Currently Browsing: December 2011

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

“These memories of Manhattan no doubt colored the way I saw Midnight in Paris in the theatre last summer, so after yesterday’s Golden Globe announcement, I went back and watched them both again. While several critics have compared the opening montages, no one that I know of has compared the final scenes.” Click HERE to read my […]

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Manhattan (1979)

A few weeks ago, my husband was surprised to find a new copy of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, still encased in shrink wrap, sitting in our priority mail pile. “What’s this doing here?” “Well, Midnight in Paris arrives on DVD in a few weeks, and before I write about it, I need to watch Manhattan again.” Since I had […]

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Tzivi Menorah

Today I am… a menorah! But seriously, last night I went to LUMA for the opening of Rhoda Rosen’s lovely new exhibition, and today I’m still thinking about how we define ourselves by the objects with which we fill our personal spaces. Yes there were dozens of artful pieces on display, and yet, on this […]

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Dec ’11 Spotlight

Award-winning director Agnieszka Holland, best-known internationally for her Oscar-nominated film Europa Europa, was in Chicago last month to show her new film In Darkness on the Opening Night of this year’s PFFA (Polish Film Festival in America). Poland’s candidate for the 2012 “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar, In Darkness is a harrowing, fact-based account of […]

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Jack and Jill

Love him or hate him, Adam Sandler is one of the few mainstream Jewish stars willing to deal honestly with the complexities of contemporary Jewish identity. Although often over the top, his films typically contain resonant moments which linger in the mind long after the potty jokes are a distant memory. In Click, I was […]

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Joan Rivers NSCPA ’11

From Nov ’11 Spotlight: “Welcome to my world! I’ve been through it all… and I feel I am the luckiest woman on the planet.” So says Joan Rivers on the homepage of her new website. Transforming herself from “Joan Molinsky” (a nice Jewish girl with a Phi Betta Kappa key from Barnard College), Rivers has […]

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CIFF 47 Wrap-Up

From Nov ’11 Spotlight: Joan Rivers isn’t the only Jewish senior still charming audiences everywhere with her supersized personality. It turns out that the indomitable Carol Channing—Broadway’s original “Dolly Levi” of Hello, Dolly fame—is also Jewish. Filmmaker Dori Berinstein reveals this nugget in her splendid new doc Carol Channing: Larger than Life, the most joyous […]

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Nov ’11 Spotlight

“Welcome to my world! I’ve been through it all… and I feel I am the luckiest woman on the planet.” So says Joan Rivers on the homepage of her new website www.joan.co. Transforming herself from “Joan Molinsky” (a nice Jewish girl with a Phi Betta Kappa key from Barnard College), Rivers has long been one […]

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