Customer Reviews

Keeping Up With the Steins

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Keeping Up with the Steins": As a Gentile, I'm not privy to things such as Passover celebrations at home or Bar or Bat Mitzvahs. One of the beauties of the movies is giving viewers a peek at worlds and times they may not otherwise see. Keeping Up with the Steins is a funny, touching, sweet movie about a preteen boy, his competitive father, and estranged grandfather.

Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) and his parents Adam and Joanne (Jeremy Piven, Jami Gertz), who live in Brentwood, CA, attend an over-the-top Titanic-themed Bar Mitzvah given by Arnie Stein (Larry Miller) for his son. Adam, a Hollywood agent, determined to "blow away the Steins", hires an event planner to plan a blockbuster event held at Dodger Stadium. Benjamin, overwhelmed and confused over what a Bar Mitzvah means anyway, decides to deflate his father's bluster by secretly inviting Adam's father Irwin (Garry Marshall), who left Adam's mother Rose (Doris Roberts) decades ago. Irwin arrives in his RV with his free-spirited girlfriend Sacred Feather (Darryl Hannah), two weeks early according to Benjamin's doctored invitation. Adam complains, "My driveway has become a trailer park!"

This film boasts of a good roster of supporting character actors, including Marshall, Roberts, Miller, and Richard Benjamin as the rabbi. The man portraying the Bar/Bat Mitzvah teacher was as cute as all out. Although this movie surely wasn't intended as a primer for Bar Mitvahs, the film shows scenes of the class, as well as Irwin's attempts to deepen Benjamin's understanding of the ceremony. I wish the film had explored the religious and spiritual questions even further, but this isn't The Chosen.

I don't think this film overindulges in Jewish stereotypes, though that's not for me to say. You do get more than one glimpse of Marshall's bare toukus while he's swimming, and you also get some thoughts about materialism, family responsibility, and spirituality, as Benjamin starts to discover and assert his budding adulthood. I recommend this film as PG-13-level family entertainment.

Today I watched this on dvd for the first time. I thought I knew what to expect (I thought it would be like a My Big Fat Greek Wedding type movie with all the cultural trimmings), but it was different to that. It's a nice family movie with a fantastic cast (I especially love Jeremy Piven).
The first scene involves a wealthy family celebrating their sons Bar Mitzvah with a Titanic theme and a titanic expenditure to match. Now the Fiedler family feels they have to live up to the same hype. It's a cute story line about family coming together and not always getting along but it obviously works out well in the end as you'd expect.
I really liked this - I think it's a movie that people of all faiths can enjoy. It's got some great moments in it and some good laughs too. Look out at the end for a surprise performance from an amazing famous Jewish male singer staring as himself. I love it and hope you do too.

Are there people who actually spend hundreds of thousands on Bar Mitzvahs? In the Brentwood community of "Keeping Up with The Steins", the answer is "ofcourse", and the movie kicks off with with a Bar Mitzvah set on a cruise ship and based on "Titanic" (the event and the movie - "I'm the King of the Torah!!" exults the Bar Mitzvah boy). The Stein's aren't the heroes of this story - rather they are never-present foils of the Fiedlers. Denizens of Brentwood, where everybody seems to work for celebrities and earns more money than anybody knows what to do with, the Fiedlers face their son's approaching Bar Mitzvah with a mixture of anticipation and dread - how are they going to outdo the Steins? Adam, Benji Fiedler's father (Jeremy Piven, playing a patriarchal version of the character he plays on "Entourage") needs little prodding before Dodger Stadium becomes the Bar Mitzvah's chosen venue. Once a partner with Stein and now a bitter competitor, Adam is determined to leave nothing to chance. The "nothing", we later learn, is his own horrid past - his father (Garry Marshall) was a jovial guy too full of life to stick around and actually be a family man. Years after abandoning his family, Adam's father lives out in the desert with his younger and hyper-new-agey wife "Sacred Feather" (Darryl Hannah). Frantic preparations for his Bar Mitzvah inform Benjamin Fiedler's dread -he can't "chant" his Haftorah to save his life (and if you don't know what a Haftorah is, don't worry - the point of the story is that Benjamin knows about as much), he moons over the beautiful Ashley, hopes his father will patch things up with his grandfather, and hopes that maybe he can become a man without the need to outdo the fearsome Stein's.

"Steins" is a small if innocuous gem - a small movie with a lot of familiar faces. It looks like that kind of movie that people make to unwind while making bigger and more trying movies, and the cast looks like they had about as much fun making the movie as I did watching it. There are small but nuanced performances, and the cast gets through the plots small but myriad challenges. The story never congeals - the hated Steins are almost non-entities in a movie that bares their name. But the script won't require much effort to keep up with its in-Jewish jokes (like the difference between "Nachos" & "Nachas"). The basic point of the story (that some of these celebrations are so overdone that those involved lose sight of what they're celebrating) isn't too heavily delivered, and if there aren't any real jokes, the understated performances are guaranteed to keep a smile on your face - like Benji's grandmother, the story gets its point across without having to openly speak its mind. If you need a rest from exploding cars and devilish fashion editors, drop by The Steins.

