaji’s Netflix pickup “Lionheart,” because it is mostly in the English language. Since 2006, the Oscar rules dictate that eligible movies must have a “predominantly non-English dialogue track,” a move made in an attempt to open up more opportunities for films from diverse cultures.

In this case, the official language of Nigeria, which was colonized by the British, is in fact English. The film’s 95-minute running time contains only 11 minutes of non-English dialogue in Igbo, a language of the ethnic group of the Igbo people, making it ineligible for the Best International Feature Film nom. If Nigeria submitted a film which included dialogue that included more than 50 percent in the Igbo language, it would still be eligible. And “Lionheart” can still be submitted for consideration in Best Picture and other categories.

This has happened...

Tiff Midnight Madness breakout has already scored deals in key European territories.

Elle Driver has acquired international sales rights to Us director Keith Thomas’s buzzed-about supernatural horror The Vigil, revolving around the Jewish custom of shemira, or watching over the corpse of a recently deceased person ahead of their burial.

Under the seven-figure deal, the Paris-based company is selling the world aside from the Us, which is being handled by CAA Media Finance.

Elle Driver has already scored deals in the key European territories of Spain (Vertigo), France (Wild Bunch Distribution), Italy (Bim) and Germany (Wild Bunch Germany).

The...

Jewish superstition has been riddled with dybbuks and golems for centuries, but horror movies haven’t wised up to it nearly enough. “The Vigil” is proof that bible-thumping priests and haunted convents can’t have all the spooky fun. In director Keith Thomas’s eerie first feature “The Vigil,” a young man estranged from the Orthodox Jewish community of Borough Park, Brooklyn, agrees to fulfill the duties of a “shomer,” the ritualistic practice of looking after a dead body over the course of one night. Desperate for rent money, he agrees, unwittingly signing up for a long night with a possessed corpse.

The ensuing mayhem relies on the usual preponderance of jump scares, but Thomas combines those moments with aplomb and surprising thematic depth. Set almost exclusively within the confines of the shadowy home, . And if “Conjuring” owner Warner Bros. doesn’t ingest its lore, Thomas has ample potential for...

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today the 10 feature films selected for the Narrative Lab, part of the Ifp Filmmaker Labs, Ifp’s year-long fellowship for first-time filmmakers currently in post-production on their debut feature. The Lab will support the creative teams as they prepare to finish and release their films into the world. Recent films that have participated in the Narrative Lab have included Clementine; Dead Pigs; House of Hummingbird; Jinn; Lost Bayou; Menashe; Noah Land; Nancy; and The Third Wife. The program runs July 15-19 at the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp located in Dumbo, […]...

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today the 10 feature films selected for the Narrative Lab, part of the Ifp Filmmaker Labs, Ifp’s year-long fellowship for first-time filmmakers currently in post-production on their debut feature. The Lab will support the creative teams as they prepare to finish and release their films into the world. Recent films that have participated in the Narrative Lab have included Clementine; Dead Pigs; House of Hummingbird; Jinn; Lost Bayou; Menashe; Noah Land; Nancy; and The Third Wife. The program runs July 15-19 at the Made in NY Media Center by Ifp located in Dumbo, […]...

Thanks to two stars named Rachel — Weisz and McAdams — “Disobedience” led a batch of new films from arthouse auteurs this weekend. This story of forbidden love in a London synagogue setting, like director Sebastián Lelio’s Oscar-winning “A Fantastic Woman,” deals with gay characters fighting for their right to love despite societal taboos. It doubles the opening numbers of any film from Bleecker Street.

Claire Denis’ “Let the Sunshine In” (IFC) also opened unexpectedly strong in New York. But “Mustang” director Deniz Gamze Erguven’s English-language debut “Kings,” and “Duck Butter,” Miguel Arteta’s follow-up to “Beatriz at Dinner,” saw much less impact.

Among holdovers, “Isle of Dogs” (Fox Searchlight) is wrapping up its national run as it heads to a decent $30 million total. “Disobedience” shows the need for fresh titles to feed the hungry specialized audience.

