From 2020, Shiva Baby is about a young bisexual woman who sits shiva with her parents, her ex-girlfriend, her current sugar daddy, his wife and their screaming infant. If that sounds like a good time to you, you're probably masochistic.
This was the first movie Emma Seligman directed, and she also wrote it. I get the feeling she may have sat shiva a few times. She may also have had the previously listed encumbrances thrown into those experiences. At any rate, this solemn occasion has trouble raining down on it from the git-go, as I used to say in Texas before tying up my horse to my oil well.
You're not supposed to bring booze to a shiva, but this one calls for at least one glass of wine. Aldo Viola's Shiva is made from Sicilian Catarratto grapes. The orange color for this white wine comes from the five months of skin contact when pressing the fruit. $55.
The Vigil is a 2019 horror film which whips up all kinds of bad vibes in the Orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn. It drips with references to the religion's traditions.
The demonic spirit here is a Mazzik, described in the Torah as invisible. For the movie, of course, the Mazzik is given a visible countenance - all the better to see and be terrified by him. The story centers on a former Orthodox Jew who is hired to be a shomer and watch over a dead Holocaust survivor before his burial. As it happens, the guy had done some bad stuff in his life and his body is the host of the Mazzik. Because surviving the Holocaust just wasn't punishment enough, huh?
The Mazzik plays havoc with the shomer through weird noises, flickering lights, apparitions, visions and - oddly - a disturbing video sent to his phone. Retrieving that video is a feat the poor guy probably couldn't have swung on his own when he was alive, but here we have a very tech-savvy Mazzik.
Critical response was mostly good, although one scribe did give up a "gefilte fish" reference to what he considered to be a movie for an acquired taste.
Obviously, we need a kosher wine to pair with The Vigil, and preferably one with a demon-fighting name. Carmel Vineyards of Israel has a Merlot which was grown in the Evyatar Vineyard of Upper Galilee. Evyatar was a high priest back in the day, and his name means "My father is great." L'chayim.
Portnoy's Complaint, from 1972, was written and directed by Ernest Lehman, who based his screenplay on Philip Roth's novel. He never directed again. Maybe it was the commentary from the critics of the day that kept him from climbing into a director's chair for another shot at it. He was roundly criticized for ruining a good book and destroying the charm of the Jewish Mother in the process. It's possible that he enjoyed his writing and producing so much that he didn't see the need to swim in the director's end of the pool, ever again.
Alexander Portnoy does a lot of talking to his therapist, but gets none back. He may as well be talking to himself, and maybe he is. It doesn't seem there's much truth to what he's telling the therapist. Has that ever happened to you? No? Didn't think so.
Let's pop the cork on a bubbly from the Russian River Valley. Herzog's Sparkling Chardonnay is really tasty. It's a $50+ purchase, but it's kosher. I can't imagine you'd have a complaint about this wine, but if you do, tell it to your therapist.
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