Since the release of Rushmore 26 years ago, Jason Schwartzman has specialized in playing morose, peculiar characters with hidden feelings. You can see it in Asteroid City , his most recent collaboration with Wes Anderson , and even his turn as the more boyish than regal Louis XVI in Marie Antoinette . His career has been building toward a film like Between the Temples , an unconventional comedy where he plays a widowed cantor in a New York synagogue, as his precocious teenager ennui has matured into full-on middle-aged malaise.
Directed and cowritten by Nathan Silver —a stalwart of the indie scene with his first potential hit—this is a film about behavior, not religion, and how Jewish people reconcile their traditions with modernity. The premise could be fodder for an easy formula, but a few filmmaking decisions elevate the material so the characters and situations feel utterly alive. When we meet Ben (Schwartzman), he’s too shy, or traumatized, to sing at regular shabbat services.
But instead of letting Rabbi Bruce ( Robert Smigel ) cover for him, Ben makes a scene by running out of the synagogue. Adrift and alone, Ben finds himself in a bar where his guardian angel of sorts, fellow patron Carla ( Carol Kane ), takes pity on him after he loses a fight with a stranger. As the two talk, Ben learns two surprising things about Carla: She was his music teacher many years ago, and she wants to be his bat mitzvah student.
They forge an unlikely teacher/student pair, with Ben .