The Reel Schmooze

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

Movie maven Hoffman begins with a tribute to master documentarian Frederick Wiseman, who died this week, aged 96.

We then hear about the Israeli film “Children No More: Were and Are Gone,” directed by Hila Medalia, which is nominated for Best Documentary Short Film. The film documents a vigil that began in March 2025 in Tel Aviv, as a handful of left-wing protesters held photos of children killed in Gaza.

And in the final segment, the pair rewind the 50-year-old masterpiece, "All the President's Men." In addition to appreciating the film's 1976 fashions and antiquated good manners, they note parallels to today's deep exploration into the trove of documents connected with the Epstein case.

Check out the "oy," the "meh" and "not bad" marks given to films in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

After Borschel-Dan reads out a listener's cottage cheese-themed email, Hoffman brings us a news "Jangle" involving "Marty Supreme" actress Odessa A'zion.

Next, we hear how to pickle lemons, and then we turn to an Israeli student film, "The Butcher's Stain," that is up for an Oscar this year for Best Short Film. Hoffman weighs in on its chances.

Finally, we explore Spike Lee's 2018 "BlacKkKlansman," which has several surprisingly deeply Jewish moments.

Check out the "meh plus!" and "not bad" films in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

Hoffman delights with his New Jersey quest for the best cottage cheese in the world -- Israeli -- much to the utter scorn of Borschel-Dan before turning to his scathing review of the new Amazon "documentary" charting the life of First Lady Melania Trump prior to the inauguration. 

We hear a theory that producer Melania Trump attempted to recapture the Eastern European propaganda look of her youth in the MAGA vehicle probing her napkin choices and Hoffman rates her success.

In the same genre of mockumentary, we take a new look at the masterful 1983 "Zelig" by Woody Allen.

Check out the one "oy" and one "not baaaaad" film (our highest mark) in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: First Lady Melania Trump and US President Donald Trump before the premiere of her movie 'Melania' at The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, January 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert, File)

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

This week, we hear scintillating updates on Hoffman's test drive of his new snow blower before launching into our two Schmoovies of the week. 

First, we discuss "33 photos from the Ghetto," which explores the saga of a trove of previously unpublished photographs of the Nazis brutally suppressing the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Revolt that was captured in secret by a Polish firefighter while German forces set the Jewish ghetto ablaze. We learn how the images were accidentally discovered -- and how they complement another set that was sent to the United States decades earlier.

The film, distributed on HBO Max since International Holocaust Remembrance Day, evokes mixed feelings from our team.

We then turn to Jesse Einsenberg's 2024 "A Real Pain." It was a second viewing of the film for our duo and one of them had a change of heart from the repeat performance.

Check out the one "meh" and one "not bad" film (our highest mark) in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

We update that last week's main movie, "Holding Liat," is now playing in 20 locations throughout North America.

Then we hear a "Jangle" about unabashed Zionist Michael Rapaport, who was just in the news for his participation in "The Traitors."

The first "Schmoovie" of the week is "It Was Just an Accident" by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Nominated for two Academy Awards, it is playing internationally at major arthouse theaters.

The premise is roughly based on Panahi's stints in Iranian prisons for his films exposing the oppressive regime. It includes a ragtag group trying to assess if a kidnapped man is indeed their interrogator/torturer. Though the set-up sounds grim, there is plenty of Panahi's trademark wit to keep you thinking -- and chuckling.

The second film discussed is 2015's "Taxi," which was produced during a period in which Panahi was barred from creating films. Smuggled out and screened at the Cannes film festival, the movie takes place in a borrowed taxi and includes an uncredited cast of everyday Iranians -- or are they?

Check out the two "not bad" films (our highest mark) in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Director Jafar Panahi poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'It Was Just an Accident' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 21, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

The "Schmoovie" of the week is "Holding Liat," a remarkable documentary that charts the struggle of one Israeli-American family to return its loved ones who were taken hostage to Gaza during the Hamas murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Short-listed for an Oscar for Best Documentary, "Holding Liat" is now playing at art theaters, including in New York and Los Angeles.

Produced by Hollywood filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and created by brothers Brandon and Lance Kramer, we learn in the film that during the siege on Kibbutz Nir Oz, educator Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband, artist and mechanic Aviv Atzili, were separately captured by the Hamas gunmen. 

The film follows American-born couple Yehuda and Chaya Beinin, kibbutznikim who immigrated to Israel in the 1970s, their daughter Tal, who emigrated from Israel to Portland a decade ago, and their grandchildren, primarily Netta, who barely survived the rampage at Nir Oz.

The filmmakers, cousins to the Beinin family, begin charting their relatives two weeks after the couple's capture. Through updates from the IDF, we understand that there are disturbing findings related to Aviv, but that Liat is thought to be relatively secure.

