Arts & Culture | Film

From Radical To Nebbish

04/10/2013 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Film

Two new films opening this weekend at the Quad Cinema offer riffs on classic clichés of 20th-century Jewish-American masculinity: the radical firebrand and the nebbish. Unsurprisingly, it’s the rabble-rouser who merits our attention, but the nebbish is given a sufficiently unusual to be interesting too.

Andre Gregory’s Back Story

04/04/2013 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Film

Louis Malle’s 1981 film “My Dinner with Andre” was about as unlikely an art film hit as one could imagine. A film that consisted of a pair of downtown theater mavens talking about their art and their lives in a restaurant for nearly two hours ... well, it just didn’t sound like a blockbuster.

Music Where The Dialogue Should Be

03/19/2013 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Film

“Dorfman in Love,” a new feature film opening on March 22, directed by Bradley Leong from an original screenplay by Wendy Kout, betrays its true origins almost from its opening shots of a sun-gilded Los Angeles and its suburbs.

The Darker Side Of The Sunshine State

03/11/2013 | Sandee Brawarsky | Jewish Week Book Critic | Film

A man in shorts and dark knee socks walks outside to take out the garbage and returns with yesterday’s newspaper, and morning begins again in Kings Point, a condominium community in Delray Beach, Fla., now the subject of a new film.

Of Rothian Proportions

03/06/2013 | George Robinson | Special to the Jewish Week | Film

After having read all of his novels and autobiographical books, you might be forgiven for thinking you know Philip Roth. As novelist Jonathan Franzen says, Roth “exposed parts of himself no one had ever exposed before.”

‘Urban Tale’ Needs Renewal

02/27/2013 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Film

Usually the prospect of yet another film festival in New York City wouldn’t fill me with gleeful anticipation. It’s easier to find a film festival here than an uptown bus. But the idea behind the First Time Fest, which kicks off its inaugural event on March 1, is a good one; it highlights directors’ first feature films.