Movie News: Best Under-The-Radar Films Of 2017, Guillermo Del Toro Goes Biblical

Image by Facebook/@AQuietPassion
Image by Bleecker Street
One little-discussed aspect of all of the problems in the world is that they can distract people from the news about movies. The world is an endless conveyor belt of horrors, and this can keep one from finding out about what films exists. The Forward considers it a mission to help remedy this; read on for this week’s movie news.
1. Here are the best 2017 films you didn’t see
Miss a few movies this year? That’s fine, unless they were these four films, which you still have time to catch up on before 2017 is through. They include stories about the refugee crisis, British colonial adventurers, and the nativity. Also included is Terence Davies’s exquisite, quietly powerful Emily Dickinson biopic, “A Quiet Passion.”
2. What the Torah can tell us about “The Shape of Water”
Guillermo Del Toro’s new film about love and fish-men has been winning plaudits and racking up award nominations, but not many viewers are aware of its connection to Jewish symbolism. The Forward’s Shira Feder is here to fix that, drawing a connection between Del Toro’s movie and the biblical book of Ruth. “Ruth’s love for Naomi transcends her ethnicity, while Elisa’s love for the creature both transcends her humanity and renders her more intensely human than ever,” Feder writes. “Like water adopting the shape of the vessel that contains it, intense emotion fundamentally changes the way each woman understands herself.”
3. Saying farewell to the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
In a piece of sad news for movie lovers in the Upper West Side and beyond, Lincoln Plaza Cinemas has announced that it will close in January 2018. The Forward’s Talya Zax gathered the details, as well as responses from around the media.
4. Safdie-heads rejoice, Josh and Benny are remaking “48 Hrs”
The news broke last week: Josh and Benny Safdie, directors of “Good Time,” have been picked to helm a remake of Walter Hill’s Eddie Murphy-led 1982 buddy cop film, “48 Hrs.” The Forward is here to ask the hard questions: “Who will be cast in [Nick] Nolte’s role? Will the film include a role for Safdie favorite Buddy Durress? And now that New York’s young indie filmmakers are remaking Walter Hill films, when will be seeing Alex Ross Perry’s version of ‘The Warriors?’”
5. Does “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” have a representation problem?
“Sitcom writer-slash-Nazi hunter” Susan Silver has a bone to pick with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the Amazon series from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherwood-Palladino: “despite its supposed progressiveness, [the series] portrays its Jewish subjects as unflattering stereotypes,” she writes. Silver augments her argument with stories from her own experience. “I also knew Lenny Bruce; we went out together, as his mother fixed me up with him in college. The character in ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ who is called Lenny Bruce almost betrays the man on whom he is based,” she maintains.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.