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Join Telegram ChannelA bittersweet chronicle with accents of Harold and Maud, carried by an irresistible Jewish humor and a deep melancholy.
No doubt the charm of this US independent film comes from the fact that we don't see many of the same ilk anymore. But it operates from the opening scene to never let you go. As soon as his central character appears, Ben, a synagogue singer who has lost his faith and…. his voice after the death of his wife, of whom he scrupulously keeps in his phone the 762 voice messages that she had left him throughout their life together. Ben incapable of loving again or singing again in the heart of an environment that we will quickly discover is very far from the traditional and strict Jewish family.
Between his mother who remarried to a woman of Filipino origin and a rabbi who is very accommodating when it comes to religious obligations when he has to deal with generous donors and who dreams of setting up his own daughter for him. And in this irresistible chaos of melancholic drollery that is Ben's life, an element emerges which will add a very tangy zest of eccentricity: his music teacher from his college years whom he meets again by chance and who asks him for help. help with his bat mitzvah.
The depressive comedy doped with Jewish humor handled with mastery then takes on, over the course of the unexpected rapprochement between these two solitudes, the air of Harold and Maud by Al Ashby. A feeling reinforced by a very 70's aesthetic, the result of filming on 16mm film and which symbolizes the DNA of a film, ultimately reluctant to be placed in a box. The faithful accomplice of Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and the iconic heroine of Terror on the lineCarole Kane, find two of the most beautiful roles of their careers.
By Nathan Silver. With Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Dolly de Leon… Duration 1h51. Released October 23, 2024