So much average

Simply A Masterpiece

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fantastic!

Absolutely awful and boring. It's a wannabe film. A wannabe 'Goodfellas' that came off more like 'The Outsiders' with Hasidic Jews and Israelis. The fact that it's based on a true story is the only way they got this film made. Maybe it could have been interesting if it was told differently but it wasn't. You don't like the main guy you just want to smack him on the head for being such a dumb a**. In fact, you don't like anyone in this film. People don't go to movies to see a bunch of people they don't like in a boring story. It could have been interesting but it wasn't. You really have to wonder what Jesse Eisenberg is doing with his career if he goes from good hit films to this indie turd. Overall, badly written, badly directed. After the Jesus camp horror film he did, maybe he's trying to hit a religious gambit of poor films. It was clear that this film was trying to be poignant and edgy and it was your film student types who thought they could really shake things up with an "unheard of" true story. They sat around drinking beers talking about how they were going to get all of these awards, etc. It's a predictable glory piece that's banking on the fact that the subject matter will get it some awards and out there because Jewish films always get recognition. But, let's face it, if most of the judges at the Olympics were Russian, the Russians would always win. That's just how things go. It just seems that the film makers could have used their time to make something a little less trite. Maybe they should take the Robert Carnegie class or read something on how to develop characters and give them emotional depth. This film was completely void of that. It was just people going from place to place doing stupid and bad stuff. That's it. That's not a movie, that's a newspaper article.

How's this for a story? For sixth months between 1998 and 1999 one million Ecstasy tablets were smuggled into New York from Amsterdam by a tiny cartel. The young mules were able to sail through customs on account of looking exactly like law-abiding Hasidic Jews – yarmulkes, rekels and all. But these were no dime-store disguises. They really were Hasidic Jews, looking to make some extra gelt. One was even arrested after refusing to ride a bus on the Sabbath, giving cops extra time to catch them. What a great idea for a film, you say? Well now.Jesse Eisenberg plays Sam Gold, a wide-eyed restless Yeshiva from Brooklyn, who dreams of marrying the girl up the street and busting out of his old man's garment business. After his Bad Hasid neighbour (Bartha) offers him a gig ferrying "medicine" to the States, he's soon mingling in nightclubs with pill-popping gentiles, falling for the boss's moll, and symbolically and literally severing ties with his community by cutting off his sidelocks. What's the betting he's heading for some kind of fall? The Yiddish word Aroysgevorfen refers to that which is thrown away, wasted – and so it is with this promising set-up. As Jewish crime pictures go, it was never exactly going to be Once Upon a Time in America, but what could have been a fascinating film about what happens to a person's sense of identity when they so dramatically stray from their faith all but renders Hasidism a gimmicky hook to hang a dull, trite redemption tale on. They may as well have used circus clowns. Sam appears to make the transition to international MDMA-runner without a tremor, while there's zero sense of the sheer trouser-filling, slippery-palmed panic accompanying the actual business of drugs-smuggling. Like the Golem of Jewish mythology, Holy Rollers has feet of clay.

"You are a liar and a criminal. You are not my son."I'm not sure how close Holy Rollers comes to the actual events that it's based on, but it's an interesting flick. It really doesn't do much more than the many movies that chronicle the rise and fall of a drug dealer that came before, if I'm being honest. You have your innocent young man who's seduced and corrupted by the (seemingly) easy money of drugs (ecstacy, in this instance), that he's introduced to by a shady friend, and most of the consequences play out in exactly the way you would expect them to and have seen before. But the setting among the Hasidic Jew community of New York gives the movie a unique spin that (at least for me) made it something other than the cookie-cutter story it could have been.Jesse Eisenberg was totally believable as the initially pure-hearted main character whose desire to make more money leads him away from his family and the life he values. It was a good role for him, but it didn't really require him to stretch beyond his characters in Adventureland or Zombieland. Which isn't to say that he's not good here, he just gives a very familiar performance. I hear he plays a very different character than his usual in The Social Network, though, so hopefully my fears of him being forever bound by one particular character type are unfounded.  Ari Graynor was the reason why I initially wanted to see the movie (big-time fan, the girl great), but I have to admit that her character was pretty one-dimensional and didn't really give her much to work with. The same goes for Justin Bartha's character and most of the others in the movie: they're not really written as whole people. They're given one or two qualities and everything they do stems exactly from their total greed, purity, etc. It would have been nice to see some more "complete" characters, but that's my only real complaint about the film.I liked the documentary-like quality of the camera work; if almost made it seem like I was watching the movie unfold in real-time. And as I said before, the setting and context the story plays out in was Holy Rollers' biggest strength, in my opinion. How much you enjoy it will depend largely on how much interest you still have in these kinds of stories, as it admittedly doesn't rise out the familiar trappings and scenarios of similar movies. I still found it to be pretty entertaining, though.

Within the last thirty years or so,independent cinema has certainly taken on a more respectable air in the annals of movie going. Film makers such as John Sayles,the Coen brothers,and other mavericks have made their mark among the sludge that constitutes main stream movies. Now we can add yet another name to that list:Kevin Asch,who previously directed one other film,'Characters' (unseen by me). Based on situations that transpired in 1998,'Holy Rollers',is a tale of two Hasidic Jews that unknowingly become drug mules for a collective of drug runners from Isreal. Sam Gold (played by Jesse Eisenberg,of 'The Squid & The Whale'fame)is a young man,working for his father's clothing business,until his family hopes (and prays)for Sam becoming a Rabbi someday. In trying to help out his family,financially,he is introduced by his next door neighbour,Yosef Zimmerman (played by Justin Bartha)to Jackie Soloman (Danny Abeckaser),a drug baron,who leads Sam down a one way path to impending doom,as a carrier of pills from Europe for rich "goys" (non Jews). Jackie is smooth (and slimy)enough to get Sam to do his bidding. Sam is smitten with Jackie's girl friend,Rachael Apfel (Ari Graynor),as well as a taste for the good life ('tho not until he is over his head). Others in the cast include Bern Cohen,Mark Ivanir,Halle Kate Eisenberg (Jesse's real life sister),and look out for a cameo/walk on by rapper,Q-Tip,as Ephrim,a fellow drug lord working in Holland. Kevin Asch directs from a screen play written by Antonio Macia. The films gritty cinematography is by Ben Kutchins,with editing by Suzanne Spangler. The film does (at times)resemble 'Maria,Full Of Grace',from a few years back (but don't let that steer you away from a well written,directed & acted film,such as this). Rated 'R' by the MPAA,this film contains strong language,drug references,and some brief sexual content. A film that could act as a warning to young Jews about the dangers of the drug trade,as well as a cautionary tale that could have been told by a Rabbi about swaying from the path.