44 | OCTOBER 31 • 2019 

MOVIE NEWS
JoJo Rabbit starts playing at the 
Landmark Theater in Royal Oak 
on Nov. 1 and opens at the Maple 
Theater in Bloomfield Township 
Nov. 8. This is a controversial film 
and you should read long reviews 
before seeing it. JoJo, a lonely 
boy in Nazi Germany, has Hitler 
as his imaginary friend. JoJo has 
grown-up on Nazi propaganda 
and his imaginary friend is a won-
derful guy. Then his world turns 
upside down when he discovers 
his mother (Scarlett Johansson, 
34) is hiding a Jewish girl. JoJo 
has to reconcile his “friend” Hitler 
with the reality in his own home. 
Director and writer Taika 
Waititi, 44, is a New Zealander 
who has made good movies in 
many genres. Waititi (who plays 
Hitler in the film) is the son of a 
Polynesian (Maori) father and a 
mother he has often described 
as Jewish. I recently learned 
his mother is the daughter of a 
Jewish father and a non-Jewish 
mother. But my sense is that his 
mother identifies as Jewish and 
Waititi, while secular, thinks of 
himself as “half-Jewish.”

BRIEFLY NOTED
The second, eight-episode season 
of The Kominsky Method, the 
hit Netflix comedy series, began 
streaming on Oct. 25. It stars 
Michael Douglas, 75, as Sandy 
Kominsky, a Hollywood acting 

coach. Alan Arkin, 85, co-stars 
as Norman, his best friend and 
agent. Lisa Edelstein, 53, has 
a supporting role as Norman’
s 
drug-addled daughter. 
 At the end of the first season, 
Sandy started getting romantic 
with the character Lisa, an acting 
student (played by Nancy Travis, 
58. Travis isn’
t Jewish, but her 
two sons were raised in their 
father’
s Jewish faith). Second 
season “new Jewish faces” 
include Paul Reiser, 63, as Martin, 
a teacher who is dating Sandy’
s 
daughter, who is much younger 
than Martin, and Jane Seymour, 
68, as Madelyn, an old flame of 
Norman’
s who runs into him at 
a funeral and lights a fire in this 
widower (Seymour was born 
Joyce Frankenberg, the daughter 
of a British Jewish father and a 
non-Jewish Dutch mother). 
As I write this, I can’
t find an 
item in the Jewish media about 
Harvard professor Michael 
Kremer, 54, one of the three 
winners of the 2019 Economics 
Nobel. He is the only Jew to 
win a Nobel this year. Like his 
co-winners, he works in an 
interesting area: the examination 
of charitable giving to alleviate 
poverty, especially in third-world 
countries. His mother, S. Lillian 
Kremer (1939-2018), specialized 
in Jewish and Holocaust literature. 
A Fulbright scholar, she lectured 
around the world and taught 
at Kansas State University, 
where she was a “Distinguished 
Professor.” 

NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST

Arts&Life

celebrity jews

KIMBERLEY FRENCH; © 2018 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM 
CORPORATION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) has dinner with his imaginary friend Adolf (writ-
er/director Taika Waititi) and his mother, Rosie (Scarlet Johansson).

Proudly Endorsed by State Senator Jeremy Moss and Oakland County 
Treasurer Andy Meisner. Paid for by the Committee to Elect Tawnya Morris.

www.tawnyamorris.com

LEADERSHI
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RE-ELECT

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Mon-Thurs: 4pm-10pmFri: 11am-11pm
Sat: 4pm-11pmSun: 4pm-9pm

OUR PETITE FILET DINNER
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Sunday, November 3 thru Thursday, November 7

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just east of Farmington Rd., West Bloomfield

(248) 538-8954

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$24.95

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Includes Petite Filet, antipasto plate, side of pasta, 
salad, soup, potato and vegetable. 
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Offer Good Monday – Thursday. Dine-in only and entrees 
only. Not valid with any other offer. With coupon only. 
Not valid on holidays. Expires 11/30/19

10% Off food bill
Offer Good Friday – Sunday. Dine in and entrees only.
Not valid with other offers. With coupon only. 
Not valid on holidays. Expires 11/30/19

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