Minyan

Minyan (2020) was co-written and directed by Eric Steel. It stars Samuel H. Levine as David, a young yeshiva student, who has to come to grips with the fact that he is gay, and the fact that he is not certain that he believes in God.

Sadly, coming out as gay in a traditional family is a problem for many people. The centrality of this problem is reflected in the number of movies about gays coming out. What makes this movie different is the superb acting, and the uncanny rendering of Orthodox Jewish life in Brooklyn in the 1980's.

A minyan is ten men (or ten people) that are required for a full Jewish prayer service. As do people in other religions, Jews pray all the time. But it requires a minyan to bring out the Torah. Part of the plot depends upon the fact that David and his father can make a minyan where they live.

We saw this film as part of Image Out, the excellent Rochester LGBT Film Festival. This isn't a great movie, but I think it's worth seeing. The film has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.7. I thought it was better than that and rated it 8.

This film plods along and you don't really know where it's going, but I felt like the residue of it lingered on me even though it didn't feel like it knew what it wanted. It's a unique - maybe even odd - addition to the queer indie film canon.

Extraordinary film. Feels completely real. Great cast and directing.

I didn't mind this at all, slow burn but not boring. There was something intriguing about the narrative, some left of field scenes and plot holes not explored but mostly a good film. I'm a fan of anything set in New York City and this was a side of it I'd never seen before.

I didn't have high expectations when starting this film, and yet it crept up on me. Expertly crafted, it's a subtle, yet powerful piece. A dark humor runs within it, but I found it illuminating in so many ways- the love, support, idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies of family and communities.

A worthwhile watch when you want to be moved by a film.