Here’s a litmus test: if you see the uplifting new film by Nathan Silver and think ‘it’s weird’, you may just need to exit social media and start connecting with human beings on a face to face level.
I’m just being honest here. Because if you call people simply being idiosyncratic, or constantly evolving from their background which they don’t get to choose, ‘weird’, than you really need to make a choice. Stay in the group think/Alexa/Siri world and only attend experiences your think tank claims are safe and worthy OR start realizing that human beings offer (and have offered since time began) such lush unique perspectives that no AI or group can replicate.
I can hear the whining starting now:
But why did his camera move around so much?
It’s called style choice and if anything, the dinner party scene only is impactful with jumping around since any dinner party is so fraught with multiple personalities that that’s what it actually feels like to attend: manic, bumpy, with meta looks and thoughts bouncing off one another akin to pool balls on a table.
If you haven’t seen Between the Temples yet, a spoiler free synopsis is: a cantor’s wife dies sending him into a free fall of emotions while his Elementary School Music Teacher who he hasn’t seen since grade school, longs for deeper meaning in her advanced years.
Jason Schwartzman (just let out an edible “Aw” since i saw his birth date is the same as my precious son Liam, another reason to love J.S.!) was brilliant as the ailing cantor and Carol Kane was equally fantastic as his daffy, but worthy of love, Music Teacher. Minor characters were all believable with Dolly de Leon coming back with a vengeance from her brilliant Triangle of Sadness performance.
The film, co-written by director Nathan Silver with C. Mason Wells, is pure joy to watch. The small details like his bedroom door screaming when it continues to open by itself, the extra large menus at the awkward restaurant scene, to the choice of beverage the bartender makes for the cantor, all add the perfect spice to this little gem. I’ll definitely be going for a second viewing, which hasn’t happened this year since Challengers.
