Currently Browsing: Eliana M. Levenson
Directors Sam Blair and Joseph Martin masterfully depict the three year journey of former far-right Hungarian extremist, Csanad Szegedi, as he attempts to reconcile his anti-Semitic past with the discovery that he is not only Jewish, but the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. (EML: 4.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson Keep Quiet begins […]
An untold story of WW2, Belisario Franca’s Boy 23 tells the forgotten history of Brazil’s support of Nazism and the horrifying account of one boy’s experience with the racist experiments performed by Nazi sympathizers there. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson The film begins with a teacher recounting a student’s admission that […]
Dani Menkin’s On the Map has all the drama and emotion of the classic sports movie, with the added benefit of the real life accounts of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s struggle to achieve basketball greatness in winning the 1977 European Cup. (EML: 4.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson A ball dribbling. The skid of […]
Artistry takes priority over substance in Maria Schrader’s biographical film, Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe, which follows the life of Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig during his exile from Europe during World War II. (EML: 3/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson The film opens with a long, still shot of a floral arrangement. As the […]
Triggered by the death of his grandmother, Andre Malaev Babel follows the trail left behind in the unfinished writings and diary notes of his late grandfather, the acclaimed Soviet writer, Isaac Babel, who was executed by the government for supposedly criticizing the Communist movement. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate Eliana M. Levenson Liev Schreiber’s […]
Dani Menkin’s spin on the traditional road trip movie, Is That You? delivers a poignant bittersweet quality as a man searches far and wide for his long lost sweetheart. In the vein of An Affair to Remember, Menkin’s film captures vulnerability and hope in a quiet way that makes the audience reflect on their own […]
Using predominately still photos, voiceover, and talking heads style interviews, Ken Burns & Artemis Joukowsky’s documentary Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War retells of the Sharps’ heroism as they sought to help Jews flee Eastern Europe prior to World War II. While often succumbing to the biographical blackhole of fact, the film provides glimpses of true […]
Now, less than a century since the Holocaust, already the memory has seemed to fade, dimming for those who only hear about it as part of a broader history lesson. In Three Days in Auschwitz, writer/director Philippe Mora attempts to bring the atrocities of the Holocaust, particularly the horrific murders that took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau, […]
Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness explores the psychological toll on those who find life to fall short of their expectations. Utilizing language, location and raw emotional acting performances, Portman creates an atmosphere as much as she tells a story, leaving the audience with a sense of longing and a thirst […]
Based on the novel by Philip Roth, Indignation explores the complexities of a young man’s coming of age journey as he attempts to reconcile his place in the world. Despite glimpses of our protagonist challenging the establishment, the film falls short of delivering on its most basic promise, indignation. (EML: 3.5/5) Review by FF2 Associate […]