yediotm

This was not only one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while, but beyond the wonderful dumb humor and the silly jokes it was also unexpectedly a very profound film about friendship, growing up and being a teen ager.

Although more than a decade has passed since my I finished high school, I felt like I personally knew the different characters in the film, and also the human feelings and situations that it conveyed.

Will Ferrel has given the torch of comedy to Steve Carell (on Anchorman) who gave it to Seth Rogen (on the 40 Years Old Virgin, who passed it on it to Jonah Hill (on Knocked up) and now comes this funny yet insightful film where Hill plays a lead role. Beautiful.

10/10

I've seen many documentaries about LSD and other psychedelics, but this is probably the most up to date, and the most thorough of them all. This film follows the journeys of renowned ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes who was the first western scholar to have tried Peyote, Magic Mushrooms, morning glory seeds and Ayahauasca 30 years before the hippies, in a time when the use of these sacraments was virtually unknown in the western world. The film also follows the psychedelic revival of the sixties through Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey and all the usual suspects. If you are looking for a film about psychedelics, or if you are just open to new ideas and amazing worlds - this is the film for you.

This film was bad enough to get me to spend my time writing this review.

It actually started out as a big promise. Finding this movie, I thought it would be a nice addition to contemporary Jewish cinema with films like the excellent "the believer". However I was very very wrong.

This is a bad film in every sense of the word bad. 1. very bad acting (the guy's friend was so obnoxious, I couldn't stand to watch him) 2. very shallow and uninspired script (Half of the script is just stupid rambling about f-cking, supposed to signify lecherous new york life) 3. mediocre movie making

This really looks and feels like a student film, and a pretty bad one. The only thing this guys got right is the DVD box which is pretty cool.

For me as someone interested in the line between religious Judaism and secular Jews, this film was a major disappointment and embarrassment. It is filled with the worst kind of stereotypes about orthodox Jews and about secular new-yorkers. Some parts got me so disgusted I could hardly watch it.

It wouldn't have made me so angry, if it weren't that this film even won awards in different film festivals like the San Paolo film festival, Bendfilm festival and Brooklyn festival. How on earth can that be??? I can't believe they didn't find better films to give awards to. Probably the politics of cinema played some parts here.

Anyway, spare your time. And if you wish to see a decent movie about a displaced Jew, go watch "the believer" or even "the chosen", but please not this one.

1/10