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
As the Summer season winds down, a new independent flick enters the box office arena concerning the challenges of single parenting. Oh, and this is from a male viewpoint, but it’s not a heart-tugging comedy that will make moviegoers recall The Courtship Of Eddie’S Father (the flick with Glenn Ford or the TV version with Bill Bixby), which helped inspire several sitcoms like “Bachelor Father” and “My Three Sons”. Yes, it’s about a widower, thought its main concern isn’t the search for a new mate (it does factor in a bit). The film is set in New York, but its language gives the story a decided foreign feel. Most of the dialogue (about 95%) is in Yiddish, as the world of Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community is the home of a man (well, almost a Mensch) named Menashe.
The story begins in the bustling early morning hours...
The story begins in the bustling early morning hours...
- 8/25/2017
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.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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