04/30/10

Nylon Review

Here’s a sneak peek of Nylon Magazine’s May issue -

Don’t let the title mislead you. This is not a romantic comedy about Baptist blackjack players, but rather a moving drama about a Hasidic ecstasy smuggler that’s based on true events. In the late ’90s, Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn were recruited as drug mules, bringing in more than a million tabs of E from Europe before the feds caught on. In Kevin Asch’s smartly rendered and beautifully shot feature-length directorial debut, Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) stars as Sam Gold, a 20-year-old Hasid who’s studying to become a rabbi. After his betrothed’s family deems him unsuitable (which he assumes is due to his family’s poor financial situation), he gets seduced by the fast-cash world of a local ecstasy dealer – a Jewish thug with a Jersey Shore tan and a penchant for white Nikes. Sam’s transformation from naive outsider (at first he won’t even shake a woman’s hand because “it wouldn’t be respectful”) to savvy business man who’s not afraid to tell a drug lord (played by Q-Tip) he’s charging too much is believable and powerful. Two rave scenes perfectly encapsulate his change: The first one, early on in the film, is shot out of focus, with nauseous, quick cuts, illustrating Sam’s fear and discomfort; the second is more fluid and relaxed, demonstrating Sam’s eagerness to take part. He’s caught between two worlds, and in the end he has to decide where he really belongs.

- Ellen Carpenter

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Tags: Ellen Carpenter, Nylon
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