At first, this appears to be a movie about a family who wants to outdo another Jewish family by having an even more extravagant bar mitzvah party for their son Benjamin.

But when Benjamin secretly invites his estranged hippie grandfather to the bar mitzvah two weeks early, things take an interesting turn. Over the course of the film, Benjamin develops a bond with his grandfather and begins to understand the true meanings of bar mitzvah and manhood and maturity.

So does Benjamin's father. He learns that becoming a Bar Mitzvah (son of the commandment) is not about having a huge party and outdoing the Steins, it's about becoming emotionally and spiritually mature, something that finally begins to happen to him at his own son's bar mitzvah. In a way, the father also becomes a son of the commandment at the same time his son does.

This is one of the better movies I've seen in a while, much more good natured and heartwarming than most Hollywood offerings.

I stumbled on to this movie and it is a very good one. In many ways it is like an inside joke as it protrays the Jewish Culture but the story and messages are really broader than that. It borders on satire as it shows Beverly Hills/Brentwood in Calif with all of the joggers, pretension, and trivial value system that is so prevalent there, but beneath this veneer is a heart warming and rather realistic story of a family. It vividly demonstrates that money can buy anything but something of value and the most valuable thing is family. He shows that marriages are complex things and only those two in the marriage really understand it and those on the outside shouldn't make judgements regarding someone else's marriage. This was a story of regrets, mistakes, and foregiveness and shows it is never too late to say "I'm sorry". The interplay between the grandparents was marvelous and could have added a great deal more to the movie had it been expanded. The son's inability to forgive was very believable and even his grudging acceptance at the end was believable. This was a marvelous movie that delivered several very good messages with a light and humorous touch. Very well done and if you are looking for a good family movie this is one. It has a couple of brief tushy shots but nothing to keep it from family viewing.

As a parent who is in the midst of planning a bat mitzvah and frustraited with those who plan gala extravaganzas this was a perfect movie for us. I found it compassionate, funny, poingant, and full of messages about what a families real priorites can and should be. Kudos to the director for putting in his dad (Gary Marshall) as the grand dad. He was wonderful and this movie touched everyone in my brood. I have passed this movie on to many of my friends who really enjoyed it, whether they were Jewish or not.

As a fan of the spy kids movies because of Daryl Sabara's dead on performance as a fun loving boy who just happened to also be a spy, I felt I owed it to Daryl to see Keeping up With the Steins. This movie went so far beyond my expectations it was unbelievable. It oozed of indie doings rather than the ridiculously adolescent Hollywood humor and is by far the best coming of age comedy drama since Saint Ralph. Daryl is perfect as a boy on the road to confusing times of bar mitzvahs and expected manhood at 13 when he hasn't even reached his own self imposed milestone of being 5 feet tall by the time of the opening phrase of the bar mitzvah ceremony is uttered by the rabbi. He finds that maturity has a whole lot more to do with accepting life's unimportant and insignificant limitations than trying to rebel against them. He also learns that the most important thing is family and not trying to artificially be any better than what you really are. The rest of the cast is exceptional, in particular Jeremy Piven as the 'best bar mitzvah at any cost' dad, Garry marshall as the wisecracking hippie grandpa and Larry Miller as the 'Stein' to keep up with. The laughs are unstoppable and the story is a wonder to watch unfold.My only wish is that there were more for Doris Roberts to do in the movie. Other than that, its a perfect coming of age drama that is worthy of a watch...or two...or three...

I though the acting was good. The character development was fine. The story flowed. Parts were funny as I could identify with the scenes and some of the characters.

A satirical and frequently effective look at the craziness that can accompany planning for a Bar Mitzvah. Some very funny parts and some serious parts make for an enjoyable movie. Not profound but good natured and actually thought provoking.

I first caught some of this movie on an airplane. That was enough for me to decide I needed to see the entire movie. PG-13 rating is probably pretty fair. The kids raid the liquor cabinet in 1 scene. Jeremy Piven (Ellen, Entourage), Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) & Garry Marshall (Murphy Brown, Lost In America, Lavern & Shirley) lead an ensemble cast including Daryl Hannah & Larry Miller. Jewish boy coming of age in Hollywood thru the family rift between father & grandfather caused by the grandparents divorce/separation/abandonment 20 years prior. It doesn't sound humerous, but almost every scene is funny and well done. Sidebar, satirical social commentary on current american pop culture. Thinking about it, I'd say funny in about the same way as Everybody Loves Raymond, Ellen, Murphy Brown & Lavern & Shirley. You're bound to love or hate the character each actor creates. Real kudos to both Doris Roberts & Garry Marshall they really carry the day with master performances.