|
Review by Sam Pepper
Directed by: Kevin Asch
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, Ari Graynor, Danny A. Abeckaser, Jason Fuchs, Mark Avanir, Q-Tip
Crabtree Films
Release Date: May 13, 2024
If you were to conjure up an image of someone smuggling ecstasy pills across continents, your first thought probably wouldn’t be a group of orthodox Jews.
That was until “Holy Rollers”.
This film is inspired by true events. Back in 1998, a group of Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn, New York smuggled more than one million ecstasy pills into the US from Amsterdam. Holy Rollers is the story of Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland and the Social Network) a twenty year old Hasidic Jew grappling with his obligations to his tight-knit family whilst questioning his own identity within this incredibly pious sect of the Jewish religion.
Doing the "right thing" means training to be a Rabbi and entering an arranged marriage with a girl who wants eight kids. It also means working for his father in their fabric store. His father isn’t interested in making money and stifles Sam who clearly has commercial nous. To make matters worse, the girl who wants eight kids decides not to marry him and so this leaves Sam with more questions than answers, wondering where his life is heading.
Cue his Jewish neighbour Yosef Zimmerman (Justin Bartha, The Hangover, National Treasure and The Rebound) who does anything but the right thing. The bad seed of the Hasidic community, Yosef chain-smokes, swears like a trooper and doesn’t go to synagogue. He does however offer a lifeline to Sam - the chance to work in the ‘medicine business’ and earn enough money to buy his own Rolex and pocket $1,500 per assignment. It’s a million miles away from Sam’s life which has been devoid of materialism.
Of course there’s a catch. The medicine business is in fact the drug business and means Sam and Yosef, along with other young Hasidic Jews, are regularly smuggling hoards of ecstasy pills for their Israeli drug baron Jackie (Danny A. Abeckaser) from Amsterdam to New York.
It’s not long before Sam’s world spirals fast and deep in the drug world, experimentation and having a thing for Jackie’s girlfriend Rachel (Ari Graynor). As corrupted Sam loses control and the respect of his father and the rest of the family you wonder whether it will ever end up okay for him.
Did I like the film? Yes, a lot. There are some brilliant performances and Jesse Einsenberg captures the lost soul Sam perfectly. Justin Bartha really works the big bad wolf role - if anyone one was going to lure Sam into this seedy world it would be him. Yet at the same time, he still manages to convey glimpses of vulnerability as the cracks appear. I would have liked the film to have spent a little more time exploring the relationship between Sam and his father. It could have eased up on a few of the drug frenzied scenes. At times it lost a little pace, particularly in the second half. A very good final scene though.
Still, after the movie on my journey back home, it got me thinking. It got me thinking more than just about drug smuggling and the Hasidic Jewish community. Holy Rollers is a film which explores issues which resonate to a much wider audience.
This is a film which needn’t have been about Sam, the Hasidic Jew, but Sam from any Orthodox community and the isolation he faces. It’s about any young person struggling to carve their own identity as they become an adult. It’s about breaking free from the constraints of other family members and how they want to shape you.
Kevin Asch should be congratulated on his debut feature. When you think this film was made in 18 days and cost around $1million, this is a great independent movie.
You won’t feel short-changed when you’ve seen the film.
3/5 Good
|
