Holy Rollers (2010)

Because I was still in the Jesse Eisenberg mood, I watched this on instant Netflix last night. I almost turned it off at first, because I kept getting confused. Any time drug smuggling is a topic I get a little lost sometimes. However, I sucked it up and kept going and was very happy I did. This was a pretty good movie. Based on a true story, about a young Orthodox Jewish man named Sam Gold (played by Eisenberg) who seemed unhappy or at least unsatisfied with his life. He gets wrapped up in a drug smuggling operation that is using Hasidic Jews to smuggle Ecstasy into the country from Europe. He is brought into this world by his close friend and neighbors brother Yosef, played incredibly by Justin Bartha. This edgier world is enticing to him and he gets sucked in, and of course, begins a downward spiral. Its not a new story....you can see where the film is going right away, and its not completely unpredictable. The performances are stand out though...Jesse Eisenberg has innocence and awkwardness down to a science, and Justin Bartha plays a great devil on his shoulder kind of role. The person I was most impressed with was Ari Graynor, who played Rachel, a young girl kind of lost in the whole drug world. She did an incredible job and I would like to see more of her. There were a few great club scenes that really did a good job of showing Sam getting sucked into the more loose and exciting underground world of drug dealing, drinking and women. And of course, a lovely scene of Sam and Yosef running across one of my favorite places on earth....the Brooklyn Bridge. The ending felt incomplete and weak (even though I know its a true story, I think it could have been a better ending) but overall this was an interesting story, and worth watching.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1143896/