THE TENTH MAN (El rey del Once)
Kino Lorber
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya
Grade: C
Director: Daniel Burman
Written by: Daniel Burman
Cast: Alan Sabbagh, Julieta Zylberberg, Usher Barilka, Elvira Onetto, Andrían Stoppelman
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 7/19/16
Opens: August 5, 2016
There is evidence that writer-director Daniel Burman, who is of Polish-Jewish descent and was born and raised in Buenos Aires, believes that secular Jews are “lost” but can be “saved” if they return to the fold of orthodoxy. His movies lend comparison to Woody Allen’s, who is one of Burman’s heroes, though he denies much stylistic connection to the great American director. Still, “The Tenth Man” could, by a stretch, be called Woody-like, but not in quality. It lacks drama, it’s filmed monochromatically as though with a dirty lens, and despite being fiction, it adheres to a cinema verité look, i.e. documentary-like.
If you dislike loud, high-concept films like “Jason Bourne” and “Star Trek,” you will not necessarily go for “The Tenth Man,” which could be called an entry to the opposite extreme. Audience members could not be faulted to think that Burman’s cameraman, Daniel Ortega (no, not that one), used a hidden lens to capture the spirit of Buenos Aires’ predominantly Jewish district known as Once, or the city’s eleventh district.
To further his possible view that secular Jews are “lost,” Burman hones in on Ariel (Alan Sabbagh), about as unimpressive a middle-aged protag can be. Mostly bald and probably called by more diplomatic viewers and critics as “pudgy,” Sabbagh is quite “heavy set,” perhaps even obese, sloppily dressed with a scruffy, barely-tamed beard. He lives as an economist in New York, has a girlfriend who is here only a phone voice, a woman given to her career as a dancer and therefore not marriage material for Ariel. Ariel’s father, Usher (Usher Barilka—the actor who had that name before the rock star took it), is a voice on the phone until he appears in the final minutes. He thinks his son is “lost” as a secular man in New York and persuades him to return to Buenos Aires to help out in a foundation that provides pharmaceuticals, meat and clothing to poor Jews. As his father must have wished, he is attracted to a fellow worker, Eva (Julieta Zylberberg), an orthodox woman who cleanses herself regularly in the mikvah and who chooses to be mostly mute.
Burman wants to show the circular nature of life with shots of Ariel as a boy eating sandwiches of caramel, which he indulges in as an adult in one scene. Much more important, Ariel repeats key events in his father’s life. Usher was frequently called upon to be the tenth man, i.e. to provide the necessary minyan (quorum) without which Hebrew services cannot commence. As a result his dad was absent for Ariel’s schoolboy events. Now, Ariel is called upon to be the tenth man in current services. He is prepared for the job by a joyous group of mostly old people who accept food from the foundation and complain when there is a severe shortage of kosher meat. They fix him up with the Tefillen (phylacteries which include parts of the Torah) as though they were giving him a bar mitzvah. They have him repeat the words of the baruchas (blessings). They sing Hebrew songs joyously, including Hava Nagilla.
The movie is informative, Cliff Notes for non-Jews who might attend screenings from its August 5 opening day, though we suspect that this pic will appeal primarily to an older Jewish community. However, if I might plagiarize from the writings of theater critic John Simon, who became controversial largely because he judged actresses by their looks and panned those who were not beautiful, I’d have to say that Alan Sabbagh is simply too unappealing in looks to warrant a lead role, even in an undramatic picture like this one.
Unrated. 82 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – C
Acting – C+
Technical – B-
Overall – C
