Amos Kollek has delivered a surprisingly maladroit and irresponsible little hate anthem against Israel with Restless, a mostly boring, occasionally laughable and increasingly fatuous little flick about a self-involved dipshit and his overwrought polemic.
With Muslims consuming alcohol and an offensive depiction of Jews as cold and greedy, along with some dismissive remarks about the last 40 years of Israeli history, during a scene of rear entry coitus with a hooker no less, the film comes across as not only puerile but ignorant.
It follows Moshe (Moshe Ivgy), an ex-Israeli soldier living in America, who spends his time hocking cheap watches and skin creams on the street when hes not washing dishes in his bathtub or screwing slutty, suicidal senior citizens. He communicates his hate-filled rants through disastrously articulated and assembled free verse speeches at a local jazz bar where unrealistically, the locals become fans. This is only given a semblance of believability by the fact that it is in a jazz bar, where the denizens are mostly pretentious phonies anyways.
Meanwhile, his son Tzach (Ran Danker), rejected from birth, shoots people in Lebanon, as a sniper who takes his job a little too seriously. Finding his fathers phone number after his mother passes away, he occasionally puts on sheer negligees and a little rouge, fondles his sniper rifle (ahem) and gives old pop a ring only to immediately hang up.
It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the two will eventually meet and have a blow out, which involves an exposed gun in broad daylight, much to the apathy of passers-by who casually watch and occasionally take a bite out of their hotdog.
Inevitably some misguided asshole will herald Restless as subversive genius, despite the many errors both technically and thematically, and despite the fact that its narrative and machinations are both absurd and abhorrent. The acting is decent and the "America as land of opportunity message is amusing but the movie overall is a steaming pile.
(Equinox)With Muslims consuming alcohol and an offensive depiction of Jews as cold and greedy, along with some dismissive remarks about the last 40 years of Israeli history, during a scene of rear entry coitus with a hooker no less, the film comes across as not only puerile but ignorant.
It follows Moshe (Moshe Ivgy), an ex-Israeli soldier living in America, who spends his time hocking cheap watches and skin creams on the street when hes not washing dishes in his bathtub or screwing slutty, suicidal senior citizens. He communicates his hate-filled rants through disastrously articulated and assembled free verse speeches at a local jazz bar where unrealistically, the locals become fans. This is only given a semblance of believability by the fact that it is in a jazz bar, where the denizens are mostly pretentious phonies anyways.
Meanwhile, his son Tzach (Ran Danker), rejected from birth, shoots people in Lebanon, as a sniper who takes his job a little too seriously. Finding his fathers phone number after his mother passes away, he occasionally puts on sheer negligees and a little rouge, fondles his sniper rifle (ahem) and gives old pop a ring only to immediately hang up.
It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the two will eventually meet and have a blow out, which involves an exposed gun in broad daylight, much to the apathy of passers-by who casually watch and occasionally take a bite out of their hotdog.
Inevitably some misguided asshole will herald Restless as subversive genius, despite the many errors both technically and thematically, and despite the fact that its narrative and machinations are both absurd and abhorrent. The acting is decent and the "America as land of opportunity message is amusing but the movie overall is a steaming pile.
