Movie Reviews

Movie review: Even in the darkest moments of history, people love

Published

3 weeks ago

August 13, 2026

(JNS) – Look up the word “tough” in the dictionary (if people do such things anymore), and you might just find a picture of an Israeli. Tougher yet, an Israeli woman. Hardened by circumstances, history, work, wifedom, motherhood, and loss after loss, they have come to symbolize the sabra, a desert cactus prickly to the core.

Nobody knows this better than an Israeli man.

That, in short, is the theme of a new movie in English and Hebrew, “For the Love of a Woman,” released in mid-July. It’s based on “The Loves of Judith,” a 1994 novel by Israeli writer and newspaper columnist Meir Shalev, who died in April 2023, just months before the editing of the film finished that September.

The story opens in Rhode Island in 1978, with two estranged sisters in a hospital waiting room, struggling to make small talk as their mother lay dying. The elder one, Esther (“Etty”) Horwitz – divorced, childless and working as a “stewardess” in San Francisco – is handed a small Styrofoam cup of vending-machine coffee, peers into it and states blankly, “There’s milk in it.”

She throws her married sister with children a sour look, setting the stage for disappointment to come.

Esther is willed a handwritten letter from their mother, along with an enclosed Yemenite pendant, dated Oct. 4, 1932, and a torn photo of her as a baby with their father in Haifa, in what was then British Mandatory Palestine.

It’s a mystery of sorts, instructing Esther to travel back to her birthplace to find a woman named “Yehudit” who lived in a farming settlement and some answers to the reason she never quite fit into her family and her own skin.

“When I first read her part, I thought, she’s so annoyed and so annoying,” said Mili Avital, 54, the Israeli actress who played the part of Esther. “But when you’re far from your own truth, you’re unsettled. It’s almost like there’s a piece missing. And she doesn’t understand the source of it, which this journey she’s embarking on is all about. It’s going to bring her to the truth.”

The story weaves its way from the 1970s to the 1930s and Yehudit.

Avital’s character is indeed an outlier. She lives in California, on the opposite coast from her family; she flies the skies for work, with few permanent connections. “She’s both a foreigner in the United States because she feels different, and then she comes to Israel, and she really is a foreigner; she’s a tourist,” says Avital.

‘The themes are universal’

So, too, was the film’s Italian director, 66-year-old Guido Chiesa, in Israel for the first time for the project. A Catholic, he says he was always interested in the country and its history, both geographically and religiously.

He was there for a few months in 2022 and at the beginning of 2023. Joint screenplay writer Nicoletta Micheli, who is also Italian, scouted for a location to film; yet modern-day Israel has become very modern. Most of the locales were either too built-up to reflect immigrant life in the early 20th century or, in some places, like an abandoned Syrian army base in the Golan, too close to borders and potential rocket fire to be secure.

And so, Sicily became the backdrop for much of the film – namely, the fictional moshav of Beit Caleb. Parts of southern Italy housed farmers in communal villages called “agro-towns” in the 1930s through 1950s.

When Yehudit Salomon, an attractive young woman who’s deaf in her right ear, arrives there, the place is never the same.

“This film, to me, is incredibly universal,” says Avital. “I mean, it has a specific worldview and a specific character, but the themes of it are universal.”

A main theme is inherent misunderstandings, and the inability, for many men, to understand the psyche and concerns of women, and perhaps most of all, their emotions. Men often shy away from the depths of a woman’s pain, either because they don’t know how to approach it, or in some cases, don’t want to.

That has left Yehudit and Esther proverbially wandering in the desert. But it doesn’t seem to affect their spirit, which becomes stronger with every obstacle they face.

“It’s a testament to the times when the movie takes place,” says Avital. “You had to be tough to stand up to all these men and to carry on” amid some very real threats: physical, sexual, mental, emotional.

Add to that the “plain hardship of both trying to and then having a family. That’s a very relevant and important theme,” she says. “It’s like the name of the film – what people do for the love of a woman and what a woman does for the love of herself.”

The deeper meaning that runs through it, Avital points out, is that even in the darkest moments of history, people fall in love, give birth, build families and form communities.

‘It’s a story about hope’

The segue between Esther and Yehudit becomes clearer as the saga unfolds. Esther seeks out several people in Israel to help her uncover lost history, while Yehudit wrestles with men who profess their love as she keeps the past to herself.

Men can have a hard time “being retrospective, looking inside themselves,” says Chiesa. “We have a hard time seeing the other person, learning from the other person, being able to listen to the other person. Not all of them, of course, but generally.”

Chiesa said he was captivated by the era he was filming and the early Jewish pioneers. “They were very idealistic, in a way. They wanted to have a land, they wanted to have a country; they wanted to build a new society, a freer society. It was a unique experiment.”

Soon after editing was completed, Israel was roiled by the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. From that moment on, he says, no European festival wanted to screen the film. Eventually, using Chiesa’s domestic clout, they managed to distribute it in Italy, where it won the Best Film Award at the Bari International Film Festival, known as the “Federico Fellini” Award for Best Movie.

