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8/10
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A Letter to David
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Director Tom Shoval and twin Eitan Cunio find intense irony and revelations in audition tapes, clips, outtakes, and background footage from their YOUTH (2014). Extensive interviews and family home movies fill the cruel wait to learn results from 10/7/23.
Posted Jan 28, 2026
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7/10
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Frontier
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Catalan director Colell looks at the other side of the beautifully filmed Pyrenees by exploring the context and complexities for refugees seeking the border of 1943 Franco's Spain, still divided post-civil war. Who will help Jewish refugees?
Posted Jan 28, 2026
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7/10
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Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein
(2022)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Bifurcated, very involving tales are the bios of Fred & wife Lilo and decades later their son co-director Peter dedicated to get Fred’s 1930s (in Dresden and Paris) to 1960s photography in NYC recognized as fine art.
Posted Jan 25, 2026
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9/10
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Real Estate
(2023)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Released in Israel with a tag "A Love Story", writer/director Anat Malz’s debut feature sets an irresistible, preggers, gig-economy stressed couple apartment-hunting in an atypical move facing diverse challenges. Adorable!
Posted Jan 25, 2026
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6/10
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Mazel Tov
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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While there's many cliches in this amiable film of Argentinian Jewish adult siblings, confrontations towards the end raise the emotional level from the conventional by getting frank and raw.
Posted Jan 18, 2026
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9/10
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The Baltimorons
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Unusual for a dentist to be featured in an off-beat rom-com, let alone that the dentist is a middle-aged woman. In Xmas Eve odyssey through Baltimore, she and her younger patient empathetically enter the other’s life.
Posted Jan 04, 2026
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5/10
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David
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Visually colorful animation, a somewhat international voice-acted cast belting out catchy but too short tunes in an overly simplified Children’s Bible Story through a Christian perspective.
Posted Dec 21, 2025
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6/10
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Reflection in a Dead Diamond
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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A visual, albeit repetitive, romp in a fast sports car through the genre of satirizing European James Bond imitations with an all-in pan-European cast and a dizzying array of film and graphic arts references.
Posted Nov 25, 2025
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7/10
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Auction
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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A fiction inspired by true events, around discovery of a Nazi-disappeared painting, with pointed ironies in rarely publicly seen authentic environment of colorfully well-played ensemble of auctioneers, collectors, dealers, contrasts origins and a worker.
Posted Nov 01, 2025
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7/10
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Coexistence, My Ass!
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Shadows comedienne Noam Shuster Eliassi over five tumultuous years in her life and Israel’s. Using comedy as a platform for peace activism in the long tradition of pointed Jewish humor makes for an entertaining and emotionally insightful documentary.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
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7/10
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Queens of the Dead
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Draws on the zombie legacy of director's father George A. Romero with comedy and contemporary flair, with lots of winking Easter Eggs. Titular "Queens" are drag queens on stage and off, with range of LGBTQ+ community for comic relief to blood splatter.
Posted Oct 24, 2025
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8/10
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Among Neighbors
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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American director Potash adroitly, emotionally counters rising conservative nationalism that whitewashes the past with last victims and witnesses to during/after the Holocaust. Researched with Polish historians, artists, elders, he targets one village.
Posted Oct 11, 2025
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5/10
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One Big Happy Family
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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A mildly amusing Jewish family flick whose only reason to see is as final film of the incomparable Linda Lavin. In a role written for her, she plays the ultimate Brooklyn-born Jewish mother. Brenner wrote, stars in and produced a comic version from life.
Posted Oct 07, 2025
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8/10
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Bau: Artist at War
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Makes movingly clear their marriage in a concentration camp in "Schindler's List" was just a small part of Baus’ lives and their significance in the Holocaust plus. Uses impressive mix of archival footage, animation, and Bau’s serious and satirical art
Posted Oct 06, 2025
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4/10
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Soul of a Nation
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Confusingly edited and contextualized look at Israel's complex politics pre and post 10/7/2023 through news clips and interviews with prominent activists and elected/non-elected figures, particularly many secular women. Issues well-documented elsewhere.
Posted Oct 05, 2025
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7/10
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The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Chronological re-telling of violence of 10/7/2023 at Kibbutz Nahal Oz and instinctive individual heroic reaction of a family's grand/parents like interviews in a post-apocalyptic action flick, including gunmen's livestreamed attacks & government failures.
Posted Oct 04, 2025
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6/10
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Triumph of the Heart
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Intense time inside Auschwitz with a cross-section of nine Polish political prisoners and a saint starving in a cellar in early 1941. Ensemble acting is powerful, but bombastic religiosity ramps up with overpowering choruses.