Opening

Disobedience (Bleecker Street) Metacritic: 73; Festivals include: Toronto 2017, Tribeca 2018

$241,276 in 5 theaters; PTA (per...

On Saturday, the final show before the Oscars will go down, which of course will be the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Long the hipper compliment to the Academy Awards, this is the last stop before the season officially ends on Sunday night. Despite the presence of many Oscar nominees in the lineup, this can have no impact on the race, obviously. Voting wrapped up yesterday, so ballots are in. The Spirit Awards simply represent a fun way to wind down the season. They’re often my favorite non Academy event of each year, so they’re well worth keeping an eye on just on their own merit. Of course, below you will see what I think the Spirit Awards will look like this weekend, but first a bit of commentary. Again, by and large it looks like a major competition between Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Get Out,...

While it’s been a rough 2017 overall, It’s been a phenomenal year in film. With that being said, below is a list ranking what I believe are the top 20 films of 2017. It was painstakingly difficult cutting my list of 100 to 50, but even harder from 50 to 20. Some notable films that barely missed the cut include: “Wakefield,” “The Lovers,” “Wonder Woman,” “Baby Driver,” “Super Dark Times,” “It,” “Split,” “Personal Shopper,” “Columbus,” “Menashe” “and yes, I left out the fan favorite, “Dunkirk.” I also want to mention that there are films that I have excluded because I have yet to see them, such as: “Phantom Thread,” “The Darkest Hour,” “Bpm,” and “Molly’s Game” just to name a few.

Continue reading Kyle Kohner’s Top 20 Films Of 2017 at The Playlist.

MaryAnn’s quick take… A bittersweet, deeply human tale, one with a documentary sense of discovery to its setting: a little seen, highly insular ultraorthodox Jewish community. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

There’s a word in Yiddish to describe the sadsack widower at the center of Menashe: schlemiel. A schlemiel isn’t a bad person, but merely one who’s clumsy, inept, a bit of a slob. (No one says the word here, but you can almost see them thinking it in their rolled eyes and their just barely contained polite tolerance for his oafish antics.) It makes the task of winning back custody of his son, nine-year-old Rieven (Ruben Niborsk), much trickier for grocery-store worker Menashe (Menashe Lustig). His ultraorthodox Jewish rabbi (Meyer Schwartz) insists that Menashe remarry before he can...

A Yiddish drama set in a Hasidic Jewish community unpicks patriarchal power politics with a powerful central turn from non-professional Menashe Lustig

Menashe is a deeply felt and absorbing Yiddish-language drama about New York Hasidic Jews. Director Joshua Weinstein expertly seals you in a self-enclosed world whose drama, but for a few plot points concerning an elderly mobile phone, could as well be happening 50 or 100 years ago.

Menashe (played by non-professional Menashe Lustig) is an overweight, shambling widower who works in a convenience store and who has clearly let himself go, though he may not have been all that svelte and presentable in the first place. According to religious rules enforced by the rabbi, Menashe’s young son may not live with him until Menashe remarries; the boy has to stay with his late wife’s disapproving, controlling brother who takes a dim view of Menashe’s chaotic lifestyle and...

Menashe Lustig in the film Alex Lipschultz: 'We definitely had conversations with Menashe and other performers in the film about if there would be or could be serious repercussions for them about being in this movie and what those might be and if they were really prepared for that, should it come' Menashe – which premiered at Sundance in January – finally makes it to UK cinema screens this week. The film, sees documentarian and cinematographer Josh Z Weinstein turn his hand to fictional direction, although the story is firmly rooted in truth. Co-written with Alex Lipschultz and Musa Syeed, the story draws heavily on the real life of its Hasidic Jewish star Menashe Lustig. He plays the character of the same name who, following the death of his wife, begins to fight within the community to retain custody of his son, who rules dictate must live with his brother-in-law until he remarries.

Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project,” Joshua Z. Weinstein’s “Menashe” and Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” are nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Heterodox Award, which goes to films that blur the line between narrative fiction and documentary filmmaking. Guido Hendrikx’s “Stranger in Paradise” and Pawel Lozinski’s “You Have No Idea How Much I Love You” were also nominated for the award. Previous winners include “Boyhood,” “Taxi,” “Beginners,” “All These Sleepless Nights” and “Post Tenebras Lux,” among others. At the same time, the Cinema Eye Honors, which were established in 2007 to honor all facets of non-fiction filmmaking,...

