Day 15 -- Holy Rollers

Released: May 21st, 2010

Starring: Jessie Eisenberg, Ari Graynor, Justin Bartha, Q-Tip

Writer/Director: Antonio Macia/Kevin Asch

Description: In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israel drug cartel.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

This movie was originally chosen by me after watching Jessie Eisenberg's turn as Mark Zuckerberg in the "Social Network", and I was curious to see how he was in other works. Honestly, I didn't know much about the film until I looked at the info last night, and it raised my interest level a bit. I haven't seen many movies with Hesidic protagonist, let alone a movie based in the culture. Also, this is based on a true story.

Sam (Eisenberg) is a practicing Hesidic Jew, who follows every rule in the religion to perfection. He's set to marry through an arranged marriage with a women who comes from better means than his own family. His toughest decision is whether to be a rabbi or work in his father's store. That is until the woman's family rejects him and he begins to make so unconventional life choices for a person from his culture. His mentor through all of his new activities is Josef (Justin Bartha), who is in way too deep to see that's he out of control.

Bartha's performance is actual pretty good. He's as far from his "National Treasure" character as he can be. But he still finds a way to charming and interesting throughout the movie. I believe he could be a first-billed actor in either a drama or comedy, sort of the Paul Rudd mold.

Even though her performance wasn't spectacular, I couldn't forget about the female lead, Ari Graynor. She is one of those rare actresses that I find more appealing on film or television than I do in photos. I don't know what it is but I get mesmerized. It not really about sex appeal, she usually creates some dynamic character, but she slightly misses the mark in this film.

Every aspect of this movie is interesting. From the Hesidic Jewish family to the slow decline of Sam's morals. Underneath all of its unique settings is an above average fall from grace movie. As Sam becomes more successful and tangled in the life of drug smuggler, Sam's slowly loses all of what makes him pure, and what originally drew him into favor with the drug smuggling crowd.

A solid movie from start to finish. Yes, it was sleepy at times but the performances drug the film through those moment and actually made me care for the ending, especially Sam's story. The only thing I kept thinking was that Sam needed to die because of how he lost his values. This thought seeped into my head thanks to my friend, Anthony, who makes it a point to punish characters in his writing who lose their way. This was the first time I actually thought death was appropriate for a character in a movie.

Rating: 7/10 -- Good movie with a unique setting. Definitely worth seeing once. Gave me a little more insight into Hesidic culture, and I always like to learn something in a movie.