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Nora Lee Mandel

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
A Letter to David (2025) 8/10 EDIT “Director Tom Shoval and twin Eitan Cunio find intense irony and revelations in audition tapes, clips, outtakes, and background footage from their YOUTH (2014). Extensive interviews and family home movies fill the cruel wait to learn results from 10/7/23.” – Maven's Nest Jan 28, 2026 Full Review Frontier (2025) 7/10 EDIT “Catalan director Colell looks at the other side of the beautifully filmed Pyrenees by exploring the context and complexities for refugees seeking the border of 1943 Franco's Spain, still divided post-civil war. Who will help Jewish refugees?” – Maven's Nest Jan 28, 2026 Full Review Out of Exile: The Photography of Fred Stein (2022) 7/10 EDIT “Bifurcated, very involving tales are the bios of Fred & wife Lilo and decades later their son co-director Peter dedicated to get Fred’s 1930s (in Dresden and Paris) to 1960s photography in NYC recognized as fine art.” – Maven's Nest Jan 25, 2026 Full Review Real Estate (2023) 9/10 EDIT “Released in Israel with a tag "A Love Story", writer/director Anat Malz’s debut feature sets an irresistible, preggers, gig-economy stressed couple apartment-hunting in an atypical move facing diverse challenges. Adorable!” – Maven's Nest Jan 25, 2026 Full Review Mazel Tov (2025) 6/10 EDIT “While there's many cliches in this amiable film of Argentinian Jewish adult siblings, confrontations towards the end raise the emotional level from the conventional by getting frank and raw.” – Maven's Nest Jan 18, 2026 Full Review The Baltimorons (2025) 95% 9/10 EDIT “Unusual for a dentist to be featured in an off-beat rom-com, let alone that the dentist is a middle-aged woman. In Xmas Eve odyssey through Baltimore, she and her younger patient empathetically enter the other’s life.” – Maven's Nest Jan 4, 2026 Full Review David (2025) 76% 5/10 EDIT “Visually colorful animation, a somewhat international voice-acted cast belting out catchy but too short tunes in an overly simplified Children’s Bible Story through a Christian perspective.” – Maven's Nest Dec 21, 2025 Full Review Reflection in a Dead Diamond (2025) 84% 6/10 EDIT “A visual, albeit repetitive, romp in a fast sports car through the genre of satirizing European James Bond imitations with an all-in pan-European cast and a dizzying array of film and graphic arts references.” – Maven's Nest Nov 25, 2025 Full Review Auction (2024) 90% 7/10 EDIT “A fiction inspired by true events, around discovery of a Nazi-disappeared painting, with pointed ironies in rarely publicly seen authentic environment of colorfully well-played ensemble of auctioneers, collectors, dealers, contrasts origins and a worker. ” – Maven's Nest Nov 1, 2025 Full Review Coexistence, My Ass! (2025) 92% 7/10 EDIT “Shadows comedienne Noam Shuster Eliassi over five tumultuous years in her life and Israel’s. Using comedy as a platform for peace activism in the long tradition of pointed Jewish humor makes for an entertaining and emotionally insightful documentary.” – Maven's Nest Oct 29, 2025 Full Review Queens of the Dead (2025) 83% 7/10 EDIT “Draws on the zombie legacy of director's father George A. Romero with comedy and contemporary flair, with lots of winking Easter Eggs. Titular "Queens" are drag queens on stage and off, with range of LGBTQ+ community for comic relief to blood splatter.” – Maven's Nest Oct 24, 2025 Full Review Among Neighbors (2024) 8/10 EDIT “American director Potash adroitly, emotionally counters rising conservative nationalism that whitewashes the past with last victims and witnesses to during/after the Holocaust. Researched with Polish historians, artists, elders, he targets one village. ” – Maven's Nest Oct 11, 2025 Full Review One Big Happy Family (2025) 5/10 EDIT “A mildly amusing Jewish family flick whose only reason to see is as final film of the incomparable Linda Lavin. In a role written for her, she plays the ultimate Brooklyn-born Jewish mother. Brenner wrote, stars in and produced a comic version from life.” – Maven's Nest