A film based on the real life story of its lead, a non-actor from Brooklyn, as he fights to keep his son after his wife’s death has connected with festival audiences and critics alike

As a tiny film about a hapless Hasidic Jew, starring non-actors speaking almost entirely in Yiddish, hopes for Menashe’s reception were modest, to say the least. Yet it has connected with festival audiences and critics: note-perfect and with a huge heart, it’s a story about a closed community, but one that ripples with resonance. Whatever our culture, it obliquely suggests, we are fundamentally the same. It’s a tonic.

Menashe’s director, Joshua Z Weinstein, a practising non-Orthodox Jew, was raised in suburban New Jersey, but on weekends he would visit his grandparents in Brooklyn and Queens. There, he would catch glimpses of Hasids, stoking his curiosity. He’s primarily a cinematographer, and...

And we’re off to the races! The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) officially kicked off the 2017-18 awards season with this evening’s 27th Annual Gotham Awards, which took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City and were hosted by John Cameron Mitchell.

Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” proved to be the night’s biggest winner, with three wins, including Best Screenplay, the Audience Award, and Breakthrough Director. Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name” proved victorious in the Best Feature category, winning out against a stacked list of competitors. Earlier in the night, star Timothee Chalamet won the Breakthrough Actor award for his star-making turn in the romance.

The ceremony’s nomination list was studded with some of the year’s most beloved indies, including “Get Out,” “Call Me by Your Name,” Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” Kogonada’s “Columbus,” and Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project.

Just a few moments ago, the 2017 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations were revealed to the public, continuing on with Phase One of the awards season. This precursor marks another new point in the race, as many of these movies nominated today will be contending for Oscar attention as well. Removed from the Academy Award race though, this is just a great precursor because of what it nominates. The films are small in budget and often need a leg up, so this is a spotlight on what the viewing public should be searching out in theaters and at home on Blu-Ray or VOD. Congrats to the nominees and read on to see who and what they were… You’ll see all of the nominees below, but as you’ll be able to tell, it appears to be a race between Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Get Out, and Lady Bird,...

Now in its eighth year, the American Film Festival offers a unique perspective on recent developments in U.S. indie filmmaking. That’s because it happens in Poland, staged at the stylish Kino Nowe Horyzonty film center in Wroclaw, also home to the summer New Horizons festival, which has more of a European tilt.

Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.

That spirit is...

Despite the insanity of announcing year-end award nominations with still well over two months to go in 2017, we have to give it to the annual Ifp Gotham Awards for being more on-point than most trophy ceremonies this season.

They’ve now unveiled the nominations for their 27th edition and leading the pack is Jordan Peele’s social thriller Get Out. Also among the stellar group of Best Feature nominations are Call Me by Your Name, The Florida Project, I, Tonya, and Good Time.

Check out the full list of nominations below, including Columbus, Ex Libris, Rat Film, Lady Bird, Marjorie Prime, and more of the best films of the year. If The Academy takes just a few notes from this group come next year, we’ll be mightily pleased.

Best Feature

Call Me by Your Name

The Florida Project

Get Out

Good Time

I, Tonya

Best Documentary

Ex Libris – The...

Consider awards season officially started. The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), the nation’s premier member organization of independent storytellers, has announced the nominees for its 27th Annual Ifp Gotham Awards. For 2017, ten competitive awards will be presented to independent features and series.

This year’s nominees are lead by Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” which pulled in four nominations (including Best Feature, Breakthrough Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor), but the breakout debut is trailed by four other hot contenders, each with three nominations to their name. Those include Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” Kogonada’s “Columbus,” and Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project.”

The Gothams also heaped nomination glory on other films that are expected to contend this season, including Craig Gillespie’ “I, Tonya,” the Safdie brothers’ “Good Time,” and Dee Rees’ “Mudbound,” which will be receiving a special ensemble awards.