Even now in Europe, it’s very hard to talk about the film, says Chiesa. “There’s so much antisemitism going on … I understand that people are afraid of bringing up the word ‘Israel.’ It has become more and more complicated.”

Still, Chiesa doesn’t shy away from the facts, stating plainly that “Jewish culture and heritage are at the roots of Western society.”

He says “without Israel, without the Torah, without Abram – all the way up to Jesus – there wouldn’t be Western society. I think that’s something we should treasure, rather than condemn without thinking about all the aspects of it, all the aspects of the complicated situation in the Middle East right now.”

He enjoyed being there, he says, pointing to the deserts and the demographics. “Israel, from what I understood by visiting it and working there, is a very complex society,” he says. “Not all people think the same. There are people that are in favor of one position and people in favor of another position; it’s a democracy. And everyone has a say. They have a vote.”

The way he puts it, it almost doesn’t sound so complicated. It is encapsulated in his directorial skills. What’s left unsaid comes together in the end.

“It’s a story about hope against all odds,” states Chiesa.

Esther, he explains, goes from being “an unresolved woman, a very fragmented woman, a person that is unable to love. And then she learns that a tragic event happened in her family, and she’s able to change.”

Finding the truth about herself and her family history allows her to be a freer person. And that, he says, “is something we all believe in deeply.”

In the letter that sets up the story, Esther’s mother writes: “I believed it was important for you to go on this journey, wherever it may have taken you. It was your right. I hope this story allows you to make peace with many things.”

Movie Reviews

Ryan Jay Reviews Movies for the Weekend of September 4th, 2026

Published

1 minute ago

September 4, 2026

Press Room

Ryan Jay Reviews Movies for the Weekend of September 4th, 2026

Should you see it, skip it, or stream it? Ryan Jay gives us his movie ratings! This week he reviews:

By Any Means / Paramount Pictures
Fall 2: Deadpoint / Lionsgate

Ryan also shares details on the new Ryan Jay Movie Club happening Wednesday, September 9 at 7 p.m. Plus, enter to win a pair of free tickets at RyanJayReviews.com

Ryan has an exciting giveaway featuring the Ultimate OZ Universe books and shares his contribution included in the collection. Enter to win both volumes at RyanJayReviews.com

And don’t miss Ryan’s free movie screening event at the Argo

Click here for more Ryan!

Movie Reviews

Movie Review | Despite its title, the slasher siege movie ‘Onslaught’ takes its time

Published

10 hours ago

September 4, 2026

Press Room

Movie Review | Despite its title, the slasher siege movie ‘Onslaught’ takes its time

AP:

Masked soldiers deployed on domestic soil and an air of conspiratorial paranoia give Adam Wingard’s not-quite-grindhouse siege film Onslaught a contemporary pulse, even if this lean, B-movie thriller doesn’t deliver much more than a flicker of its throwback promise.

Wingard, though, does seem freshly liberated in this return to his low-budget thriller roots ( You’re Next, The Guest). He has since spent the last decade in more IP-managed releases: the 2016 Blair Witch sequel, a Netflix adaptation of Death Note and a pair of Godzilla vs. Kong movies.

But the 92-minute Onslaught, written by Wingard and his regular collaborator Simon Barrett, is intentionally straightforward — to the point, you could say, of brainlessness. It’s aiming for a very simple slasher setup in the mould of John Carpenter: A single mom and PTSD-riddled former Army sniper, Celeste (Adria Arjona), living in a desert trailer park, defends herself and her young daughter (Blake Kennedy) from an invasion of three highly programmed super-soldiers who have sprung out of a nearby military contractor facility.

Even though Onslaught begins with a clock that’s already ticking below 12 hours, the movie takes its time leading to a bloody finale that isn’t quite worth the drumbeat. But Wingard is in no great hurry, and he lingers in the anticipation, for better and for worse.

So early on we get Dan Stevens (deliberately hammy) as a suspiciously old, white-haired Nazi scientist crawling across the room to lick the stiletto-heeled foot of his wife and co-conspirator (a queenly Rebecca Hall, suggesting great depth in her few minutes on screen). From the bodies of dead soldiers, Stevens’ mad scientist has engineered three elite killing machines. They are devoid of personality, with beady lights for eyes. Still, he’s given them nicknames: the Butcher (Alex Pereira), the Cockroach (Dave Campbell) and the Crybaby (Tyler Hall).

They get out, of course, and begin causing trouble. Onslaught likewise lingers on the quickly dispatched operative, Cyrus (Drew Starkey), sent to clean up the ensuing mess. Wingard delights in introducing the character, who’s more drugged up and charmingly laid-back than your usual cleanup expert. It’s a lot of set-up for a guy who, ultimately, doesn’t do much.

But what’s the rush? Wingard also takes his time surveying the female bodies at the S&M club Cyrus is attending when we meet him, just as he does looking over some of the bloody wreckage left by the super-soldiers. He even, momentarily, takes one of their perspectives in a random killing at a gas station convenience store — a point of view that’s hard to justify, considering there’s no other attempt to consider the inner horrors of the brain-dead soldiers.

