Give a listen ... Rabbi & Rebbitzen go to the movies

“Guns & Moses.” It sounds like a Jewish movie. Nu? The main character is a rabbi who reluctantly becomes a gunslinger after his community is attacked. Naturally, it piqued our interest, but we were torn. On the one hand, we wanted to show our support for those who worked hard to produce and present a film with Jewish content. But, in a time of much antisemitism, divisiveness, and violence we were hesitant about going to the movie theater. Could some crazed fanatic attack the audience? Things like that are becoming commonplace. Sparing you the details, we weighed a bunch of factors and decided it was more important to go and meet our obligation to share our opinions. Among some positive notes, we stayed to watch the entire film. There weren’t a bunch of trailers overloaded with computer graphics or loud slamming noises and dramatic music. No other filmgoers annoyed us with their cellphones. In fact, there was only one other patron. There was an impressive explanatory introduction presented by the two writers. We liked that every day for two years they had viewed other films to learn what elements were needed to make their own an artistic success. We adjusted our comfortable, reclining seats in anticipation of a good experience.

The movie starts off well with a nice dose of Jewish material and humor. A member of the community is being honored for his generous donation to help build a permanent synagogue building. Suddenly shots are heard. The shooter flees. A known white supremacist is suspected. The rabbi doesn’t think the young extremist could have done such a thing and he sets out to prove his contention and find those who may be responsible. In the process, the rabbi learns how to handle and shoot a firearm. Semi-spoiler alerts follow: some unexpected people turn out to have questionable moral character; like my bubbe would say, “a shonda fur de goyim.” That is, it doesn’t speak well for the Jewish tribe. The rabbi eludes some bad guys; apparently, he learned some moves from the film “Jurassic Park” where people somehow always stay inches away from catastrophe when being chased by dinosaurs. The rabbi’s wife does something very dangerous trying to help him. After the unraveling of a complicated plot the wrong-doer is revealed along with some other good news for the congregation.

Do we recommend this film? Usually, we rate movies on a scale of zero to 10. My wife’s verdict: between 5 and 6. My opinion? An 8, which plummeted below 7 as we exited the building and I had time for the various scenes to impact my brain. But do I give “Guns & Moses” thumbs up? Thumbs down? Neither. I resort to a different gesture in this case: two palms up and a shrug of the shoulders. It was sufficiently entertaining with a running time of one hour and 34 minutes. So? Try it. Maybe you’ll like it.

Maybe something more interesting and helpful to share will be the method I choose for seeing a film in the movie theater. Of course, we all have certain content preferences and dislikes. Gore and extremely graphic violence are not our thing. Vampire movies are out. Wokeness factors have to be carefully considered, weighed and balanced. Then there are actors and actresses that my wife and I follow and others we avoid. Also, we will seldom see a lengthy film in the theater unless it’s a foreign language movie that may not ever be available for streaming. We’ve seen a number of outstanding subtitled films in other languages: Hindi, Telugu, Vietnamese, Icelandic, and more.

A “go-to” website for movie reviews is Rotten Tomatoes but not solely for the numerical rating. That only indicates the percentages of critics and viewers who approve of the film regardless of how strong their recommendation. Accordingly, I skim through many reviews. Even if a film has an RT score of 95 it’s important to include reading reviews with the lowest ratings; some reviewers are very perceptive and great at sharing valuable insights. I also seek out film reviews on Christian websites because there is apt to be more frankness about values and content such as violence, pervasive foul language, graphic and gratuitous sex scenes, drugs and gore. Such sites include movieguide.org and pluggedin.com. In short, I do a lot of googling of the movie title and as much searching as I find necessary to make the viewing decision.

My wife entrusts me with the selection process and compliments me: “Another great choice, sweetie.” That’s not to say that we don’t consider word of mouth. And she will share a recommendation from one of her friends and ask me to delve into the research. We each have our own preferences and we’re both flexible and make exceptions to our usual guidelines of content and quality. Sometimes we regret that; other times we are rewarded. There are a number of highly rated and popular movies that we have walked out of. It’s uncanny how we have turned to each other and whispered, “what do you think?” One of us will reply that we’ve seen enough or that it’s up to the other person whether or not we stay. Or maybe there will be a shrug of the shoulders. “Lincoln,” “La La Land,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” we disliked all of them and didn’t stay around long enough to suffer. Yet we’ve enjoyed movies out of our so-called comfort zones.

We’ve both been rattled by the indoctrination going on nowadays that is known as transgenderism. I’m not referring to the rare situation where there is a heart-breaking and challenging physical anomaly. I’m speaking of the disturbing, activist movement that says every child should decide what gender to be. And tragically, we know some parents who are promoting that — putting their little girls on puberty blockers because they are good at soccer and dressing their little boys in skirts. Meanwhile, concerned people who question such parenting are labeled as transphobic and haters. It’s insane. It reminds me of the film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” in which pods are delivered and used to replace human beings. Now, we have activists in teaching, acting, and other professions utilizing propaganda and pressure rather than pods to manipulate, drug, and mutilate children. Some of us who would dare to counsel and treat anyone plagued with gender dysphoria and confusion have even been threatened personally and professionally. Obviously, a film promoting the transgenderism movement would not be on our watch list. So, it may come as a surprise that one particular movie did pass my review process and proved to be a good choice: “A Fantastic Woman,” starring Daniela Vega. The 2017 film isn’t an indoctrination film, or a grooming routine, or an activist propaganda piece. Admittedly, the content is not for everyone. But it’s a touching story for adults about a human being who loves, loses, and grieves. It was in Spanish with English subtitles. You never know when a gem will show up at the movie theater. Just go easy on the buttered popcorn.