The Samuel Project

It was reminiscent of an after school special, but with profanity. I was mostly bored by it. If the subject matter appeals to in particular then go see it. Otherwise, there are other ways to spend 90 minutes.

I'm always up for a movie with Jewish content since I'm a Jew. The characters were well casted and their acting was very entertaining. Hal Linden played Samuel and the grandson, Eli did a class project that encompassed the grandfather's experience in Nazi Germany as a child. He partnered up with a classmate, Kasim and retold the story with Eli's drawing and Kasim's guitar music. There were no lulls or boring parts of the movie. Loved it.

The movie The Samuel Project directed & written by Marc Fusco is about Grandfather Samuel ( Hal Linden) , his son Robert ( Michael Silver.. from TV Royal Pains)and his 17 yr old grandson Eli( Ryan Ochoa). Eli lives with dad and has typical teenage mannerisms . Eli is an artist and loves to draw. Robert works as a realtor and is always busy buying and selling houses and has average fathering skills. But Robert is a good listener and talks to his son about the significance of education and value of academic degree. Eli's mom left when Eli was a baby. Grandfather Samuel lives alone and has his own dry cleaning business. Robert makes it a point to visit Samuel regularly and tells his son about the importance of visiting dad. Eli does not particularly like spending time with granddad Samuel because they have nothing much in common and nothing to say to each other. But Eli is a good son and a very nice human . Eli is interested in everything he sees and listens. He realizes his granddad Samuel was born in Germany and lived through the war and landed in San Diego years back. Eli chooses his grandfather's life to be the project for his class and works with his teammate Kasim (acted by Mateo Arias) who is obsessed with rock music and has no interest in working with his dad who works as a butcher in his own shop. The movie is directed very well. Excellent acting. It is nice to see clean teenagers focused on their hobbies and ambitions. Ryan Ochoa is perfect for the role of Eli and his acting is Oscar worthy.

The film was beautifully written and the script was well acted. When a piece of art can evoke so much emotion, you know you've got a winner! I don't know if I cried more or laughed more because I was all over the place. The Samuel Project looked like it had a multi-million dollar budget. Hal Linden is a great actor and the younger cast members were great as well.Loved it and would definitely see again.

This was a surprising type movie that I came across at Prime, and it was surprising Hal Linden was the grandfather. I didn't know that until the end of the movie. I guess I haven't seen him in anything since the 1980s. He looks totally different. :)

The film starts off with loud, obnoxious music. Turn it down, don't turn it off. You don't want to miss this movie if you are interested in the Holocaust and graphic arts. Also, some of the dialogue is hard to understand at times and some of the captions are wrong. A seriously bad caption job.

Eli obviously hasn't spent much time with his grandfather, and his father doesn't spend much time with Eli. His mother left when he was young and his grandmother died when he was young. Thus, this is a small family of males who don't communicate that well.

That changes, though, when Eli needs a topic for a media arts class project, and he discovers his Jewish grandfather's tragic childhood in Germany. The two become close, with Eli even working part-time in his grandfather's dry cleaning store.

It was interesting to see Eli's finished project at a showing of the top ten contenders in a media arts contest for high school kids. Both his father and grandfather show up for the event, too, when neither planned on going. No mushiness, but three males becoming a bit closer.