It’s never too late to pursue a Jewish adulthood — or to fall in love, at least according to director Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples.”
What begins as a lighthearted dark buddy comedy devolves into a May-December romance in what many viewers will likely call bizarre but not shocking. But central to this film is not romance, but rather the lack thereof, asking what lovely people can do to find themselves again after loss.
Silver’s ninth feature film, “Between the Temples,” stars Jason Schwartzman as bereaved upstate New York cantor Ben Gottlieb. Depressed over the death of his alcoholic wife, Ben has lost the ability to sing and flounders through his career, unable to do his duties as a clergy member. He finds a kinship with his now-elderly elementary school music teacher Carla, played by a delightful Carol Kane.
After unsuccessfully attempting to be run over by a truck, Ben wails, “even my name is in the past tense.”His self-depreciation and manic decisions continue to build up throughout the film.
After failing to chant at Shabbat services, Ben gets plastered on mudslides (suggested by his local bartender, the boozy milkshake becomes an addiction for Ben throughout the film) and is knocked out by a man mocking him at the bar. Carla saves him after she sings an offkey karaoke performance, recognizing him as “Little Benny” shortly after.
In the screwball comedy, Carla asks Ben to help her become a bat mitzvah, which he initially declines, claiming she is “beyond” the age of the ceremony. After persistence and a promise to donate to the synagogue, the cantor relents and allows the widow to become his bat mitzvah student, causing the duo to form a close bond as outsiders.
Their bond might start with a study of the Torah, but Carla and Ben form a deep connection over their strained relationships with their dead spouses and a love of burgers. In one hilarious scene, Ben stuffs a whole hamburger in his mouth before spitting it out when Carla tells him that the “magic” of it is that it’s a cheeseburger, and thus not kosher. Their friendship opens the possibility for new beginnings and moving on, but also an outlet for each other to pursue what their families disapprove of: For Ben, his unreadiness to move on from his wife; for Carla, her pursuit of diving into her Jewish heritage as an adult.
Forced to move back in with his meddling mother Meira (Caroline Aaron) and her strictly-adhering convert wife Judith (Dolly de Leon), Ben is set up multiple times throughout the film with whacky spur-of-the-moment JDates. The wives thrust Ben into a young doctor, who he assumes is a grief therapist they hired. Instead, he learns that she’s a plastic surgeon they want him to date. In a standout moment, Meira ambushes him with a JDate with a Protestant woman who masquerades as a Jew because she “hates the way foreskin feels.”
“Between the Temples” shines in part because of its cast of kooky side characters. From Judith’s almost-pathological obsession with Jewish practice following her conversion to the shenanigans of Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel), it’s easy to see Ben’s world as one that can be swapped in for any suburban Jewish community.
From the rabbi’s tie emblazoned with the faces of his three daughters to his decision to practice his golf game by putting into a shofar, ennui runs strong through “Between the Temples.” Even Bruce’s decision to match Ben up with his unemployed and newly single daughter Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), who he describes as “the mess,” feels thrown together in a way that feels authentic.
Shot on 16mm film like Silver’s other work, the filmography of “Between the Temples” gives the impression that it’s running out of time. Chaotic in its fast cuts and dialogue that consistently overlaps itself, the experience is jarring and captivating.
Coming to a head during a chaotic Shabbat dinner scene, panic overtakes the screen as disaster ensues. A close second is Ben’s drug trip when he chases around his bar mitzvah boy self from three decades previously and a sex scene in the synagogue cemetery.
The coin has flipped on the teacher-student relationship as Carla and Ben find a true partnership with each other. Both are instilled with a new sense of understanding and pride for their Jewish identities and an overarching love of music. But they are not only Jews and widows; their kindred spirits extend into a common existence as outsiders and the anxieties and joys of living as black sheep.
Every scene feels like it could fall apart at any moment, tension and awkwardness radiating from each character like a nebbish, Jewish Wes Anderson drama. However, the imminent disasters that emerge in “Between the Temples” make it an underdog oddball comedy that radiates magic in its mundanity.
Coming to theaters August 23, “Between the Temples” previously received positive reviews at Sundance and adds a different dimension to the bar and bat mitzvah movie canon. More importantly, it highlights a different outlook on coming-of-age films. One can live as an adult for 60 years and still have rites of passage left to tackle; life can be defined in milestones rather than years.
Originally Published Aug 22, 2024 07:25PM EDT
