Three from the Jewish Film Festival 2018

I enjoyed the 2017 releases Monkey Business, The Cakemaker, and The Last Suit, parts of the festival several weeks ago.

Of the three, my favorite was Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators, a delightful documentary about Margret and Hans Rey, who authored the beloved children's books.

Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki makes her feature debut, as does Erin Sanger, who wrote Sam Waterston's (best known for 368 episodes of Law & Order (Jack has probably seen them all), Golden-Globe nominated as Most Promising Newcomer for The Great Gatsby (1974), his work that I've enjoyed also includes Interiors (1978), Hopscotch (1980), The Killing Fields (1985) (Oscar-nominated), September (1987), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), The Man in the Moon (1991), Serial Mom (1994), Nixon (1995), 25 episodes of The Newsroom, and 55 episodes of Grace & Frankie) narration. I find that this movie started as a Kickstarter campaign. The link previews the animation used to tell the Reys' story from escaping the Nazis and beyond.

I don't remember much about Jason Cummings' (it's his second feature and his first was also a documentary) music and it's not available online, so you'll just need to rent or buy the movie. Here's the iTunes link.

Rotten Tomatoes doesn't have enough reviews to give it any averages, but don't let that deter you from seeing it.

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The Cakemaker, about a German pastry chef stalking the wife and son of his dead lover in Jerusalem, is going on my list of food movies. Everything looks yummy and the story is good, too.

Stars Tim Kalkhof and Sarah Adler are new to me, despite being experienced. This is director/writer Ofir Raul Graizer's first feature.

Dominique Charpentier's (her first feature, too) lovely piano solos can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music.

The movie has a number of nominations and wins and Rotten Tomatoes' critics are eating it up, averaging 98%. Its audiences average a tasty 81. Watch it on Netflix.

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In The Last Suit (AKA El último traje), an 88 year old tailor runs away from Buenos Aires to Poland to look for an old friend he knew in WWII. Miguel Ángel Solá is the cantankerous Abraham Burzstein and Ángela Molina is María. Pablo Solarz directs and wrote the screenplay. I'm not familiar with any of them.

I made a note after seeing it that the screening had terrible sound, even though we were promised a great soundtrack by Federico Jusid (scored Neruda and much more). Some of his music can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is a buttoned up 78% but its audiences are looser at 92. I don't see anywhere to stream it, however. There are DVDs for sale but I wouldn't buy it, especially at those prices.