... an uneven but ultimately charming %u2013 and sad %u2013 look at the disappearance of a centuries-old cultural tradition whose impact on our own culture has been inestimable.
Comment
12/21/07
Rate this Movie 
Yiddish Theater: A Love Story (2007)
87 %
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted: 15
Fresh: 13
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Theatrical Release:Nov 21, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Enter the funny, larger-than-life world of Yiddish Theater today through this documentary film about the amazing woman who has kept the oldest running Yiddish Theater in America alive. Zypora... [More]
Reviews for Yiddish Theater: A Love Story
1 - 15 (sorted by date)
Given its origins, it's not surprising that Yiddish Theater: A Love Story has a catch-as-catch-can feeling to it. But nothing can take away from the flavor of being caught up in the battles and dreams of a formidable group of people.
11/30/07
Top CriticYiddish Theater is a melancholy work, as well it should be, but it's also almost giddy much of the time with the delight of discovery, preservation and nostalgia.
11/30/07
Katzir's documentary is on the cusp of posing worthy questions about American assimilation and cultural evolution, but it'd rather appeal to guilt and sympathy for art that we never get to feel.
11/30/07
Although the film's highly personal approach ultimately pays off in terms of heartfelt emotion -- particularly at its bittersweet conclusion -- it's hard not to wish that its focus was not quite so narrow.
11/28/07
Top CriticWhen you see all of these octogenarians struggling through the snow and perilous ice to make it to their show, you really see what true courage and artistic commitment are all about.
11/26/07
Charming documentary on the struggle to keep Yiddish theater alive against all odds, including assimilated Jews' shame at a language associated with victimhood.
11/23/07
The film's candid personalities provide plenty of memorably off-the-cuff moments.
11/21/07
Interviews with aging caretakers of the Yiddish Theater are vivid windows into a bygone world, and Spaisman herself, a feisty firebrand whose accent is so strong Katzir supplied subtitles, is a formidable personality.
11/21/07
Touching, if uneven.
11/21/07
Top CriticFilmed in real time during the freezing winter of 2000, Yiddish Theater: A Love Story tracks eight days in the failing life of the Yiddish Public Theater.
11/21/07
Top CriticDan Katzir's film is, in many ways, an elegy to the Yiddish theater.
11/21/07
Its extremely narrow focus on the death throes of an art form, rather than the art itself, limits its appeal.
11/21/07
Top Critic[A] gentle homage.
11/20/07
Top CriticWe can only hope that the film draws audiences larger today than those we see drawn by the Folksbeine.
11/14/07
1 - 15 (sorted by date)
Related Forums for Yiddish Theater: A Love Story
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
Appreciating Michael Jackson 
TIME music critic Josh Tyrangiel remembers - and appreciates - the high peak of Michael Jackson's career in the early '80s.
10 Best Picture Noms?
With the Best Picture Oscar noms now 10 deep, BuzzSugar looks at 10 films that should have made the cut.
Successful Sci-Fi Sequels
Sequels never used to be as good as the original, but now they can be even better. Can Transformers 2 follow suit?
Films That Time Forgot
The AV Club's Zack Handlen explores why Snowbeast has been dismissed and forgotten.
IGN RSS Feeds