Today is Sunday, September 22, 2024. It’s apparent that I didn’t see a play today since the one play I was interested in, The Roommate, went on at 2, not 3. I was out earlier having brunch at Jackson Hole, in Jackson Heights. Elliot deigned not to accompany me since he was in no mood to go out even. He sometimes gets this way, so I know when to leave him alone. But he did ask me to get him chili on my way out of the hamburger joint. I drove myself to the iconic, vintage diner which served as a backdrop for the Martin Scorsese-directed 1990 Goodfellas film. Ray Liotta and Joe Pesce filmed a scene there for the film and there is a photo of the late actor Liotta on the wall in the diner.

Since Elliot was happy to be indoors with Atticus, I went to a 4:30 showing of Between the Temples at the Kew Gardens Hill Cinema. This is the droll indie film directed by Nathan Silver starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the lead roles of Cantor Ben Gottlieb and Carla O’Connor (nee Kessler). In the 111-minute film, Schwatzman plays Ben as a lost soul. As the plot goes, Ben is a middle-aged cantor who has lost his wife a year ago in a disastrous fall, probably brought on by her alcoholism, who leaves his synagogue at the bimah during Saturday prayer services. He promptly goes to a bar to drown his sorrow and gets into a fistfight with a bar patron and then meets his old music teacher, played by Kane, who was doing Karaoke in the back room. They soon strike up a conversation and it’s determined that she was his former music teacher who gave him an A. She laughs and tells him, “Everyone got an A. It was music appreciation.” Before long, Ben is apprised of Carla’s wish to become a Bat Mitzvah at her advanced age since she was denied one at the age of 12 or 13. Soon the two form a bond around her getting Bat Mitzvah lessons, which revitalizes Ben’s loss of faith after his wife’s untimely death.

During this time of transition, Ben is living at home with his two untraditional mothers, Meira and Judith. Soon his employer and friend, the Rabbi is trying to make a match with his daughter, Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), who is more Ben’s age. But it is not Gabby who Ben is drawn to, as is illustrated during a wild, contentious Friday night Shabbat dinner in which all of the principals are attending, including Carol right before her Bat Mitzvah service, and Gabby, along with her parents, the Rabbi and his wife. Another foe of Ben’s is Carla’s adult son (Matthew Shear) who is not pleased to see Ben wearing his old pajamas after he stays at Carla’s house after giving her lessons in her Haftorah.

It is at this wildly photographed Shabbat dinner that Ben announces he’s in love with Carla and all hell breaks loose. His two mothers are dumbfounded, his now-rejected Gabby starts either crying or laughing, I couldn’t tell which. The film suffers from some amateurish photography, I thought, and Schwatzman has the same hangdog expression throughout. It’s Kane who shines in her performance as a recently widowed woman who discovers her faith at an advanced age and provides the younger cantor a will for life through her association with him.

I was expecting more belly laughs but got just a few titters instead. Also the cinematographer in this case, Sean Price Williams, utilized too many off-putting close-ups of the actors in the film. I didn’t think this was necessary.

Is the film then worthy of seeing? It certainly doesn’t lend itself that much to the big screen, so it’s more of a worthier piece for the small screen, and before long, it will probably premiere on a regular streaming service soon anyway.

So today was the first day of autumn. The temperature was only in the 70s today, and for the rest of the week, the temperatures are supposed to be in the 70s. There is some rain expected for Wednesday and Thursday, the day of my colonoscopy.

Tomorrow I’m attending a meeting for the first time in person at the Tick Tock Diner, on 34th Street, with other members of the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) club. I haven’t been to a meeting at least for about two years, maybe more. The group still prefers to have Zoom meetings, and I’m not a fan of those. I’ve boycotted the meetings since the pandemic has lessened, so I thought it would be fine to attend this meeting. I’m not sure if I’ll post my blog tomorrow then because of this, not knowing how late the meeting will go on.

See, I didn’t discuss politics today, have you noticed? I thought since this was Sunday, we needed a break from it.

Have a good first week of autumn everyone.

Stay safe and be well.