Film

Jews were the creative forces behind ‘West Side Story’ decades ago and today. Should...

By Jordyn Haime In 1955, theater director Jerome Robbins approached writer Arthur Laurents and composer Leonard Bernstein with a new idea for a Broadway musical:...

5 Jewish movies without tragic endings

Jewish movies are often depressing. The Holocaust, the Munich Massacre, a pogrom — it’s hard to find a film without a tragedy. We found...

The good, the bad and the ugly of non-Jews playing Jews

Jewish characters have been played by non-Jews going back to medieval mystery plays about the crucifixion of Jesus. Since then, portrayals of Jews have...

‘Velvet Underground’ withstands test of time

By Sasha Rogelberg Before Lou Reed proclaimed, “My God is rock ’n’ roll,” The Velvet Underground frontman was a Jewish boy who grew up in...

The greatest Holocaust movie ever made debuted on 9/11

By Rich Brownstein On Sept. 11, 2001, the greatest Holocaust film ever made, before or since, premiered at a festival — and quickly disappeared, largely...

Kenneth Feinberg helps 9/11 families find ‘Worth’ in Obama-produced Netflix movie

Review By Andrew Lapin At a key moment in the new Netflix film “Worth,” Kenneth Feinberg, the real-life architect of the compensation fund for 9/11 victims,...

Why are we still so obsessed with Hitler?

By Andrew Lapin “Is it possible to make a film like this without contributing to the Nazi Cinematic Universe?” This line of narration comes early in...

Filmmakers constructed a shtetl for a WWII film. Now they want to preserve it...

In the woods of northern Ukraine, construction workers have built an island in time: a shtetl. That’s the Yiddish word for the type of...

What happens when American Jews ‘watch’ the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

By Andrew Lapin A Jewish college student sits alone in a dark room watching a series of short videos. They are filmed altercations from the...

‘Sublet’ charms but doesn’t dazzle

By Sasha Rogelberg If director Eytan Fox wanted his film “Sublet” to be an easy summer watch, he succeeded; if he wanted the film to...