It's a shame that a movie that has acting this good (even the kid is pretty great) feels like it's playing it really safe. It's a very dialog heavy movie that takes a long (long) time to get going, and when it finally does, it never takes advantage of its premise. Firstly, the guy doesn't really do anything to pretend to be Jewish other than say that he's Jewish a few times and let the rumor mill do its thing. Like, shouldn't he at least pretend to be a practicing Jew? Shouldn't he be going to a synagogue or some community shit? I don't know, maybe wear a yarmulke or keep Kosher or fucking anything other than just saying "Yep, I'm Jewish". With that, for a movie about antisemitism, they really down play how bad it was/is. He gets denied service once (after almost screaming at the front desk guy that he is Jewish and shouldn't be allowed to stay) and some slurs are thrown around a few times (mostly not in an intentionally derogatory way). It's reminded me of Green Book, where they really pussyfooted around how awful things could get for black people in the timeframe of the movie. If what we saw was the norm, things weren't that bad, but of course we know they were much, much worse. It seems counter-productive to downplay the severity of the primary conflict of your movie. I do give it credit for addressing the kind of casual, internalized antisemitism and how sitting quietly and saying in your head that you object to a comment or disagree with an action may make you feel better about yourself, but does fuck all do help the issue. Most of the two hour runtime feels wasted on pointless sideplots (Grandma's health struggles is a big one) and wheel spinning while we wait for the movie to catch up with what we already know from the movie preview. It is well intentioned and well made, but it's more of a "we're patting ourselves on the back because we're on the good team" and less of a "let's make a movie that can change some minds and make stand". Nothing is treated with the gravity it deserves and it ultimately leaves us with a movie that feels kind of limp.
It's a shame that a movie that has acting this good (even the kid is pretty great) feels like it's playing it really safe. It's a very dialog heavy movie that takes a long (long) time to get going, and when it finally does, it never takes advantage of its premise. Firstly, the guy doesn't really do anything to pretend to be Jewish other than say that he's Jewish a few times and let the rumor mill do its thing. Like, shouldn't he at least pretend to be a practicing Jew? Shouldn't he be going to a synagogue or some community shit? I don't know, maybe wear a yarmulke or keep Kosher or fucking anything other than just saying "Yep, I'm Jewish". With that, for a movie about antisemitism, they really down play how bad it was/is. He gets denied service once (after almost screaming at the front desk guy that he is Jewish and shouldn't be allowed to stay) and some slurs are thrown around a few times (mostly not in an intentionally derogatory way). It's reminded me of Green Book, where they really pussyfooted around how awful things could get for black people in the timeframe of the movie. If what we saw was the norm, things weren't that bad, but of course we know they were much, much worse. It seems counter-productive to downplay the severity of the primary conflict of your movie. I do give it credit for addressing the kind of casual, internalized antisemitism and how sitting quietly and saying in your head that you object to a comment or disagree with an action may make you feel better about yourself, but does fuck all do help the issue. Most of the two hour runtime feels wasted on pointless sideplots (Grandma's health struggles is a big one) and wheel spinning while we wait for the movie to catch up with what we already know from the movie preview. It is well intentioned and well made, but it's more of a "we're patting ourselves on the back because we're on the good team" and less of a "let's make a movie that can change some minds and make stand". Nothing is treated with the gravity it deserves and it ultimately leaves us with a movie that feels kind of limp.
