They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But that won't stop the interviewees of "Herblock: The Black and The White," playing at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this weekend, from waxing rapturous on political comic Herbert Block. The Washington Post cartoonist, who signed all his work with the moniker Herblock on the suggestion of his father, enjoyed a career spanning 13 presidents and earning three Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His cartoons skewered Joe McCarthy long before …More

It’s not hard to see the parallels to “Little Red Riding Hood” in the opening of “Big Bad Wolves,” writer-director pair Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s second foray into the thriller/horror blend. A golden-haired child in a red dress and bright red, patent leather shoes plays hide and seek with friends in the woods. Foreboding music pounds, the picture slows and she smiles, nymph-like, as she shuts herself in a wardrobe in an abandoned building. Then, suddenly, she is …More

A writer struggles with inspiration. Then, a chance moment of synergy with a barista in a hipster coffee shop provides a muse. He is obsessed. He has found the perfect woman. He decides to craft himself into the perfect man for her. If “A Case of You” already sounds like a combination of “Ruby Sparks,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” and every other indie-aspiring romantic comedy you’ve seen lately, you’re not wrong. Nothing is terribly unique about director Kat …More

One, two, three, four. Counting rings out as children repress their giggles and face each other. Meeting arm-to-arm, elbow-to-elbow, they step right, right, right, right and turn. It could be any youth ballroom dance class, but it is one in Jaffa, one of Israel's only cities where Arabs, Christians and Jews live together in relative peace, so forces together children of opposing cultures. This is Pierre Dulaine’s program Dancing Classrooms, which is still going strong two years after the ballroom dance …More

Inspired by true events, “Six Acts” chronicles the destruction of a girl as she attempts to reinvent herself through six acts of increasing sexuality that begin to look more like sexual abuse. This opening salutation by Israeli director Jonathan Gurfinkel will undoubtedly divide critics and audiences between those who hail it as an arresting, gritty exploration of teenage desire and those who dismiss it as smutty and sometimes dull. Gili, a forceful performance by Sivan Levy, changes schools to …More

No more Mister Nice Rudd. Hitting theaters in August but currently playing at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, “Prince Avalanche” is an obvious attempt by Paul Rudd to rebrand his image. Directed by David Gordon Green, the American remake of 2011 Icelandic comedy “Either Way” positions Rudd as the stodgy, stern Alvin, a far cry from his typical nice, everyman—check out the mixed reviewed “Admission” for more of the same. Alvin is dismissive, elitist, and at times …More

HaGashash HaHiver, affectionately shortened Gashash, is arguably the most influential comedy act in the history of Israel. The trio, who won an Israeli Prize for lifetime achievement in 2000, worked with elaborate wordplay, enacting classic skits—“The Judge and the Referee,” “Kreker vs. Kreker”—which are still quoted today. In Israel, they inspired the same fierce loyalty and homages that the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges continue to enjoy. Never heard of Gashash? Not a …More

President Obama may not take a planned visit to Israel later this month, if Netanyahu’s coalition is still not officially formed. [Times of Israel] Beverlywood Supper Club has hired a New York City rabbi to oversee its newly developed kosher dinner. [LA Times] John Kerry is criticized for seeking a final agreement between Israelis and Palestinians during his term as Secretary of State. [Times of Israel] American Israel Public Affairs Committee requests that the US not include Israel’s grant package …More

A member of the UN peacekeeping force charged with monitoring the cease-fire between Israel and Syria is missing, the United Nations said Monday. [Fox News] Nearly 60 percent of Britain's Jews live in London, a new study shows. [Times of Israel] Israel has bought doorless vehicles specifically for transporting IDF troops inside military bases from China. [Haaretz] Two controversial Egyptian and Qatari films are simultaneously examining Jewish communities that once lived in the Arab world. [Jerusalem Post] New …More

French documentary filmmaker and producer Claude Lanzmann will be honored at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, where he spoke about filming his famous "Shoah" documentary. Lanzmann, 87, was expected to receive an Honorary Golden Bear for his lifetime achievement on Thursday evening. “I was happy, I was moved and I was proud,” Lanzmann told some 200 people who gathered for a conversation between the filmmaker and German film historian Ulrich Gregor the day before the award …More

Actor, philosopher, eternal student and self-proclaimed god James Franco unveiled a new art exhibition titled "Gay Town" at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. Franco began painting as a high school student, but this art is far from adolescent. "Gay Town" includes work from the last two years, and delves into themes including adolescence, stereotypes and public and private personas. Wait … sounds pretty High School to us. Did he ever move on from "Freaks and Geeks"? Franco created "many of …More

On March 14, 1939—one day before Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia—20 children set foot in England for the first time. They were embarking on a new life in a foreign country largely thanks to the efforts of stockbroker Nicholas Winton, a humble man who could not stand by as the Jews of Europe were catalogued and counted for extermination. “I have a motto that if something isn’t blatantly impossible, then there must be a way of doing it,” Winton said during an interview more than 70 years …More