If you take time out from watching the Rio Olympics or trading and collecting Rio 2016 pins, there are some new films to see this weekend, including:
(currently screening in NYC and other major markets)
JOSHY
Director: Jeff Baena
Country: United States
Time: 93 min.
Distributor: Lionsgate
As seen at Sundance 2016 and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival a fortnight ago, this may be the Jewey’ist romantic comedy in several years,… according to the Director’s speech at Sundance. I believe that all but two of the leads are of Jewish heritage, and one of the hookups involve a game Jewish Summer Camp geography (sheket b’vakasha). In the film, we meet Joshy (Thomas Middleditch, appears in Silicon Valley). His engagement has fallen apart after his fiance kills herself on his birthday. He is in mourning, so of course his bachelor party buddies organize a road trip to Ojai, California to help him recover. Some girls appear, as do some unwanted guests, and a party happens. And that’s when y’all get real. Also stars Nick Kroll (The Kroll Show); Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip); Adam Pally (The Mindy Project); Brett Gelman; and Jenny Slate (Obvious Child).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qort7duYxE0
SAUSAGE PARTY
Directors Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Writers Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Voice Stars: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, David Krumholz, Bill Hader
Time 89m
Distributor: Sony
In this animated, R-rated, comedy, filled with sex jokes, hot dogs and buns find out what really happens after they are brought home from a store.
Frank (Voiced by Seth Rogen) is a hot dog (or sausage) hopes to shed his package and consummate his love for a bun named Brenda. A bagel tries to explain what life is about. When he discovers the truth about his fait, comedy begins. The hot dog in the film’s poster is allegedly based on Rogen’s erect penis
CAFE SOCIETY
Director Woody Allen
Writer Woody Allen
Stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively
Time 96 min.
Distributor: Lionsgate
Set in Hollywood and New York City in the 1930s. Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) is bored working for his father, a jeweler, in New York City. SO, he moves to Hollywood to work as a gopher for his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a top talent agent. Bobby falls for his uncle’s secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). She rebuffs Bobby because she already has a boyfriend. wink wink. A romantic comedy of entanglements and lies (and an interest in young women by old men) proceeds.
LITTLE MEN
Directed by: Ira Sachs
Time: 85 min.
Stars: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Michael Barbieri, Theo Taplitz, Talia Balsam, Maliq Johnson, Anthony Angelo Flamminio
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Two teens develop a growing friendship in Brooklyn, N.Y., while the feud between their respective parents (Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle) continues to escalate.
Jake (Theo Taplitz) is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler with dreams of being an artist. He meets the affably brash Tony (Michael Barbieri) at his grandfather’s funeral, and the unlikely pair soon hit it off. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake’s father, Brian (Greg Kinnear), and Tony’s mother, Leonor (Paulina Garcia), threatens to become contentious. Little Men is a critical yet empathetic look at the dangers of gentrification. Ira Sachs, director of Love Is Strange and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner for Forty Shades of Blue, accentuates the natural vibrancy of Brooklyn and brings out the best in his actors.
WEINER
Directors: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg
Time: 96 min.
Distributor: IFC Films
This documentary that follows Former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) as he runs for mayor of New York in 2013, is still playing in some cities. It follows Weiner as a new sex scandal ruins his attempt at a political comeback.
INDIGNATION
Director: James Schamus
Time: 110 min.
Stars: Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Emond, Ben Rosenfield, Philip Ettinger, Danny Burstein, Sarah Chattin
Distributor: Summit Entertainment, Roadside Attractions
Set in Ohio in 1951. Based on the Philip Roth 2008 novel of the same name. A Jewish college student, Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), grows up in Newark, New Jersey (like Roth), the IN DIG NANT son of a very blood stained kosher butcher who fears the future. To study and to avoid the Korean War and his father, he scores entry into a very WASPy college where he falls for a young woman (Sarah Gadon) and clashes with the school’s dean (Tracy Letts). It is in one of the confrontations, film in a single 18 minute take, that we watch a cage fight match between the athiest Jewish young man and the dean who represents 1950s Midwest McCarthyism and academic conservatism.
ANTHROPOID
Director Sean Ellis
Writers Sean Ellis, Anthony Frewin
Stars Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy, Brian Caspe, Karel Hermánek Jr., Sara Arsteinova
Time: 120 minutes
Distributor: Bleeker Street
The World War II thriller “Anthropoid” is set in Prague and an account of the actual Czech-British mission to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich — the principal architect of the Final Solution, and often called the Butcher of Prague. The film follows Jozef Gabcik (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Jamie Dornan), who parachute into Nazi-occupied territory near Prague in December 1941. The underground aids their endeavor. Jozef and Jan move in with a sympathetic family. They meet Marie (Charlotte Le Bon) and Lenka (Anna Geislerova). Jan falls for Marie; Jozef for Lenka, as they plan to carry out the mission.
Coming soon —
The People Vs. Fritz Bauer (August 22) – USA
Utopia Film Festival – Tel Avuiv (September 1)