Yehuda, Tal and Netta journey to Washington, DC, to attempt to sway US politicians' hearts and minds to fight for their cause, but quickly see how each generation frames the conflict and its potential resolution.

Upon the joyous return of Liat during the 2023 temporary truce that saw 97 hostages freed, we learn that Aviv was slaughtered by the terrorists. However, Liat resumes her activism, pushing for a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. 

Hear the conflicted reactions the intense, but nuanced film evokes in this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

Image: Still from 'Holding Liat' (courtesy)

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

The "Schmoovie" of the week is "Marty Supreme," starring Timothée Chalamet (who also co-produced), Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher. It was produced and directed by Josh Safdie, who also co-wrote the script, alongside Ronald Bronstein. 

Like the very Jewish film it is, it arrived to the world on December 25 and so Borschel-Dan had to make a rare outing into a Jerusalem cinema. She brings back the unique impressions from an Israeli crowd watching this utterly Yiddishe story set in 1950s Lower East Side New York -- especially how they reacted to Holocaust references.

Hoffman, who recently interviewed director Safdie about the film for Vanity Fair, gives us the inside scoop on the crazy cast of characters that flesh out the "junkyard Jews" at the heart of the tale.

The pair keeps the conversation very general -- no spoilers! -- for the first half of the episode, but then get Talmudically into the weeds for the second.

Hear about our very first unreserved top-marking "not bad" from both hosts on this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: Timothée Chalamet attends the premiere of 'Marty Supreme' at Regal Times Square on December 16, 2025, in New York. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

This week, we hear amazing Jangles (entertainment news a Jew can use) from Hoffman, including the contentious NY launch of "Marty Supreme" and the inside scoop into actor Jack Black's superwoman of a mother. 

We hear a full-throated recommendation from Borschel-Dan for a multi-media performance she caught that is touring Israel. Based on journalist and author Matti Friedman's "Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai," the Beit Avichai production will announce its schedule of future shows in April.

The pair hunker down to review the Schmoovie of the week, "The Sure Thing," a 1985 film of teen love -- and lust. Rob Reiner's second directorial outing gets mixed reviews from our hosts. 

Hear who gave "The Sure Thing" a middling "meh" and who gave it our top mark of "not bad" on this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by the PodWaves and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: US actor Jack Black attends the premiere of Columbia Pictures' "Anaconda" at The United Theater on Broadway in Los Angeles, California, on December 13, 2025. (Robyn Beck / AFP)

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Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

This week, we hear reviews of two films: the 2019 "An Officer and a Spy," a film by controversial director Roman Polanski on the Dreyfus Affair, which is now playing in the United States, and the shattering documentary, "The Voice of Hind Rajab."

But the pair opens the program by honoring director-actor Rob Reiner, who was slain over the weekend alongside his wife, Michele. We learn about his early acting work and hear about many of his groundbreaking films that have become enduring classics.

Hoffman tells us about Polanski's cinematic childhood and early adult life -- he barely survived the Holocaust and his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson family. We then hear how Polanski skipped out on the sentencing after pleading guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a 13-year-old girl he was photographing for Vogue, and has lived outside of the US ever since, but still working consistently. And after all that, we learn about the merits of the film, "An Officer and a Spy."

The final movie discussed is potentially even more controversial to several listeners, "The Voice of Hind Rajab." The film portrays the attempts of the Ramallah-based Red Crescent to send an ambulance to save the six-year-old Hind, who is trapped in a war zone in northern Gaza in a car with her family, who are all dead. Using the actual soundtrack from the terrified girl's phone calls for help, the film is a carefully crafted re-enactment of the impending tragedy.

Hear which film(s) got a seal of approval on this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by the PodWaves and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.

This week, the pair speaks about two new movies, the feature film, "Jay Kelly," and the short documentary "Carol & Joy."

But first, we hear in this week’s “Jangle” segment, an update on a story from last week regarding one of the Holocaust survivors featured in the film, "Eleanor the Great," Sami Steigmann, who was asked not to speak at a Brooklyn middle school about antisemitism due to his pro-Israel views.

Our second Jangle involves the impending sale of Warner Bros Studio. Hoffman has some passionate thoughts.

We then speak about "Jay Kelly," a 2025 comedy-drama directed by Noah Baumbach and written by Baumbach and Emily Mortimer. For Borschel-Dan, it was a screening in two sleepy parts that ended with a "meh" rating. Hoffman was (slightly) kinder.

Both were united in their appreciation for the documentary, "Carol & Joy," directed by Nathan Silver and starring actress Carol Kane and her 98-year-old mother, Joy Kane. It is a delight of a film and... executive produced by a The Reel Schmooze regular, Natalie Portman.

Hear which film got a seal of approval on this week's The Reel Schmooze.

The Reel Schmooze is produced by the PodWaves and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.

IMAGE: George Clooney, from left, director Noah Baumbach, and Adam Sandler pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Jay Kelly' during the London film festival, October 10, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

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