Lawrence Baron

Simon and the Oaks, directed by Lisa Ohlin (Sweden, Germany, Norway: 2011). By Laurie Baron Note: I haven’t written my column for several weeks because I’ve been giving lectures around the country.  Indeed, I was stranded in West Hartford, Connecticut, for two extra days due to Hurricane Sandy. Having endured two other hurricanes in New England in […]

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO – Edgar Allan Poe once remarked, “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.”  Short films adhere to the same rule. The acting, editing, plot, and soundtrack should all contribute to a vivid portrait of a character, the essence of a situation, or

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — After you celebrate the New Year, make amends with those you’ve wronged, and pray to God to forgive your sins on Yom Kippur, you might want to catch some movies in which the High Holy Days are featured.  Here are a few suggestions for your edification and entertainment: East

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — At the beginning of the New Year, most film critics release their top ten list of films from the previous year.  Since I’ve only been reviewing films for three months, I’m devoting my Rosh Hashanah column to my favorite American Jewish films.  I realize that there are many other

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — There are things that go “oy” in the night at a theatre near you.  Who would have predicted that Ole Bornedal’s The Possession, a mainstream Hollywood horror film about a dybbuk would be the hottest box-office draw over the Labor Day weekend?   Based on an allegedly true story reported

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO —  This Friday Craig Zobel’s controversial film Compliance will have its San Diego premier at the Ken Theatre in Hillcrest.  Based on an incident at a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky in 2004, Compliance chillingly depicts how a phone call from a man identifying himself as Officer Daniels commands a

 By Laurie Baron LA JOLLA, California —  The San Diego Jewish Film Festival will kick off its 23rd year with a screening of Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story on Sunday,  August 19 at 7:15 p.m.  in the Lawrence Family JCC’s Garfield Theatre.  This inspiring documentary directed by Jonathan Gruber and Ari Daniel Pinchot chronicles Yonatan

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Jennifer Devoldère’s The Day I Saw Your Heart is the Jewish Film Club’s (www.jewishfilmclub.com) DVD selection for this July and August.  It stars Mélanie Laurent as X-Ray technician Justine Dhrey and Michel Blanc as her prickly father Eli.  Ju, as she is called, seethes with resentment against Eli.  When she

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The Ken Cinema (4061 Adams Avenue) will reprise Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) for the midnight shows this Friday and Saturday.  The film which earned Refn the award for best director at Cannes is filled with gory killings that will repel squeamish viewers.  For those who can stomach the

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I had been looking forward to last week.  Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse and Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz were opening in San Diego, and I knew both featured Jewish characters.  Finally, I would have the opportunity to review movies currently playing in theatres for my column.  Unfortunately, depicting Jewish

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — If you missed Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness when it was in the theatres, rent a copy now that it is available on DVD or watch it on your On-Demand cable service.  In my opinion it the best Holocaust film since The Pianist.  My appreciation of it stems from three

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO–  There’s been a dearth of Jewish films this summer.  I had been hoping to review something that’s currently in release at movie theatres, but I’ve had no luck.  I saw The Avengers on the chance that Ben Grimm, the Jewish alter ego of the Thing, would make a cameo appearance, but

Blinky and Me, Directed by Tomasz Magierski (USA: Smoking Mirror Productions, 2012).  Available for purchase at www.tomaszmagierski.com By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — What do a a koala cub searching for its mother and a Jewish girl hiding in the forest during the Holocaust have in common?  They are all both products of the fertile

Foreign Letters, Directed by Ela Their (USA: 2012) By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Accessibility to films with Jewish themes has never been greater.  Before the mass marketing of VCRs in 1975 and the founding of the first annual Jewish film festival in San Francisco in 1980, the only Jewish movies the majority of filmgoers