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August is typically a slow month for new releases, and this year was no exception. But if you look a little closer at the indies and international films that made their way to audiences this month, there are still some gems to be found. Here are the three best movies to catch in theaters now and, likely in short order, on a streaming service near you.
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Between the Temples
Over the past 15 years or so, independent filmmaker Nathan Silver has made a number of odd but interesting little films, pictures that might be lacking in polish but bear a distinctive personal stamp. In his delightfully off-kilter sort-of romantic comedy Between the Temples, Jason Schwartzman plays Ben Gottlieb, a depressed cantor who has lost both the will and the ability to sing. He serendipitously reconnects with the grade-school music teacher who’d always believed in him, Carla Kessler, played by Carol Kane, who has decided that at long last, even though she’s senior-citizen age, she wants the bat mitzvah she never had. She persuades Ben to tutor her, but he’s the one who ends up reconnecting with the essence of his faith—and he also gets his voice back. Kane—adored by just about anyone who’s ever seen Hester Street, The Princess Bride, Scrooged, or an episode of Taxi—is one of those performers we don’t get to see often enough. With her helium cackle and day-at-the-beach smile, she’s both dazzling and disarming—she can make you feel deliriously, marvelously dizzy, the way you get when you’ve looked at a sparkler too long. She and Schwartzman are wonderful together; their rhythms click into a single heartbeat. We have Silver to thank for getting them together.
Read more: Between the Temples and the New Jewish Cinema
Good One
Writer-director India Donaldson’s debut Good One feels like a bracing discovery: it’s a delicate picture, but one that sticks with you…
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