96 | MAY 20 • 2021 

T

he 20th annual Ann 
Arbor Jewish Film 
Festival (AAJFF) 
begins this month with 22 
films, including two short 
film programs. 
The festival starts May 22 
and runs through Aug. 24. 
Noemi Herzig, director 
of Jewish Cultural Arts and 

Adult Education for the 
Ann Arbor JCC, believes the 
spread-out schedule allows 
time for moviegoers to take 
the movies in.
“It’s such an eclectic festi-
val this year, we have a little 
bit for everybody,” she said. 
“The committee worked very 
hard to come up with a var-
ied selection.” 
The festival takes place 
under the Ann Arbor JCC 
banner and partners with the 
Michigan Theater, with all 
film screenings and events 
taking place via Michigan 
Theater’s online platform, 

AgileLink.
Selections include films 
portraying people of color, 
family films, Holocaust mov-
ies, Israeli movies, an LGBT 
film, two films involving 
food, a movie about art and 
more. 
The two short film pro-
grams include a documen-
tary short program and a 
narrative short program. 
Audience members will rate 
each documentary short and 
narrative short and deter-
mine which one will receive 
their respective festival 
awards. 
Pierluigi Erbaggio, the 
organizing committee chair 
of Metro Detroit’s Italian 
Film Festival USA, played 
a major role in curating the 
short film programs. Thea 
Glickman, a new member of 
the AAJFF committee, made 
the connection between the 
two parties. 

A Film Festival Pass allows 
access to all online film 
screenings and programs and 
costs $180. 
You can also rent individu-
al movies for $12 each, while 
Michigan Theater members 
can rent for $10 per film.
Sponsorship opportuni-
ties are also available, with 
wide-ranging benefits avail-
able for the different levels 
including specific sponsor 
listing, dinners and sponsor 
events.
Sponsors and festival pass 
holders will have access 
to the Michigan Theater’s 
premium streaming service 
once they have created an 
account and signed up on the 
Michigan Theater’s website. 
This will allow access to all 
festival films without any 
additional payment. 

To purchase festival passes, rent specific 

movies, become a sponsor or to learn 

more, visit film.jccannarbor.org.

KUNIS, CRYSTAL & 
HADDISH
Two movies, starring three 
major Jewish stars, opened 
recently in theaters: Four 
Good Days (April 30) and 
Here Today (May 7). I didn’t 
write about them in advance 
because I had a feeling 
reviews would be mixed at 
best. 
 As I expected, Four Good 
Days, starring Mila Kunis, 
37, got the same so-so 

reviews as when it played 
the Sundance Film Festival 
early in 2020. Kunis stars as 
a long-term heroin addict 
determined to stay clean for 
four days to qualify for a hos-
pital rehab slot. She recruits 
her mother (Glenn Close) to 
help her. This is Kunis’ first 
edgy dramatic performance 
and she’s good. This alone 
makes it worth viewing. Some 
scenes are flat, but, as one 
reviewer said, by the end, the 
movie does make you care 
about the mother and daugh-
ter. (Starts streaming May 21).
Billy Crystal, 73, plays a 
top comedy writer starting 
to struggle with dementia 
in Here Today. He chances 
to meet an unknown singer 
(Tiffany Haddish, 41) and 
they hit it off. As I expected, 
Today fits into the pattern of 
films Crystal writes — review-
ers say there are many good 
moments — but the jokes 

and plot aren’t consistent. 
Crystal has written six films, 
including Today, and not one, 
including Today, has got bet-
ter than mixed reviews. 
But you really must watch 
the profile of Crystal and 
Haddish that aired on CBS 
Sunday Morning on May 2. 
Titled Billy Crystal and Tiffany 
Haddish on comedy, friend-
ship and a bat mitzvah, it’s 
posted on YouTube. It’s just, 
well, heart-warming to hear 
how these Jews of different 
colors and generations hit it 

off and became great per-
sonal friends. Its moving to 
see Haddish embrace her 
Jewish ancestry at her 2019 
bat mitzvah (a clip is shown) 
— it’s equally moving to hear 
Crystal talk about the honor 
he felt when Haddish asked 
him to make an aliyah at her 
bar mitzvah. (Streaming date 
not-yet-set). 
On May 17, Netflix began 
streaming The Last Days, 
a documentary about the 
Holocaust in Hungary. 
Produced by Steven 
Spielberg, it won the Oscar 
(1996) for best documentary. 
Hungary was the last country 
in Middle Europe to feel the 
full fury of the Holocaust. 
Most members of the pre-war 
Hungarian Jewish community 
(about 800,000) were still liv-
ing when the Nazis occupied 
Hungary in March 1944. By 
war’s end (April 1945), only 
265,000 were still alive. 

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

COLLIDERVIDEO VIA WIKIPEDIA

Mila Kunis

Billy 
Crystal

GAGE SKIDMORE

ARTS&LIFE
CELEBRITY NEWS

A Summer of Film
Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival 
goes from May 22-Aug. 24.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
FILM

