arts & entertainment The Zigzag Kid Michael Fox Special to the Jewish News A n unabashed crowd-pleaser in a Day-Glo package, The Zigzag Kid transports young-at-heart viewers on a magic carpet of charming hijinks and manic energy. Belgian director Vincent Bal has trans- posed vaunted Israeli novelist David Grossman's beloved 1994 coming-of-age adventure fantasy from the Promised Land to a candy-cane Europe. The result is a confection of a film that dispenses laughs and life lessons en route to a poi- gnant moral about the blood ties that bind. A family film whose most ardent admirers will be children, The Zigzag Kid is fueled by primal adolescent urges. Not the ones you're thinking of, but the press- ing need to comprehend the past, navigate the present and manipulate the future. The opening credits immediately set the tone in smile-inducing style, employ- ing split-screens, a full-spectrum palette and a pop score to evoke the spy movies (and parodies) of the 1960s and '70s. As his 13th birthday approaches, cute- as-a-bug Nono is starting to figure out he can't abide the rules and conventions that most people passively accept. He's not a An action-packed family film. rebel — he admires his detective father to the extent that he mimics Dad's deductive skills and wants to follow in his gumshoes — so much as a creative thinker and fear- less experimenter. The title comes from Nono's iconoclasm as well as the gold pin in the shape of a Z that the world's greatest thief, Felix Glick, leaves behind as his signature. But I'm getting ahead of the story. After one of Nono's bright ideas accidentally sends a cousin's bar mitzvah reception up in smoke, our erstwhile hero is dispatched to boring Uncle Shmuel as punishment. But his dad's plan is derailed within moments of Nono boarding the train, launching the lad on a mission that takes him to the south of France and back. The Zigzag Kid is tons of fun as it sets its inspired plot in motion while Nono is a splendid protagonist who never devolves from endearing to tiresome. It helps that he's aware he's not completely self-suffi- cient, for that dollop of humility tempers his precociousness. In fact, Nono relishes the maternal attention and affection of his father's (ahem) live-in secretary, Gaby. The boy never knew his mother, who died when he was an infant, and he'd be very happy if the current domestic arrangement con- tinued ad infinitum. (Or, better yet, was sealed with marriage vows if his father could muster the moxie to propose.) But I'm getting behind the story. No matter. Suffice to say that Nono crosses paths with the 60-something Felix Glick, who quickly presents himself as an alternate role model with his blend of resourcefulness and suaveness. At a certain point, the pieces start to click into place (especially for the adults), dissipating the film's aura of cleverness. Everyone likes a happy ending, sure — although be advised a tragedy is revealed en route — but The Zigzag Kid trumpets an allegiance to the primacy of the two-parent family that is downright Spielbergian. Oddly, I discerned no particular insights into the lives, past or present, of European Jews. In the process of relocat- ing the story from Israel to the Continent, Vincent Bal appears to have focused on preserving the novel's themes and skipped the opportunity to allude to 20th-century history or current events. A scene from The Zigzag Kid One consequence is that The Zigzag Kid could be anybody, and not necessarily a fully assimilated Jewish boy whose prepa- ratory, pre-bar mitzvah entry to manhood consists of a unique and remarkable trea- sure hunt. He finds his mother's identity, and his, and we get to go along for the ride. Not a bad deal for all concerned, actually. ❑ The Zigzag Kid screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, at the Berman Center in West Bloomfield; and at 8 p.m. Monday, May 5, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. A black comedy. Curt Schleier Special to the Jewish News S eth Fisher wasn't leaving anything to chance. No way was he going to chicken out. Because the one thing worse than the trials and tribula- tions of independent filmmaking is being embarrassed in front of your peers. So Fisher, actor and would-be auteur, took on two projects simultaneously: his first feature-length movie and a blog. As soon as I started the movie, I started this blog called watchmemakeamovie.com . Every day, I'd write what I did that day. I figured if I announced to the world that I was going to make a movie, I'd have to see it through." That film is Blumenthal, a very funny look at an Upper West Side of Manhattan Jewish family and its search for, if not per- fection, something better. It centers on the relatives of Harold Blumenthal (Brian Cox), a successful playwright who died laughing at one of his jokes. His survivors: a younger and jealous brother, Saul (Mark Blum); Saul's wife, Cheryl (Laila Robins); and their son, Ethan (writer/director Fisher). 44 April 17 • 2014 Saul grapples with his angst, Cheryl with aging and Ethan with finding the perfect, perhaps Jewish, woman. Fisher avoids a common failure of first- time directors: self-indulgence. But in the process, his intent is somewhat obfuscat- ed. The film, he explained in a telephone interview, doesn't necessarily come with a point of view. "I like to say it was more what I was trying to explore than what I was trying to say," said Fisher. "I was interested in exploring people in different stages of their lives across gender in this period of American history. "They all seem to be prone to looking at their lives and asking, 'Is this enough? Could I have more? And could I be better off? And all of this is at the expense of living in the present." The story came in large measure from Fisher's experience in the theater — and his brother. "I worked as an actor in the New York theater scene and was lucky enough to work with some pretty recognizable and famous people. Every day, family would show up, and I started wondering what it would be like to be Arthur Miller's less-talented brother. (Not that I worked with Arthur Miller.) Or what would it be like to be Steven Spielberg's nephew, to have the name but not the tal- ent. So that was the catalyst. "Also, I had char- acters similar to Cheryl and Ethan in short films I've done. I wanted to explore them more. Saul's story is really a broth- er's story. I have an older brother who is very successful. So, in part, this is drawn from my own experience, although it's worth stating that my brother is not a writer. He's a venture capitalist in Israel." Ironically, Fisher wasn't thinking Jewish when he conceived the story; it just kind of happened. "I just did a Q&A at a Jewish film festival where someone asked me if this was a Jewish movie. I didn't see the movie in that light, but now the logic A scene from Blumenthal of it crosses my mind. I think Jews are questioning people. It's a very Jewish thing to question everything: success, failure, how you look. ❑ Blumenthal screens at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at the Berman Center in West Bloomfield; at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor; and at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 24, at the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint.