Editor’s Note: Freeline Media’s movie critic, Mike Fried, has his thoughts on a Menashe Lustig double feature. And Mike knows exactly what you’re asking yourself: Who?? Read on.

By MIKE FRIED

MENASHE LUSTIG DOUBLE FEATURE, FOLKS! 

1. MENASHE

*** 1/2

Menashe is the title character of the movie played by the man himself, Menashe Lustig. Menashe lived with his wife, Leah and his son Rivien in London until a year ago when Leah suddenly died. Menasha and his son moved back to Borough Park and since then Menasha has been subjected to ridicule by his wife’s family who have taken his son to live with them.

Menashe is just not considered to be a serious man. While he wears his prayer shawl, tzitzit, he doesn’t wear a hat; nor does he wear the traditional black frock coat. Plus he works as a clerk in a grocery and he’s not seen as serious. 

This is not a great film, but it is an extraordinarily tender portrait of a man in crisis. The Torah says that a man must find himself a companion, but, for Menashe, if he cannot have his beloved wife Leah, he doesn’t want anybody; however, he risks losing his child.

Not only is it a very compelling story, but it is, to my understanding, an almost entirely true story, as it is based on the life and the problems that Menashe had.

Director Joshua Weinstein does a terrific job filming on location in Borough Park and using, as actors, members of the Hasidic community. Even though he did not speak Yiddish, Weinstein used a translator, and the film is spoken almost entirely in Yiddish, and in some respects, even though it was made in the United States, it comes off as a foreign film.

This is definitely one for you to WATCH! 

2. THE VIGIL

****

(Law and Order voice) For thousands of years, religious Jews have practiced the ritual of ‘The Vigil’: When a member of the community dies, the body is watched round-the-clock in shifts by a Shomer, or watchman, who recites the Psalms to comfort the deceased’s soul and protect it from unseen evil. This watchman is typically a family member or friend, but there are paid Shomers … hired to sit the Vigil when no one else can.

Yakov has left the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and is now finding his way in the world via a support group for similar people.  Leaving one night, he is confronted by his old Rabbi, Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig), who has come to ask him to be a Shomer for a recently deceased man, a Holocaust survivor. The widow (the wonderful Lynn Cohen in her final role before passing) is dubious of him but reluctantly accepts him. As the vigil begins, Yakov hears noises, sees things and that’s just the beginning. It gets worse.  Evidently the deceased was haunted by a malevolent spirit called a Mazzik since he was in Buchenwald, a spirit that seeks a token person.  

Keith Thomas’ directorial debut really hits home, primarily because of the dark energy that he evokes through some stylish cinematography as well as the terrific use of practical effects that are truly scary.  There a scene where Yakov is in the basement watching a video of the deceased talking about the Mazzik and he sees the widow mouthing words and the hears her say “Behind you” — and, sure enough, the demon is there in a terrific jump scare.

Dave Davis is excellent as Yakov.  His fright is palpable.  He is torn between two worlds, the secular and religious and the demon is using the bad things from his past to make things even worse.  The sense of dread that Davis evokes is fantastic, especially as it seems that the Mazzik will not let him leave and is messing with his reality by altering phone calls and FaceTime calls that he makes. 

And the aforementioned Lynn Cohen — who played Golda Meir in Munich — is terrifically creepy as the Alzheimer’s-afflicted widow Litvak. She knows of the presence of the demon and she seemingly does not care.  And it seems that her Alzheimer’s comes and goes as it suits her. 

It is a terrific haunted house story because of its sound design, chilling score, lighting, use of practical effects and, most importantly, its lead performance.  

It works because of its simplicity. There’s no big antisemitism message in the film — which there could have been (witness the anti-racism message of Get Out) — and the story is very straightforward with very few, if any, bells and whistles. 

It was more creepy than scary — and it’s a story about faith. 

WATCH IT

Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.

Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.