Between the Temples (2024)
Directed by: Nathan Silver
Premise: A windowed Jewish cantor (Jason Schwartzman) has a chance encounter with his now retired elementary school music teacher (Carol Kane). He takes her on as an adult Bat Mitzva student.
What Works: Between the Temples is about a relationship between a middle-aged man and an older woman and their complicated relationship to their families and shared faith. Ben, played by Jason Schwartzman, has been adrift since his wife died a year ago and he lives with his mothers (Dolly de Leon and Caroline Aaron) who are in a same sex marriage. Carla, played by Carol Kane, is also widowed and is now reconnecting with her Jewish heritage after being estranged from it during marriage and motherhood. Ben and Carla’s backgrounds complement one another and they assist each other in overcoming bereavement. However, their relationship is a bit more complicated than that as feelings get misconstrued and social boundaries are crossed. Between the Temples is partly about community. Ben’s teaches Hebrew to mostly disinterested students and his mothers and his rabbi constantly try to set him up with Jewish women. Ben and Carol are simultaneously part of the community while existing outside of it and Between the Temples dramatizes that experience. It has a lot of details specific to its characters and community which give the film a vivid sense of place. Schwartzman and Kane are terrific in the film. They make a likable on-screen pair and their performances have subtle details that reveal the characters’ interior lives. The supporting cast is quite good as well, especially Madeline Weinstein as the rabbi’s daughter. A lot of the family and community tension is played for humor and Between the Temples is very funny. It’s a melancholy sense of humor which comes to a head in a dinner scene that is expertly staged and acted.
What Doesn’t: Between the Temples’ filmmaking style is distracting. The cinematography has an excessively grainy and washed-out analog aesthetic. The image is occasionally unsteady with the edge of the frame wobbling and showing discolorations. These don’t appear to be errors but rather stylistic filmmaking choices. The picture often has the look of a VHS tape viewed on a high-definition screen. The trouble is that this style doesn’t fit the story. Between the Temples is set in the present day; it’s not recreating an analog era. The style has no relevance to the subject and the image is of such low definition that the look of the movie distracts from the content.
Bottom Line: Between the Temples mixes comedy and drama to great effect. It’s hampered by the filmmaking choices which are inexplicable and distracting. But the characters and their community are so vivid that they mostly shine through the technical shroud.
Episode: #1011 (September 1, 2024)