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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7/10
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TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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With high emotional quotient, Shapira’s in-depth look at reactions in 1st months is a useful reminder of the shock and initial confrontations. Insights include the creators of red-framed posters, distraught relatives and friend of murdered and kidnapped.
Posted Sep 07, 2025
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7/10
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Riefenstahl
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Probing the personal archive of the enigma Leni Riefenstahl, who was Hitler’s most defining propagandist, warns of making a Faustian bargain if you live to be 100. Veiel found intriguing clues to both her psychology and the facts of her life and work.
Posted Sep 05, 2025
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5/10
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Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Half Kerouac biography (rare archival material flies by, especially pre and post ON THE ROAD) and half impact of his best-known book on white men. Dissenting voices in the hagiography are a relief, noting his misogyny and limited scope of liberation.
Posted Aug 02, 2025
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8/10
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Shoshana
(2023)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Jewish woman idealist is a vivid reminder that tensions, violence, and yet love across differences have persisted in the contested land of Palestine/Israel for over a hundred years. Well-researched, international cast portrays real political individuals.
Posted Jul 27, 2025
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8/10
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A Girl Named Ann
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Based on a true story, a searing portrait of domestic abuse, corrupt well-meaning cop, addiction, regretful crusading journalist, and the impact of pandemic on Kawai’s moving portrayal of heartbreaking title character.
Posted Jul 21, 2025
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7/10
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Guns & Moses
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Scarily relevant about violence against Jews, yet also showcases how authorities leap on antisemitism for disturbing incidents when truths are more complex. Like clergy detectives on British TV, with more shooting, thrilling chase scene, diverse tunes.
Posted Jul 21, 2025
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8/10
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Holding Liat
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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An intimate, yet political, look alongside one family of Israeli-American hostages from October 2023. Their personal trauma and grief is agonizing, but so is facing what they can do to try to save the lives of their family members. Lessons are personal.
Posted Jul 07, 2025
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8/10
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Familiar Touch
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Puts a sensitive spin on dealing with memory loss and its impact. Chalfant is a brilliant actress who convinces the audience she is “Ruth Goldman” from Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, and what a strong and charming personality she was before she was disabled.
Posted Jul 02, 2025
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5/10
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The Scout
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Tours us through vistas of Brooklyn houses, with glimpses of Manhattan residential communities and Rockaway beach, and gives subtle insights into how movies stereotype characters’ homes and surroundings. But title character's story doesn't go anywhere.
Posted Jun 21, 2025
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9/10
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Happy Birthday
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Touching story of two pink-loving young girls unfolds so that the revelations about their lives are a surprise to viewers not attuned to the subtle indicators of society in Cairo, Egypt. Camera captures startlingly different environments around them.
Posted Jun 21, 2025
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6/10
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Nobu
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Part self-made man memoir, with archival personal and period footage and photographs, and part promotion of restaurant and hotel chain. At its most involving when the focus stays on the chef himself within his milieu.
Posted Jun 20, 2025
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9/10
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Tatami
(2023)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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The built-in suspense of a women’s international athletic competition, in judo, ratchets up with the heavy-handed tactics of an all-controlling government. The risks feel very real. Mandi and Zar Amir are riveting.
Posted Jun 20, 2025
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9/10
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The Last Twins
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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An important addition to evidence of Jewish resistance and rescue during the Holocaust. Tightly edits together stories of the surviving twins chronologically through very specific interviews how Erno ‘Zvi’ Spiegel protected their lives from Auschwitz on.
Posted Jun 05, 2025
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5/10
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Gonzo Girl
(2023)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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In a secondary role, director Arquette is a grounded force in her few scenes, making the assistant much less interesting. She barely helps to balance the sexism of the situation and makes us wonder why we should care about Thompson-ish at this sad period.
Posted Jun 02, 2025
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7/10
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Bad Shabbos
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Entertaining ensemble gathers for an amusingly written, eventful family dinner on a Friday night at a Manhattan Upper West Side apt with a new fiancee and her family. Sedgwick is a loving tigress matriarch. “Method Man” joins to comically steal the show.
Posted May 30, 2025
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9/10
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Of Dogs and Men
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Co-writer/actress teen Ori Avinoam stuns in docu-reality hybrid re-living October 7, 2023 and now its aftermath, at Israel's border and in Gaza (through animation and audio). Director Rosenberg's third feature emphasizes humane themes and emotions.
Posted May 01, 2025
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8/10
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ADA - My Mother the Architect
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Director/daughter Melamede outlines her lively octogenarian mother Ada Karmi-Melamede's teachings about architecture as Roots, Routes, Light, and Time, plus insights into her designs with tours of her works, especially revealing for non-architects.
