‘Coexistence, My Ass!’
This documentary is a terrific choice to open San Francisco’s Jewish Film Festival in these brutally dark days. Amber Fares’ multiyear ride-along with Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi comforts and challenges us in equal measure. Raised in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a utopian Jewish-Arab village in Israel, our outspoken heroine trades an international diplomacy track for standup comedy. The pandemic sets her back, then provides her with an online opportunity to find her voice as a political comic/activist — until everything shifts on Oct. 7, 2023.
Shuster-Eliassi’s adult coming-of-age story makes for a compulsively watchable documentary that will resonate with viewers whose own attitudes and beliefs have been shaken and shattered. “Coexistence, My Ass!” opens the festival on July 17 at the Herbst Theatre in S.F. and screens again July 22 at the Piedmont Theatre in Oakland.
‘Oh, Hi!’
Think of it as first-date catnip for Gen Zers and younger millennials. Sophie Brooks’ perversely delicious romantic thriller/comedy could even become a Valentine’s Day (and maybe Hanukkah) classic. Hot couple Iris (Molly Gordon, “The Bear”) and Isaac (Logan Lerman, “Hunters”) drive out of NYC for a secluded, carefree upstate getaway. A slightly off encounter at a roadside strawberry stand puts us on notice that wine and sex aren’t the only activities in store for the weekend. Sure enough, a casual remark at an inopportune moment exposes the gulf between each one’s longer-term expectations.
What happens when people who have the sex/love dialectic all figured out find out they don’t? Gordon (who co-wrote the screenplay with Brooks) delivers a marvelously deranged performance, taking post-betrayal desperation to new heights (uh, depths, including the grossest French toast in the history of movies). You’ll catch whiffs of “Misery” and “Funny Girl” among Brooks’ references, but she’s plotted a deviously original and, dare I say, unforgettable course through the relationship maze. Polly Draper offers her amusing take on the Jewish mother in a cellphone cameo. “Oh, Hi!” opens July 25 in Bay Area theaters following its festival screenings July 20 at the Kabuki and July 23 at the Piedmont.