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical Spider-Man: Homecoming (umpteenth superhero-franchise reboot; Tom Holland, Zendaya, Michael Keaton, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr.; rated PG-13) Girls Trip (comedy; Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Larenz Tate, Mike Colter, Kate Walsh, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah; rated R) Lady Macbeth (romantic drama; Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis; rated R) Menashe (drama; Menashe Lustig, Ruben Niborski; rated PG) Step (documentary about an inner-city Baltimore dance team...

Read More...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

78/52 (Alexandre Philippe)

There’s been documentaries that analyze entire cinematic movements, directors, actors, writers, specific films, and more aspects of filmmaking, but it’s rare to see a feature film devoted to a single scene. With 78/52, if the clunky title addition didn’t tell you already, it explores the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho with exacting precision and depth. Featuring interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Guillermo del Toro,...

In 2017, we’ve seen five specialized subtitled films gross over $1 million. But the languages aren’t French, or German, or from anywhere in western Europe: The winners are Turkish, Farsi, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

These films came from Turkey, Iran, Israel, and even the United States, and played at conventional “art house” theaters (as opposed to releases from India, China, Mexico, and elsewhere, which aim at ethnically similar audiences).

Once upon a time, $100 million and more (in adjusted grosses) was possible for films like “La Dolce Vita,” “Life Is Beautiful,” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: more recently, “Amelie,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” and “The Motorcycle Diaries” easily surpassed $20 million. However, over the last few decades we’ve seen the subtitled market shift from decline to near collapse.

Read More:Why French Cinema Faces an Uncertain Future in America

What happened this year shows some revival in the market, but with some twists.

What kind of man is Menashe? A valid question, considering his own initial apparent fluidity on the rigidity of his own cultural rules and restrictions. In a deeply sensitive portrayal by the talented Menashe Lustig in his debut role, the film tells the story of a down-on-his-luck widower who’s bucking the rules of his devoutly Hasidic Jewish culture in his efforts to retain custody of his adolescent son. The arbitrators of his insular modern-day community, nestled in the beating heart of New York City, have deemed him an incapable father, an unmotivated nonstarter, and a directionless slob. Never mind that he only wants to raise his son… What if they're right?? Also, there are rules. Including a big rule, stating that a child must be...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

As the Summer season winds down, a new independent flick enters the box office arena concerning the challenges of single parenting. Oh, and this is from a male viewpoint, but it’s not a heart-tugging comedy that will make moviegoers recall The Courtship Of Eddie’S Father (the flick with Glenn Ford or the TV version with Bill Bixby), which helped inspire several sitcoms like “Bachelor Father” and “My Three Sons”. Yes, it’s about a widower, thought its main concern isn’t the search for a new mate (it does factor in a bit). The film is set in New York, but its language gives the story a decided foreign feel. Most of the dialogue (about 95%) is in Yiddish, as the world of Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community is the home of a man (well, almost a Mensch) named Menashe.

The story begins in the bustling early morning hours...

Chicago – We all belong to something, be it a family, workplace, congregation or (expansively) a tribe. But within all that belonging is a sometimes nagging feeling of being an outsider. There is not a human being in existence that hasn’t felt that way, and a new film expresses that feeling in “Menashe.”

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The title is a character, a Hasidic Orthodox Jewish man whose wife had died, and due to tribal/religious tradition has lost the right to care for his son. He is the outsider in a very strict religious order, with a dogma that affects virtually every element of his difficult life. In another world, that type of individual would simply walk away, but within this closed society Menashe fights to exist and express, often taking matters destructively into his own hands. The film is unique, funny, sad and wise, plus gives audience outsiders a glimpse into...

Ifp’s signature event, Ifp Week, has this year expanded to include a slew of public screenings, talks, meet ups, and exhibitions, all centered on cutting-edge independent content for the big screen, small screen, and Internet. This year will play home to faces old and new — including a number of exciting speakers who return to Ifp Week after launching their careers at the annual event, including speakers like Barry Jenkins and Dee Rees.

Read More:Why the Safdie Brothers Decided to Put Robert Pattinson in Their Gritty World of New York Amateurs

Under the leadership of Head of Programming Amy Dotson and producer Erik Luers, the Ifp Week talks and events will run September 17 – 21 in and around Brooklyn, NY at Bric, The William Vale Hotel, and Ifp’s headquarters, Made in NY Media Center by Ifp.