They start unleashing mayhem across a Western plain that looks like it could either be where Wile E. Coyote chases the Roadrunner or the setting of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland.

Onslaught has a bit of both. The movie is best in its leisurely depiction of life at the Windy Oasis, the trailer-park remove where Celeste has found some rough-hewn sense of peace — away from society and with plenty of room for target practice.

Reginald VelJohnson and Eric Wareheim gamely play Celeste’s neighbours, adding to the eccentric ensemble. But Onslaught is most of all a chance for Arjona, a supporting standout in Hit Man and Splitsville, to show some leading-woman grit. And she does that in Wingard’s quirkily contradictory movie: gleefully violent despite its military satire, curiously unhurried despite its title.

Onslaught, an A24 release is rated A-18 for strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material/nudity, and language. It is coming soon to theatres.

Running time: 107 minutes.

Rating: Two stars out of four.

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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: ‘By Any Means’ is a propulsive action thriller set against the Civil Rights Movement

Published

20 hours ago

September 3, 2026

Press Room

Movie Review: ‘By Any Means’ is a propulsive action thriller set against the Civil Rights Movement

Hollywood has given us some classic mismatched buddy cop movies, like Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in “48 Hrs.,” Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in “Rush Hour” and perhaps the most iconic pair — Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon.” Now, make room for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg.

The latest duo stars in “By Any Means,” an opposites-attract movie with real historical heft, set against the racial and political violence of the American South in the late 1960s and told with blood-splashing power and blunt elegance, courtesy of director Elegance Bratton.

Here we get Abdul-Mateen as a by-the-book, Southern-born, wet-behind-the-ears, Black FBI agent teamed up with Wahlberg, a jaundiced New York Mafia hitman, two characters crossing the racial, North-South and polite barriers.

Unable to crack the 1966 firebombing murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr., the FBI turns to Wahlberg’s Gregory Scarpa, letting him loose off the books to solve the case. The Ku Klux Klan is everywhere, especially in law enforcement, and that means Scarpa’s got to crack some skulls, no warrant, no problem. “Nobody can know,” the pair are warned.

Bratton and scriptwriter Sascha Penn artfully straddle the various divides and historical animosities while delivering a propulsive, muscular and unvarnished action thriller, a sort of “Mississippi Burning” for a new generation. And, it must be noted, at a time when white Christian nationalism has once more reared its ugly head.

“By Any Means” is one of those “based on true events” movies that gives the filmmakers the chance to have their nonfiction cake and eat it fictionally, too. While it might seem historically fanciful that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI ever called in a hitman to hunt the KKK, Scarpa was a real guy, an FBI informant enlisted amid intense pressure to solve the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. It’s his FBI buddy who never existed, a “composite,” as the press materials note.

So full credit to Abdul-Mateen, who has created a complex, charismatic character from thin air, taking his agent Wayne Strider on a slow-burn trip from all tucked-in, waiting-outside respectfully to car-chasing, gun-shooting revenge-fantasy hero.

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Mark Wahlberg, left, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in a scene from “By Any Means.” Credit: AP/Eli Ade

Wahlberg, meanwhile, grips every external item we know of Scarpa and holds onto them for dear life: An ever-present toothpick in mouth, a prosthetic nose, a mop of ungainly hair, a white tank top, sunglasses even at night. Wahlberg has apparently rewatched “The Sopranos” a lot.

The movie is buoyed by an amazing supporting cast, like the terrific Nicole Beharie as Strider’s wife, LisaGay Hamilton as a key witness and Giancarlo Esposito as Dahmer. The pastel costumes and bulging, chrome cars are gorgeous. The soundtrack features Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Curtis Mayfield, and an anthemic title jam by Diane Warren, performed by the Isley Brothers and David Kushner.

It’s the interaction between the hitman and the FBI agent that’s at the heart of the movie, along with the lingering question of whether violence can ever be a corrective. The Mafia guy’s methods — smashing skulls, breaking bones with a baseball bat, putting guns into mouths — stun his partner. And while the violence gets a bit excessive, it’s kind of thrilling to see gutless KKK members beaten to a bloody pulp over and over.

Scarpa is a fascinating alien in rural Mississippi, a slab of Italian American muscle who stands outside the racial divide. He’s just there to do a job, nothing more. But when asked what he’d do if he ever faced such racial animus, he replies: “I’d kill them all, every last one of them.”

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Yahya Abdul-Mateen II... — This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in a scene from “By Any Means.” Credit: AP/Daniel McFadden

Our FBI agent isn’t impressed. He despises his Mafia partner so much that, if forced to choose between him and the KKK, he knows which way he’d lean: “At least they believe in something.”

The tension between the two men boils over into a “48 Hrs.”- style, knock-down fistfight. At this point, the movie veers off the rails a bit, culminating in a very bloody conclusion. But that doesn’t dim the introduction of a very effective new movie cop pairing — Abdul-Mateen and Wahlberg.

“By Any Means,” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters starting Sept. 4, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “violence/bloody images and pervasive language.” Running time: 107 minutes. Three stars out of four.