The trailer of the movie "King of the Celebration"/South Productions
1. "King of the Celebration": "Breaking Bad", the Israeli version
A week ago, the Israeli film "The Winners" was released in theaters, and everyone compared it to "La La Land".
This week, another new local film, "King of the Celebration", arrives in theaters, and everyone will compare it to "Breaking Bad" - yes, it's a banal comparison, but also required and even inevitable.
After all, it deals with the story of an Israeli chemist from the settlement who two decades ago invented one of the biggest explosive hits of all time - the celebration drug, and proved that even academic nerds can shake up the drug market.
The film was directed by Uri Marantz, and it joins a short list of animated docuseries made in Israel - a tradition that began with "Waltz with Bashir".
However, here the style is completely different, more reminiscent of Monty Python's animated clips.
cool
From "King of the Celebration"/Drumahpakot
"King of the Celebration" also joins an even shorter list: Israeli films dealing with drugs.
Through the story of the protagonist's entanglement with the law, Marantz manages to raise interesting questions about the place of drugs in society, and the way in which it defines what is legal and what is illegal.
Befitting the subject, he does so in a psychedelic and soulful manner.
The story is interesting, the animation is cool, and the film is only 74 minutes long, so even if you watch it three times in a row it will still be shorter than some of the Oscar blockbusters of the year.
The hero is modeled after Oshri Cohen, who also contributes his voice, and adds another role to his varied career, which is becoming more and more noted as one of the most fruitful and rich of any Israeli actor of our generation.
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2. "When you're done saving the world": Jesse Eisenberg's directorial debut
One of the most talked about films at the Sundance Film Festival that ended about a month ago was "A Real Pain".
This is Jesse Eisenberg's second film as a director, who also stars alongside Rory Culkin as two Jewish cousins traveling on a Holocaust trip to Poland.
In my opinion, this is an overrated, annoying and even outrageous movie, but we'll talk more about it when it comes to screenings in Israel.
In the meantime, you can watch Eisenberg's first film as a director - a less pretentious and annoying film, and much better.
Honestly, it's a good movie by any objective measure.
Its name is "When you finish saving the world".
It was not distributed commercially in Israel, and is now available exclusively on Bis and Yoodi.
As the name suggests, the witty script is about a privileged family that decides to save the world around them, but does so clumsily and for the wrong reasons.
The mother of the family, played by the wonderful Julianne Moore as always, appoints herself as the guardian angel of a boy from an underprivileged population, although he is not interested in her patronage;
Her son, played by Finn Wolfhard ("Strange Things") who is also excellent here, is a high school student who begins to add political content to his music in order to impress an activist classmate.
This film also had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival at the time, and rightly won a lot of praise.
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3. "Sun Beach": a lovely movie on Disney Plus
The Sundance Film Festival, the flagship event of independent cinema in the United States, has a clear image: a hotbed for gritty indie films, which then find their place in cinemas, if anyone even hears of them.
But he also has another face.
An example of this is one of the films that premiered two weeks ago: "Suncoast", a communicative and quite commercial drama for the whole family, which is already streaming.
With us, it is available on Disney Plus.
In one respect, "Sunshine Beach" does resemble most of the films at Sundance: it is director Laura Chin's debut film, based on her personal experiences.
His heroine is a girl, whose brother is dying of cancer, and whose single mother spends most of her time with him in the hospice.
This situation adds to the usual difficulties that accompany puberty and intensifies them.
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The one that goes up and the one that goes down.
Niko Parker and Laura Linney in "The Sunshine Coast"/Eric Zakhanovitch
In many ways, "Sun Beach" is a typical coming-of-age movie.
Two things distinguish him.
First of all, the willingness to deal with issues such as dying, euthanasia and death.
The second thing is the acting performance in the main role of Nico Parker, who at the age of 19 stands out as one of the refreshing discoveries of the past year.
The young star is the daughter of star Thandie Newton, but proves here that she earned the role by merit rather than nepotism.
She has an extraordinary presence, and it is likely that we will hear a lot more about her.
On the other hand, veteran Laura Linney gives one of the weakest performances of her great career as the mother.
Woody Harrelson also appears, as an eccentric man who meets the heroine by chance and serves as her mentor, and his character is not the strongest thing here either.
Despite the flaws, "Sun Beach" is definitely a recommended movie for all ages, and if you watch it with your family, you might also have something to talk about.
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4. "Staying for the holiday": an instant classic in cinema
Alexander Payne shone as one of the most prominent American filmmakers of his generation with "About Schmidt", "Byways", "The Heirs" and "Nebraska", experienced a decline with "Living Small" and now makes a big comeback with "The Holdovers", which is nominated Oscar in five categories - including best film.
After a successful distribution in the rest of the world, this movie is now also starring in our theaters.
Paul Giamatti, in one of his best roles, plays a professor at a prestigious prep school who is stuck with the student he hates for Christmas break.
"Staying for the Holiday" is a film whose plot takes place in the 1970s and looks as if it was made then, in the golden age of American cinema, when films were films and values were values.
"Staying for the holiday" is a story that enters the heart and stays in it, about two people who, precisely at Christmas, learn what it means to be a manz.
Five Oscar nominations.
From "Remaining for the holiday"/Tulip Media
5. "Letter to a pig": now also in HOT
Two weeks ago it became known that "Letter to Pig", the short and beautiful animated film by Tal Kantor, is nominated for an Oscar.
The immediate reaction of many was the question - and where can you see him?
So now there is an answer - last week it went up on yesVOD and +STING, and now it is also available on HOT.
The film is based on a childhood memory that haunted the director.
Her class met with a Holocaust survivor, who told them that a pig saved his life.
Although the animal is considered impure in Judaism, in his case it turned out to be a guardian angel, and its body separated him from the Nazis who were looking for him.
The Jewish survivor of course did not forget the pig, and years later wrote him a letter of thanks.
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On the way to the Oscars.
From "A Letter to a Pig"/The Hive Studio, Miyu Productions
This unique story intervened in Kantor's dream, and these memories left a strong impression on her.
He didn't let go of her even in her adulthood, until a few years ago she decided to turn them into a cinematic piece that would deal with the meeting of the Holocaust survivor with the pig, and the meeting of the schoolgirl with both.
The result is this animated film, and the rest is history - which now hopefully ends with a statuette.
In the meantime, don't miss the opportunity to watch "Letter to a Pig" - a masterpiece film, which manages to deal with the memory of the Holocaust in a mesmerizing way, from a new angle.
The script is complex and full of layers - and the animation, which the creator worked on for five years, is a work of thought full of details and expression.
More on the same topic:
Disney Plus
Woody Harrelson
Alexander Payne
Paul Giamatti
Tal Cantor
Oscar
celebration
Oshri Cohen
Jesse Eisenberg
Julianne Moore