Check out the newest additions to the Ifp Week schedule, including Filmmaker Magazine Talks, the Ifp Screen Forward Conference,...

You have never seen a movie quite like Joshua Weinstein‘s “Menashe.” The film was shot by Weinstein on a low-budget, in near cinema-verite style, deep in the heart of New York City’s Hasidic community, and it’s presented in Yiddish with English subtitles. Talk about a gamble even for an indie production.

The film chronicles the trials and tribulations of recently widowed Hasidic Jew Menashe (Menashe Lustig in his big-screen debut) whose community forces his son to be raised by his openly contemptuous brother in-law.

Continue reading ‘Menashe’: Director Joshua Weinstein & His Star On Hasidic Life & The Pleasures Of Quiet Drama [Interview] at The Playlist.

Joshua Weinstein delivers a rare and unique film with Menashe. He takes us inside the Hasidic Community in Brooklyn’s Borough Park and tells the story of Menashe, a grocery...

A humane and unsentimental character study of a man struggling to take care of his son after his wife’s death also offers a fascinating look inside a secretive pocket of Brooklyn

For many Brooklynites, there’s a lingering curiosity surrounding Borough Park, an area south of the many hipster-dwelling enclaves that have cropped up in recent years. Despite being within jogging distance of the many cold brew and avocado smash-serving cafes, it remains refreshingly devoid of gentrification, for it’s home to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, one of the largest in the Us.

It’s an understandably secretive and self-contained part of the city, but in the charming new Yiddish language drama Menashe, director Joshua Z Weinstein offers us a rare glimpse inside, focusing on the life of one schlimazel (that means an “unlucky man”) and taking us with him through an alternately pedestrian and emotionally impactful week in his life.

Before making the film Menashe, documentarian Joshua Weinstein donned a yarmulke and explored Brooklyn’s Borough Park, getting to know the stories and personalities of New York’s Hasidic Jews. That was the easy part of the process. It was trickier when Weinstein returned to the neighborhood with a camera crew to work with the locals he’d hired for his cast. In this insular society—which for the most part has kept itself purposefully cut off from popular culture—the whole Menashe project seemed morally suspect. Weinstein reportedly lost locations and actors as the shoot went on, and left some people’s names out of the credits so that they wouldn’t bring shame to their families.

Throughout, the movie’s key collaborator remained steadfast. And thank goodness he did. Menashe Lustig brings warmth and a lumpen charisma to Menashe’s lead role, giving life to a film based...

Menashe Director: Joshua Z. Weinstein Written by: Joshua Z. Weinstein, Alex Lipschulz, Musa Syeed Cast: Menashe Lustig, Ruben Niborski, Yoel Weisshau, Meyer Schwartz Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 7/24/17 Opens: July 28, 2017 When Rabbi Menachem Schneerson died in 1994, people asked me whether I had gone to his funeral. Schneerson, whom some in his […]

The post Menashe Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Michael Haneke’s Happy End also among titles in non-competitive strand.

The Sarajevo International Film Festival (August 11-18) has unveiled the line-up for its Kinoscope programme, with 17 titles competing.

The non-competitive strand, which first launched in 2012, selects titles from around the globe and excludes territories featured in the main competition.

Among this year’s cohort are major titles to have competed at Cannes including the Palme d’Or-winner The Square, Michael Haneke’s latest feature Happy End and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s well-received Loveless.

Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa’s Gabriel And The Mountain, Léonor Serraille’s Montparnasse Bienvenüe, Chloé Zhao’s The Rider and Valeska Grisebach’s Western are also included.

The 2017 Kinoscope Line-up

Ava

France, 2017, 105 min.

Director: Léa Mysius

Gabriel And The Mountain / Gabriel E A Montanha

Brazil, France, 2017, 127 min.

Director: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa

A Ghost Story

USA, 2017, 93 min.

Director: David Lowery

Godspeed / Yi Lu Shun Feng

Taiwan, 2016, 111 min.

Director: Mong-Hong Chung

Happy End

France, Austria, Germany...

