Menashe Lustig and Ruben Nyborg in Menashe - Within Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, a widower battles for custody of his son. A tender drama performed entirely in Yiddish, the film intimately explores the nature of faith and the price of parenthood. Photo: Federica Valabrega
Here's our selection of films to catch on the telly this week, if you're looking for more inspiration, check out our Streaming Spotlight on indigenous filmmakers.
Menashe, Film4, Tuesday, August 10, 2.20am
Joshua Z Weinstein takes a clear-eyed approach to the Hasidic community, crafting an engrossing drama about a man who faces losing custody of his son following the death of his wife if he doesn't remarry quickly. Comic Menashe Lustig plays the lead and the story carries all the more heft because it is loosely based on his own life. Weinstein captures the everyday rhythms of Menashe's daily routine without overly romanticising them or feeling...
Here's our selection of films to catch on the telly this week, if you're looking for more inspiration, check out our Streaming Spotlight on indigenous filmmakers.
Menashe, Film4, Tuesday, August 10, 2.20am
Joshua Z Weinstein takes a clear-eyed approach to the Hasidic community, crafting an engrossing drama about a man who faces losing custody of his son following the death of his wife if he doesn't remarry quickly. Comic Menashe Lustig plays the lead and the story carries all the more heft because it is loosely based on his own life. Weinstein captures the everyday rhythms of Menashe's daily routine without overly romanticising them or feeling...
- 8/9/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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...
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...
- 12/13/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
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...
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- 10/17/2017
- by Robert B. DeSalvo
- Movies.com
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...
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...
- 8/15/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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