Film
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The Schmooze Abigail Breslin on ‘August: Osage County’
Most families have their share of rage, but the Westons in “August: Osage County,” opening December 25, make other dysfunctional families seem normal. The film, adapted by Tracy Letts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, offers a close look at sibling relationships, and Meryl Streep, who plays the cruel matriarch Violet Weston,…
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The Schmooze Can You Guess Michael Bloomberg’s Favorite Movie?
Genesis prize aside, it seems the most Jewish thing about outgoing NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is his taste in movies. Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” and “The Producers” and Woody Allen’s “Bananas” and “Sleeper,” all feature in Hizzoner’s top ten list, according to Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith. For a complete list of “the classics,” as told…
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The Schmooze ‘American Hustle’ Inspired by Real-Life Jewish Conman
“American Hustle,” David O. Russell’s inventive and energetic take on the Abscam scandal, starts with a tone-setting (and laugh-inducing) placard on the screen: “Some of this actually happened.” But, of course, a lot of it didn’t, and in that terrain between fact and fiction, Russell and co-screenwriter Eric Warren Singer have re-imagined the story as…
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The Schmooze Eric Roberts on What It’s Like to Play a Nazi
Actor Eric Roberts is pretty busy but he likes it that way. Roberts just wrapped “Escaping the Holocaust,” Josh A. Weber’s film about his own family. Weber’s grandfather, Max Fronenberg, spent a year digging a tunnel to escape a prison camp and saved 15 people but couldn’t convince the woman he loved to come with…
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The Schmooze Claude Lanzmann and the Boss of Theresienstadt
“The Last of the Unjust” is at once a documentary on the Holocaust, a character portrait, an inquiry into the nature of evil, a rumination on drawing moral distinctions, and a lesson on the pedagogical limits of film. This well over three-hour documentary, directed — or should we say “constructed”? — by Claude Lanzmann, whose…
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The Schmooze ‘S#x Acts’ Explores Dark Side of Sexuality
Israeli-born director Jonathan Gurfinkel’s first film is officially called “S#x Acts.” You can substitute an “I” for the asterisk, because the movie has six acts. Or you can put in an “E,” because there are numerous erotic scenes. But mostly it is an emotionally charged film about bullying that is both fascinating and depressing. In…
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Culture What Cornelius Gurlitt Could Have Learned From Monsieur Robert Klein
Until recently, Cornelius Gurlitt, 80, possessed 1,280 pieces of art — some already known to be major works — which he kept wrapped and stored in his apartment in Munich. He enjoyed the cache, but only furtively; the man was in hiding alongside his art. Now that he’s been flushed out and interviewed, Gurlitt comes…
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Culture Stuck Inside of Greenwich Village With the Coen Brothers Blues Again
Success always seems inevitable in retrospect. Once you’ve arrived, it must have been destined all along. But failure — especially dream-crushing, life-destroying failure — is plagued by what-ifs and what-might-have-beens. Was it just bad luck, or did you really not have what it takes? Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), the tortured protagonist of Joel and Ethan…
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News An Israeli restaurant chain said it closed due to boycotts. Protesters are celebrating.
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Sports It’s so cool that Sandy Koufax was there for that
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Opinion Jews are worried about Zohran Mamdani. Here’s why they shouldn’t be
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Opinion Can an idyllic dream of Israel ever be reality? She says: ‘Coexistence, My Ass’
In Case You Missed It
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Culture Musk created Grokipedia to counter bias, but it’s full of antisemitic and racist dog-whistles
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Film & TV As long as there are movies about Nazis, there will be movies about the art they looted
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Opinion Zohran Mamdani: The no-yes option
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Fast Forward These Jews backed Brad Lander in the primary. Are they taking his advice and voting Mamdani?
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