The heat of the summer season is upon us, and with it comes the most promising tentpole line-up of the year thus far. (Along with it, there’s perhaps the best film I’ve seen in several years.) After you finish catching up on the best films of 2017 so far, kick off the second half of this year with our recommended picks below.

Matinees to See: Bronx Gothic (7/12), To the Bone (7/14), Chasing Coral (7/14), The Fencer (7/21), Killing Ground (7/21), Kékszakállú (7/21), Strange Weather (7/28), Brigsby Bear (7/28), and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (7/28)

15. Person To Person (Dustin Guy Defa; July 28)

Synopsis: Follows a variety of New York characters as they navigate personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.

Trailer

Why You Should Watch It: One of the more divisive films to come out of Sundance this year, the 16mm-shot Person to Person packs quite the varied ensemble — from Michael Cera...

We're only at the year's halfway mark, but July is quickly shaping up to be the best moviegoing month of 2017: There are blockbusters lighthearted (Spidey's back yet again, and Sony swears they've cracked the formula this time) and solemn (Chris Nolan goes to war with Harry Styles in tow). Do you like your sci-fi weird (monkey in a tank!) or extra-weird (sentient brains!)? Indie types can check out an urgent new doc on Syria, a groundbreaking Yiddish-language drama or a British period piece-cum-feminist revenge thriller metaphysical drama. See, there...

A24 cemented its perception as the new-model indie distributor when Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” won three Oscars, including that dramatic best-picture win. So what does the upstart indie, hailed for holding the skeleton key that unlocks the precious millennial demo, do for an encore?

The Tribeca Film Festival showcased two upcoming A24 releases, both of which seem oddly retro: World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. They also dropped the trailer for Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe” and suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.

What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight,...

A24 cemented its perception as the new-model indie distributor when Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” won three Oscars, including that dramatic best-picture win. So what does the upstart indie, hailed for holding the skeleton key that unlocks the precious millennial demo, do for an encore?

The Tribeca Film Festival showcased three upcoming A24 releases, all of which seem oddly retro. There’s Yiddish-language Hasidic family drama “Menashe,” World War II costume drama “The Exception,” starring Oscar-winner Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II, and “The Lovers,” starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as an unhappy older married couple. Suddenly, the new boss looks a lot like the old one.

What gives? This older-demo arthouse trio could easily carry the signature blue-and-white logo of venerable specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics. But don’t be deceived by appearances. A24 is a far cry from older-generation studio indies like Spc and Fox Searchlight, which tend to follow an established playbook.

Chris here. It's worth remembering as we head toward the clanging of the summer movie season that we will have some quieter cinematic treasures ahead to cleanse our palettes. One of my most anticipated is Sundance favorite Menashe, which Nathaniel recently reviewed. 

Menashe stars Menashe Lustig (loosely portraying himself) as a newly widowered father trying to regain custody of his son in their very conservative Hasidic Jewish community. If that sounds a little maudlin, the film promises to be balanced by humor and authenticity, as it stars actual residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood it depicts. The film will be the first non-English language film for distributor A24 - good to see their Oscar triumph with Moonlight isn't making them shy away from the tough sell, not to mention their commitment to new American voices like Menashe director Joshua Z. Weinstein.

The film's first trailer just dropped, and it is delicate...

Opening in Beverly Hills on April 26 and continuing to May 3, the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will showcase contemporary and classic films highlighting the best in Jewish Cinema.Of the 27 films showing, 14 are Los Angeles premieres. One World Premiere, one North American Premiere and one U.S. Premiere make for some great discoveries.

An opportunity for film lovers to celebrate the rich tapestry of Jewish history, Jewish heritage and Jewish characters, the Opening Night Red Carpet Reception at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills evening will honor one of the entertainment industry’s most beloved figures, Ed Asner, with the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary “My Friend Ed”, directed by Sharon Baker and executive produced by Liza Asner.

For his distinguished body of work as an actor, and for his relentless commitment to activism and to preserving Jewish life.

Ed Asner

You know him best as Lou Grant,...