Oct 7, 2025 Full Review Bau: Artist at War (2024) 8/10 EDIT “Makes movingly clear their marriage in a concentration camp in "Schindler's List" was just a small part of Baus’ lives and their significance in the Holocaust plus. Uses impressive mix of archival footage, animation, and Bau’s serious and satirical art” – Maven's Nest Oct 6, 2025 Full Review Soul of a Nation (2025) 4/10 EDIT “Confusingly edited and contextualized look at Israel's complex politics pre and post 10/7/2023 through news clips and interviews with prominent activists and elected/non-elected figures, particularly many secular women. Issues well-documented elsewhere.” – Maven's Nest Oct 5, 2025 Full Review The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue (2025) 81% 7/10 EDIT “Chronological re-telling of violence of 10/7/2023 at Kibbutz Nahal Oz and instinctive individual heroic reaction of a family's grand/parents like interviews in a post-apocalyptic action flick, including gunmen's livestreamed attacks & government failures.” – Maven's Nest Oct 4, 2025 Full Review Triumph of the Heart (2025) 6/10 EDIT “Intense time inside Auschwitz with a cross-section of nine Polish political prisoners and a saint starving in a cellar in early 1941. Ensemble acting is powerful, but bombastic religiosity ramps up with overpowering choruses.” – Maven's Nest Sep 10, 2025 Full Review TORN: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets (2024) 7/10 EDIT “With high emotional quotient, Shapira’s in-depth look at reactions in 1st months is a useful reminder of the shock and initial confrontations. Insights include the creators of red-framed posters, distraught relatives and friend of murdered and kidnapped.” – Maven's Nest Sep 7, 2025 Full Review Riefenstahl (2024) 97% 7/10 EDIT “Probing the personal archive of the enigma Leni Riefenstahl, who was Hitler’s most defining propagandist, warns of making a Faustian bargain if you live to be 100. Veiel found intriguing clues to both her psychology and the facts of her life and work.” – Maven's Nest Sep 5, 2025 Full Review Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation (2025) 70% 5/10 EDIT “Half Kerouac biography (rare archival material flies by, especially pre and post ON THE ROAD) and half impact of his best-known book on white men. Dissenting voices in the hagiography are a relief, noting his misogyny and limited scope of liberation. ” – Maven's Nest Aug 2, 2025 Full Review Shoshana (2023) 73% 8/10 EDIT “Jewish woman idealist is a vivid reminder that tensions, violence, and yet love across differences have persisted in the contested land of Palestine/Israel for over a hundred years. Well-researched, international cast portrays real political individuals.” – Maven's Nest Jul 27, 2025 Full Review A Girl Named Ann (2024) 8/10 EDIT “Based on a true story, a searing portrait of domestic abuse, corrupt well-meaning cop, addiction, regretful crusading journalist, and the impact of pandemic on Kawai’s moving portrayal of heartbreaking title character.” – Maven's Nest Jul 21, 2025 Full Review Guns & Moses (2024) 73% 7/10 EDIT “Scarily relevant about violence against Jews, yet also showcases how authorities leap on antisemitism for disturbing incidents when truths are more complex. Like clergy detectives on British TV, with more shooting, thrilling chase scene, diverse tunes. ” – Maven's Nest Jul 21, 2025 Full Review Holding Liat (2025) 100% 8/10 EDIT “An intimate, yet political, look alongside one family of Israeli-American hostages from October 2023. Their personal trauma and grief is agonizing, but so is facing what they can do to try to save the lives of their family members. Lessons are personal.” – Maven's Nest Jul 7, 2025 Full Review Familiar Touch (2024) 98% 8/10 EDIT “Puts a sensitive spin on dealing with memory loss and its impact. Chalfant is a brilliant actress who convinces the audience she is “Ruth Goldman” from Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, and what a strong and charming personality she was before she was disabled.” – Maven's Nest Jul 2, 2025 Full Review
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