'Thanks For Sharing,' 'Jewtopia,' 'The Short Game' Play This Week in Theaters
Check out synopses and trailers for films playing on the East End this week:
Thanks For Sharing
Fresh off her newfound fame as a Hamptons-based writer of cookbooks, here comes our own Gwyneth Paltrow in a new feature film. And it looks pretty racy. Thanks For Sharing is attempting a serio-comic approach to sex addiction, centering around a group of recovering sex addicts involved in a 12-step program to maintain “sobriety”—the title comes from a phrase frequently heard at 12-step meetings. Paltrow plays Phoebe, a flirtatious if not downright horny woman who is falling for Adam, played by Mark Ruffalo. The trouble is, Adam is a recovering sex addict, a condition he tries to hide from Phoebe, which becomes difficult since she is so—ahem—eager. Of course, the dividing line between ordinary sexual appetites vs. sexual addiction is a fuzzy one, and, after all, can sex addicts really be expected to abstain for the rest of their lives? These issues and more will be explored. The film also features Tim Robbins, Joely Richardson, and Josh Gad.
Jewtopia
This film is based on an off-Broadway play, which was itself stretched out from a 10-minute skit. The film, like the stage play, is a study in stereotypes, both of Jews and of Gentiles, some of the stereotypes both offensive and debatable, and others simply debatable. For instance, is it really a mark of Jewish maleness to not own any tools, or is it just a mark of being a rent-paying city dweller, Jew or Gentile, who doesn’t fix his own stuff? Nobody really cares. On the other hand, and more defamatory, do Jewish wives, as the show and the movie contend, really try to control their husbands’ lives more than Gentile wives do? Holding and broadcasting such a belief would be a really good way to get kicked out of polite society, and yet it informs the central plot of Jewtopia. The film features Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jon Lovitz.
Battle Of The Year 3D
The Syrian Government forces vs. the Rebels? The US vs. the Taliban? How about the LA hip-hop dance crew vs. the world! The Americans haven’t won The Battle of the Year, an international dance crew competition, in several years, and LA hip-hop mogul (?) Dante has had enough. You can see it all play out in 3D.
The Short Game
Miniature golf gets a whole new meaning in this doc, which promises to be the cutest thing to hit the screens since Drew Barrymore wore knee socks. Every year, the world’s best 7-year-old golfers come to Pinehurst, North Carolina to vie for the Junior Championships. In The Short Game, eight of these young golfers are followed as they prepare for the high-stakes match.