Between the Temples Review (2024): Jason Schwartzman Leads a Quirky, Yet Uneven Film

   October 24, 2024
Jason Schwartzman in Between the Temples (2024)
Jason Schwartzman in Between the Temples (2024)

Between the Temples Review

Between the Temples is yet another addition to the sustained heater that its lead actor Jason Schwartzman is on. What’s even more impressive is that Schwartzman’s recent run of success, from being top billed in Wes Anderson’s dollhouse Western Asteroid City, to starring as the crazed Games announcer in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, to voicing the adequately titled villain Spot in Across the Spider-Verse, to now playing a grief-stricken Jewish cantor in the grainy, lo-fi comedy Between the Temples, is that his range is unmatched by nearly anyone in Hollywood.

And Schwartzman has always had this Between the Temples side in him, probably best exemplified as the man-child Max in Rushmore. Although slightly less acidic as Ben Gottlieb in this Nathan Silver-directed film than he is in that one, the character is seemingly just as lost and just as bad at hiding it.

Between the Temples follows Ben through a crisis of faith nearly a year after his wife Ruth slipped on a patch of ice and passed away. Ben’s never fully grieved and reconciled with her passing. This has led him to question many of his Jewish beliefs, as well as lose his ability to sing (an important aspect of serving as a cantor for his local synagogue).

Ben’s only finally able to pick himself up out of the gutter when he encounters his old elementary school music teacher Carla Kessler (played to hilariously positive results by Carol Kane). Carla expresses her desire to have the bat mitzvah her parents never allowed her to have. She grew up in a communist household, and the idea of her having a bat mitzvah was quickly denied by her parents growing up.

But now, after some hesitancy, Ben’s agreed to help Carla get the ceremony approved and put on. This sparks a friendship (or maybe something deeper) between Ben and Carla. The two find solace in one another because of the circumstances they are in, and because they seem to pull each other out of their own respective ruts.

Between the Temples is simultaneously one the funnier situational comedies I’ve seen in 2024, and one of the better depictions of Jewish faith put to screen. I feel as though I learned a lot about being Jewish through the smaller, in-between moments in Ben’s life as I have in nearly in any other movie. And it’s told with a tone that is so matter of fact, as if it is not trying to digress as much into an examination about being Jewish as it is about the connected nature we as a society have towards religion. It is a story that can be reapplied to anyone else regardless of their own religious affiliations.

Schwartzman and Kane have tremendous screen chemistry, and Nathan Silver’s slightly acidic and downbeat script has enough juice to get it to the finish line. Perhaps there could have been a bit of trimming done in the second act to make Between the Temples 20ish minutes shorter, but the nearly 2 hour runtime is nothing to get worked up about. It’s a solid dramedy regardless.

Score: 6/10

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