Simi Horwitz is a feature writer and film reviewer based in New York City. In 2022, she received first place for film criticism from the Society for Feature Journalism, and in 2023, a New York Press Club Award for an Entertainment News feature; and three Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including first place for film criticism — all for pieces published in the Forward.
Simi Horwitz
By Simi Horwitz
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Culture The story of a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor needs no contemporary parallels to be relevant
“I Am Here,” Jordy Sank’s 72-minute documentary, is at once a memorial to the millions who died in the Holocaust and an impassioned response to Holocaust deniers. But at its core it’s a celebration of Ella Blumenthal on the occasion of her 98th birthday. Now 100, Blumenthal is one of the oldest living survivors to…
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Culture Her father said she couldn’t, but Leonard Bernstein said she could — the triumph of a Jewish American conductor
What makes Bernadette Wegenstein’s “The Conductor” such a winning documentary is its title character Marin Alsop, the first woman to lead a major American symphony orchestra, specifically the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The 65-year-old New York native, passionate, steadfast and, devoid of all pretension, is just plain likable. She faced many closed doors, yet persisted…
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Culture He was Jewish and one of the 20th century’s greatest writers — but was he a Jewish writer?
For those already familiar with the work of Nelson Algren, best known for his 1949 novel, “The Man with the Golden Arm,” which starred Frank Sinatra in the iconic film version, Michael Caplan’s documentary, “Algren,” is an engaging tribute to a writer who championed the lives of hookers, hustlers and addicts who found solace in…
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Film & TV On the border of Turkey and Syria, a Jewish family desperate to flee a rapidly-changing world
Swiss-Kurdish director Mano Khalil’s “Neighbours” is a cinematically stunning, deeply unsettling film that is at once brutal and satiric, and at moments even magical. The central figure is six-year-old Sero (Serhed Khalil) and the story is seen through his trusting and innocent eyes. Loosely inspired by the director’s own childhood experiences, the movie, with its…
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Culture Surviving the Holocaust was a miracle, but the nightmares persist
The memories of Holocaust survivors never cease to horrify. Whenever you think you’re shock-proof, you have to think again. In John Rokosny’s PBS documentary, “They Survived Together,” one survivor recounts how the Nazis, having invaded Poland, forced Jews to carve out their own graves and lie down in them. Often, the self-created graves contained families,…
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Culture Could this devastatingly poignant film be Israel’s next Oscar winner?
Ohad Milstein’s “Summer Nights,” a rumored Oscar contender, is delicate, nuanced and complex even at its deceptively most simple moments. Though it is categorized as a documentary, the film is more of a cinematic mood poem, one that touches upon father-son relationships, the passage of time, aging, death and God. Much of it is told…
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Culture In a heartbreaking and inspiring new film, the soul of an actress — and the lives she touched — lives on
In equal measure a valentine to his late wife, a tribute to her as an actor, director and writer on the cusp of a serious career, and an exploration of personal grief, “Adrienne” is a skillful, almost seamless film and a notable debut for director Andy Ostroy. The 90-minute documentary could easily have slipped into…
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Culture In the slums of Tel Aviv, a disturbing tale of Beauty meeting the Beast
Though the film “Woman Alive” may be a retread of themes we’ve seen before, it is cinematically riveting — from its imagery to most seminally, its ambience, which evokes a marginalized, nihilistic world. It marks an impressive narrative debut for its director Macabit Abramson, who is best known for her documentaries and experimental aesthetic. Jerusalem-based…
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