Posted Apr 28, 2025
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3/10
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The King of Kings
(2025)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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While adapting Dickens' intended-for-family-only book is entertaining, the adaptation unnecessarily perpetuates inflammatory stereotypes comparable to a medieval Catholic Passion Play.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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6/10
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October 8
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Among a broad range of interviews, testimonies on the impacts of antisemitic verbal attacks in person and online include details by several American Jewish women that are the most impactful, esp. at U.S. colleges. But the conspiratorial evidence is thin.
Posted Mar 31, 2025
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7/10
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Audrey's Children
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Dr. Audrey Evans is a worthy subject for a bio-pic and this is a satisfying enough inspiration. Despite some confusing plot points about her life, she is portrayed like male heroes usually are - outsized faith in her own solutions plus empathy for kids.
Posted Mar 27, 2025
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8/10
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Leila and the Wolves
(1984)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Restoration of 1984 feminist re-imagining and re-enactments that time-travels two centuries of Lebanese/Palestinian/Middle Eastern herstory by Jewish/Arab/Lebanese auteur filmmaker that is, as she says "more relevant than ever", and even prophetic.
Posted Mar 25, 2025
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7/10
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Jazzy
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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More than a familiar look at young girls growing up, Matz shines a light on the particular challenges of Native American females. Filmed over six years living in Spearfish, SD, two best friends go from free joy to traditional responsibilities.
Posted Jan 31, 2025
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8/10
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The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & the Art of Survival
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Revealing and insightful dive into life and unusual career of recently re-discovered artist, with original research on her hidden origins, following her from Poland, Russia, Paris, NY, Hollywood, TX to Mexico, adjusting her art moderne style to society.
Posted Jan 25, 2025
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7/10
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Midas Man
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Groovily traces impresario Brian Epstein’s career as gay Jew from Liverpool of Mersey Beat to world with family, personal and Beatles breaking-up pressures. Suitably embodied by Fortune-Lloyd with archival images flashing behind him for period contexts.
Posted Jan 14, 2025
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6/10
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Diane Warren: Relentless
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Assumes viewers will recognize the many hit pop songs and interpreters by this bio-doc subject. Her phenomenal success is despite discouragement from her mother. Old friends describe their discomfort with her family dynamics revealed from on the spectrum.
Posted Jan 11, 2025
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8/10
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A Photographic Memory
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Few daughters who lose mothers at a young age would have such a wealth of fascinating written, audio, visual material and the diligence to uncover, digitize, and edit together such a touching and insightful tribute to fill in the gaps of personal memory.
Posted Nov 23, 2024
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8/10
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The Bibi Files
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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In unfolding chronology of how Bibi's corruption went from petty to central, women are key fascinating figures. His wife Sara is his Lady MacBeth when she wants to emulate the Trumps. A key whistleblower is assistant to one of many billionaire "friends".
Posted Nov 22, 2024
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7/10
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All God's Children
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Explores 5yrs of interfaith partnership in Brooklyn between Park Slope synagogue and Bed-Stuy Black Baptist church – it’s not easy to live and learn, from miscommunication to misunderstandings. More a warning about difficulties than inspiration model.
Posted Nov 17, 2024
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8/10
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Small Things Like These
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Murphy doesn’t need words to agonize over whether to be working-class hero at Christmas as his past intrudes in what he witnesses at an Irish convent. Though wider institutional context is missing, this successfully raises moral questions for discussion.
Posted Nov 07, 2024
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7/10
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The Apprentice
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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From youthful to middle-aged periods (well played by Stan), key is enormous influence of two vicious men: closeted lawyer Roy Cohn (astonishingly portrayed by Strong) and his father to demonstrate importance of knowing these NY years under their tutelage.
Posted Nov 01, 2024
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7/10
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The World According to Allee Willis
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Digs through a dizzying mountain of material in Willis's archive from childhood on - of multi-hit, award-winning songs, art, fashion, parties, to internet plans, with Famous Friends interviews. Doc sensitively slows down to reveal her personal struggles.
Posted Oct 27, 2024
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7/10
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Stolen Time
(2023)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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Profiles passion and anger of Canadian litigator Melissa Miller as she puts in long hours on class actions (called there “mass torts”) for systemic change and distraught family law suits against for-profit nursing homes/long term care facility chains.
Posted Oct 25, 2024
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7/10
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Politics Is a Mother, Raising Hell Is Part of the Job
(2024)
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Nora Lee Mandel
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As fond and proud as the daughter is of her mother, the director makes clear that this absorbing portrait of a Jersey “Jewish grandmother” challenges any stereotypes with national resonance (via "Bridgegate") for rough yet rewarding realm of politics.
Posted Oct 22, 2024
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