The road to a respectable life is a demanding one for Menashe. He barely makes enough money as a grocery clerk to pay the rent of his small apartment. He is shunned by his family, neighbors, and boss for not conforming to the customary way of life. He’s in danger of losing complete custody of his son following the death of his wife. While aspects of this logline could be the basis for more than a few character studies each year, Menashe sets itself apart by its striking specificity, taking place in an ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community of Brooklyn and performed completely in Yiddish.

Picked up by A24 following its Sundance premiere, the first trailer has now arrived for the summer release, including a quote from our review. I said, “Director and co-writer Joshua Z Weinstein understands that this entry point into the story must be more than just that and crafts an intimate,...

"Think about what's best for your son." A24 has debuted an official trailer for the acclaimed indie drama titled Menashe, a very unique film set entirely within Brooklyn's ultra-orthodox Jewish community. The film tells the story of a widowed father of a young son, struggling to make ends meet and stay in his kid's life. His Rabbi has required that his son live with his strict uncle's family, but Menashe is given one more week to prove he's a capable parent. Starring Menashe Lustig as Menashe, and Ruben Nyborg. This was filmed in secret in the neighborhood, and is one of the few films that is entirely in Yiddish, preserving the integrity of the culture it's portraying. This is a good gem to seek out, and has a tender, charming side to it. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Joshua Z. Weinstein's Menashe, direct from A24's YouTube: Within Brooklyn's ultra-orthodox Jewish community,...

Back in January, A24 made headlines for its acquisition of “Menashe,” one of the breakout hits at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the first foreign-language film to be acquired by the studio. The debut narrative feature by documentary filmmaker Joshua Weinstein, “Menashe” was universally loved by critics who saw it at the festival, with The Hollywood Reporter pointing to the film’s nonprofessional cast of actors as “wonderfully natural screen presences” who deliver an “absolutely sincere” story of growing up as part of an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

Continue reading Experience Brooklyn As You Never Have Before In The Gentle First Trailer For A24’s ‘Menashe’ at The Playlist.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Two Very Different Movies Look to Divide Up the Weekend Box Office Business

With Disney’s Beauty and the Beast continuing to dominate at the box office with $90 million this past weekend, and Saban’s Power Rangers (Lionsgate) also doing exceedingly well with $40 million in second place, you wouldn’t think anyone would try to release a movie that might get overshadowed by those two blockbusters.

That said, what’s interesting about this weekend is the fact there are two very different movies that are competing very heavily for second place with DreamWorks Animation’s latest animated family film, The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox), taking on the live action English remake of Ghost In The Shell (Paramount), starring Scarlett Johansson. In most cases,...

Exclusive: Vertigo snaps up rights to drama set in ultra-orthodox Jewish community.

Vertigo has snapped up UK rights to Sundance and Berlin hit Menashe from Mongrel International.

Joshua Z Weinstein’s debut feature, starring Menashe Lustig, was shot covertly within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn over two years.

The film follows the life of actor Menashe Lustig, a loving but hapless single father who tries to maintain custody of his son in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home.

The Yiddish-language feature was the first foreign language film picked up by Us distributor A24, which also secured Chinese rights to the film.

As previously revealed by Screen, the film recently sold to France, Australia and Canada.

Weinstein wrote the script with Alex Lipschultz and Musa Syeed.

Alex Lipschultz, Traci Carlson, Danny Finkelman, Weinstein and Yoni Brook produced, with Danelle Eliav, Adam Margules, Chris Columbus and [link...

The Summer Is GoneOne of the greater pleasures of New Directors/New Films, the yearly collaboration in New York between the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art, is reveling in the mystery of emerging directors. Of course, many and most festivals have offerings from first (and second and third time) directors, but at none is this explicitly the point. When a minimum of information is offered, save for a brief bio, relinquished is the burden of pre-viewing research and any expectations that may arise from it. More prominent titles have been covered by the Notebook already, but here are highlights from around the globe, from directors not-yet-known, though hopefully for not much longer. The Summer Is Gone echoes the ghosts of Edward Yang by locating drama in a particular moment in history, wedding personal histories to political ones. Set in inner Mongolia, the film throws back to the ever-receding 90s,...