Category Archives: Small gem of a film

Fill The Void (2012)

From IMDB:

A devout 18-year-old Israeli is pressured to marry the husband of her late sister. Declaring her independence is not an option in Tel Aviv’s ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community, where religious law, tradition and the rabbi’s word are absolute.

If you want to see a quiet (except when the men are singing and dancing), slow, thoughtful portrait of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic culture, you will enjoy this film in Hebrew with English subtitles.

Spoken words are scarce enough that it can be difficult if not impossible to know what is motivating some of the characters.

To summarize the film is easy: Yochay’s wife Esther dies in childbirth. Yochay needs a wife for his newborn child Mordechai. More exactly, he wants to marry Esther’s youngest sister Shira. But Shira’s older sister Frieda is, to her great shame, not yet married. Mother, father, aunt, Yochay and the culture pressure Shira to marry Yochay. Unfortunately Shira is unwilling to do so. Her conflict is more or less the content of the entire film. More I will not say.

Whether love was ever an issue is not clear.

If nothing else, the film is a captivating peek into the lives of these aloof and separate Jews.

For more information on this worthwhile film see the Wikipedia discussion.

Down the Shore (2011)

From NetFlix:

After Susan (Maria Dizzia) dies from a terminal illness in Paris, her tour guide journeys to New Jersey to deliver Susan’s ashes and a letter to her brother, Bailey (James Gandolfini). The letter triggers revelations of dark secrets, murder and betrayal. The shocking news shakes up the lives of Bailey, his old friend, Wiley (Joe Pope), and Wiley’s wife — and Bailey’s ex-lover — Mary (Famke Janssen) in this gritty drama.

James Gandofini CAN act and this film gives him a chance to prove it. Four characters doing wonderful ensemble acting make for a very watchable film.
Moreover there are some good plot surprises.

Jacques is played by Edoardo Costa who is Italian. In this film he plays a Frenchman. You may have seen him as Emerson in “Live Free or Die Hard”. If there is a flaw in this small gem of a film, it is that Jacques is a bit too clever, almost omnipotent.

Here is a film with a small amount of human roughness (including wife abuse) but at least without serial killers, gritty scenes, or needless sex.

In the small gem category I would say DO NOT MISS!