The Reel Schmooze

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Continuing in our decade-by-decade comedy viewing, this week's featured Schmooze film is 1998's "Slums of Beverly Hills." Set in 1976, the film was written and directed by Tamara Jenkins and is loosely based on her life stor...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Continuing in our decade-by-decade comedy viewing, this week's featured Schmooze film is 1982's "Tootsie." Starring Dustin Hoffman as the gender-bending Michael Dorsey/ Dorothy Michaels, the supporting roles are equally star...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Continuing in our decade-by-decade comedy viewing, this week's featured Schmooze film is "The In-Laws." The 1979 comedic adventure stars the great Jewish actors Alan Arkin playing dentist Sheldon "Shelly" Kornpett and Peter...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week's featured Schmooze film is "The Apartment," a 1960 iconic work of dark comedy by famed filmmaker Billy Wilder. Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray, the film takes us to the massive offices of...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week's featured Schmooze film is a rollicking Holocaust-themed documentary called "The Stamp Thief." “Seinfeld” producer Gary Gilbert leads a gang of curious individuals on the trail of a trove of stamps sto...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Last week, Borschel-Dan threw down a challenge: Can anyone suggest a Sukkot-themed film? Dozens of loyal listeners wrote in with 2004's "Ushpizin," directed by Gidi Dar. The unforgettable Israeli film -- which both of our Sc...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Hoffman starts off with two quick Jangles -- news with a Jewish angle- before we devote the program to the original 1927 "The Jazz Singer" and a technicolor 1991 The Simpsons parody episode, "Like Father, Like Clown." Now in...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we chew on the new documentary now in theaters, "You Had To Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadi...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we abandon all pretense of intellectuality and hunker down to watch the new Gal Gadot vehicle, "The Runner," now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The film is a fast-paced sprint through London, during which Gadot...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This month marks the 60th anniversary of the pioneering sci-fi series, Star Trek. Expert in all things Trekky, Hoffman, when he's not schmoozing with Borschel-Dan, also hosts the STARLOG podcast and co-wrote The Star Trek Bo...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. Taking a break from pulling classics out of the vaults, this week's film, "Don't Say Good Luck," just dropped on Netflix. Sunny Sandler stars as a 16-year-old theater kid, backed up by a cast including Melanie Lynskey, Max G...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we spend the entire episode on Haifa-born iconic animator Ralph Bakshi's 1977 sci-fi adventure, "Wizards." Distributed by 20th Century-Fox, the loose premise sets the film about 5,000 years in the future, followin...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. We have two Jangles this week from our movie maven. In the first, we learn about just how Jewish the classic rock band Rush is, and how it was played up at its Madison Square Garden concerts this week. In the second, we lear...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. We have two Jangles this week. Borschel-Dan explains how Boy George released a reggae-inspired track, titled “Od Nirkod” in Hebrew, "We Will Dance Again," on his social media accounts on Monday. The duo chews thi...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, Hoffman starts the program with a unique dvar Torah, tying together the new blockbuster "The Odyssey" with James Joyce's "Ulysses" and antisemitism in Ireland. Goes well with white fish. Then we turn to the main e...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, Borschel-Dan begins the episode with her impressions of the United States after not having visited for eight years. We hear how American cottage cheese stacks up after all this time. We devote the rest of the prog...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, Borschel-Dan starts the episode with important news: She finally finished "My Name Is Barbra," Barbra Streisand's much-discussed 900+-page autobiography. Turning to the main event: Fifty years since the daring IDF...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, as Borschel-Dan continues to read Hoffman's recommendation -- "My Name Is Barbra," Barbra Streisand's verrrrry long biography -- we turn to an audience favorite, the 1972 screwball comedy, "What's Up, Doc?" Direct...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. The duo sat down to record early this week during the confluence of three major events: Iran again struck Israel, the Tonys were awarded, and RUSH played in Los Angeles. Movie maven Hoffman gives us the Jangles from the awar...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we're joined by our first guest, Isaac Zablocki. For over 20 years, Zablocki, the director of film programs at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, has been developing film programs at the JCC, including The Israel...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we learn that famed actress and chanteuse Barbra Streisand received an honorary Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Borschel-Dan, who is reading the artist's massive memoir, calls on all podcast fans to...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. We roll out with three Jangles -- news with a Jewish angle. Borschel-Dan gives her favorite actress, 96-year-old June Squib, a shoutout for her recent Tony nomination for "Marjorie Prime." Hoffman discusses his recent discov...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, we dive straight into our two films for this week, the 2021 documentary "Bernstein's Wall" and Bradley Cooper's 2023 "Maestro." Our two classical music fans begin with the documentary, highlighting the parts of co...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, before diving into our two films for this week, we revisit the 1960 film "Exodus" with a few reflections based on listeners' responses -- and Hoffman's musing while sweeping. We then hear about the movie maven's n...

Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan , where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use. This week, before diving into the nuts and bolts of the iconic epic Hollywood adventure, we learn how the 1960 film "Exodus" is part of Hoffman's genesis story. Hoffman lays out the film's plot, which is based on a 1958 Leon...