Roberta

This movie is sheer brilliance. The director and writer, Eric Mandelbaum, tells the story of Jonathan Fishman and his crusade to better the life of Roberta, a prostitute he encounters years after he knew her as the daughter of his father's maid. But "Roberta" is far from your typical Hollywood story. This film is decidedly uncomfortable to watch because what starts as an act of altruism quickly descends into obsession and Mandelbaum presents the bad-to-worse situation for what it is while refraining (thankfully) from offering us any moral to the story or any tired cliches. After seeing this movie at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, I found myself thinking about it constantly and can only hope a studio has the guts to distribute this flick and promote it wildly. It's a movie that deserves to be seen, even though, I'm sure with it's difficult subject matter, it won't appeal to the masses.