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Movies / On DVD / Jellyfish
Jellyfish

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Jellyfish (2008)

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87 %
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Reviews Counted: 53

Fresh: 46

Rotten:7

Average Rating: 7.3/10

Consensus: Lyrical, well-crafted and inventive, Jellyfish smartly mixes comedy, drama and magic realism.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 78 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Apr 4, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, JELLYFISH (MEDUZOT) is a moving film that follows the travails of three women in modern-day Tel Aviv. Batya (Sarah Adler) is struggling... Winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, JELLYFISH (MEDUZOT) is a moving film that follows the travails of three women in modern-day Tel Aviv. Batya (Sarah Adler) is struggling to make ends meet, living in an apartment with a leaky ceiling and working for a wedding caterer, where she gets to serve happy people gathered together to celebrate the institution of marriage. One day on the beach, she sees a little redhaired girl (Nikol Leidman) suddenly walk out of the ocean, and Batya decides to look after the silent child when the police won't help find her parents. Keren (Noa Knoller) is a young woman who has just gotten married to Michael (Gera Adler), but she breaks her leg at the reception after being stuck in the bathroom, forcing them to cancel their Caribbean vacation and instead spend their honeymoon at an Israeli seaside hotel, where her husband starts becoming friendly with an older woman in the top-floor suite. And Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre) is a Filipino guest worker who has come to Tel Aviv seeking employment as a caregiver to make money to send back to her son in the Philippines. Although she intended to take care of babies, she is instead assigned to elderly women, one of whom dies immediately and another who is bullheaded and outwardly nasty to her. As the three protagonists try to make their way in the world, their lives intersect in unusual and fascinating ways. JELLYFISH, directed by real-life partners and writers Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen and written by Geffen, is a touching, compelling drama about troubled families, parents and children, and loneliness. Instead of making any grand statements, it focuses on the little things in life that can make the difference between being happy and being miserable, keeping hope within grasp. Keret and Geffen, who also play small parts in the film, use water as a metaphor throughout the story: just as every ocean has its jellyfish, life can often sting, but it also can be beautiful. [More]

Starring: Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, Noa Knoller

Starring: Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, Noa Knoller, Ma-nenita De Latorre, Zharira Charifai

Director: Shira Geffen, Etgar Keret

Director: Shira Geffen, Etgar Keret
Screenwriter: Shira Geffen
Producer: Yael Fogiel, Laetitia Gonzalez, Amir Harel, Ayelet Kit
Composer: Christopher Bowen, Gregoire Hetzel
Studio: Zeitgeist Films

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 30, 2008

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Reviews for Jellyfish

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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A large number of idiosyncratic and deadpan supporting characters provides amusement around dispirited women floating through sweetly satisfying meanderings.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
12/14/08
Nora Lee Mandel
Film-Forward.com

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A film that is fresh in both style and story.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
10/18/08
Ed Scheid
Boxoffice Magazine

There are sharply observed moments of social intercourse and a nice current of realistic honesty. But when I ask myself what it is that these women in the movie want, I come up with bubkes.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
10/18/08
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

...the contrivances ... allow the filmmakers to tell the stories of a number of different characters who would otherwise have no business being in the same film.

Full Review Source: Playback:stl | comment Comment
09/19/08
Sarah Boslaugh
Playback:stl

The directors infuse the film with a short story’s spare dialogue and tight pacing -- the running time is all of 76 minutes -- while subtle visual motifs and judicious moments of magical realism demonstrate cinema at its most elegant.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
08/28/08
Annlee Ellingson
Los Angeles CityBeat

Although its title might have some assuming this is a cheap remake of a bad horror B movie from the '50s, Jellyfish is actually quite a reflective and pensive picture.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
08/08/08
Jason MacNeil
Jam! Movies

Jellyfish, with its pervasive sense of mysticism, is anything but standard, predictable storytelling. What is it exactly? Well, you might as well ask a jellyfish.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
08/08/08
Bruce Demara
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Thematically, it's extremely precise, and one of its most compelling themes is the failure, or uselessness, of language.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
08/08/08
Jason McBride
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Although the "hyperlink" drama that features a lot of interconnecting storylines has become a common staple of the arthouse, "Jellyfish" manages to be a weird and memorable creature all its own.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
06/20/08
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

It's a wisp of a thing, but it's a lovely wisp.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
06/13/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

These interlocking stories don’t add up to a conventional narrative. It helps to think of Jellyfish as a tone poem. And like the invertebrate that is its namesake, the film is by turns beautiful, stinging and rather shapeless.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
06/13/08
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

Light on its feet, deeply human, and fresh in style, this French-Israeli co-production serves up an engaging tale about a group of women struggling with daily life in contemporary Tel Aviv.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
06/08/08
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Most of the first hour passes without much more forward motion than its namesake. But in the corners and niches of that slow development, we get to know a handful of people, crisply drawn in fast sketches.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
06/05/08
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Shira Geffen's script is a poignant intersection of the regrettable past and the transitions that must occur to move on. In this 60th-year celebration of Israel, this film feels like the whole country.

Full Review Source: HollywoodChicago.com | comment Comment
06/03/08
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com

It is a restful film, and one full of wise observations.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
05/28/08
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

What gives the film a haunting and sometimes droll poetic unity is the way co-directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen trace all their characters moving in a jellyfish-like fashion.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
05/23/08
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

A little piece of cinematic poetry.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
05/23/08
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Provides a diverting portrait of modern-day Israel, as the filmmakers eschew history, politics and religion to focus instead on more intimate and universal issues of fate, loss and the longing to connect.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
05/16/08
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A brief, haunting tale of three women in contemporary Tel Aviv, Jellyfish seems to float in its viewers' consciousness; you'll remember its images long afterward.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
05/16/08
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times
 
 
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