Episode 717 - To Dust (2018)

Hi everyone!

We’re closing out the week with another entry in our series, Under the Kanopy. Kanopy is a library and university funded streaming service that grants card holders six free streams a month, featuring a combination of classic, mainstream, independent, and international films. They currently have streaming deals with some of our favorite distributors, like A24 and Kino Lorber, which offer the critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful films. Today’s film deals with grief in unexpectedly funny ways, while also exploring some of the weirder relationships between faith and science. My review of TO DUST will be up in a minute.

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Today’s movie is TO DUST(2018), the melancholic dramedy directed by Shawn Snyder and written for the screen in collaboration with Jason Begue. In Upstate New York, a Hasidic cantor named Shmuel (Géza Röhrig), has lost his wife, leaving him alone with his kids Naftali (Sammy Volt) and Noam (Leo Heller). Struggling to make sense of his situation, he seeks out a community college professor named Albert (Matthew Broderick), who finds himself helping Shmuel with a bizarre experiment in an effort to help Shmuel process his grief.

No spoilers.

Earlier this week, I reviewed BREAKTHROUGH (Episode #712), which was a film targeted towards evangelical Christians and with a particular evangelical mission, as told through a boy almost drowning. One of the insights I had in writing that review is that the very elements that appeal to evangelical Christian film’s core audience, which is to say other evangelical Christians, are the very elements that often turn away the non-evangelical audience. Everything is generally very certain in the storytelling. There are no gray areas. And there is only darkness if there is also redemption. It generally feels ham-handed and a little overtly judgmental of undesirable viewpoints or conflicting ideas. There’s a specific worldview, generally a Creationist one, and one that can be manipulated through faith and miracles. And if you don’t buy into that, it’s hard to accept the rest of the story.

By contrast, films about the Jewish community always seem more integrated into the world as it is. Perhaps that comes from a long history of being a diasporic community, learning to live among other cultures, sometimes peacefully, sometimes under devastating oppression going back to the Middle Ages, and sometimes now as the oppressor as seen in the Middle East. The viewer is generally asked to accept the world as it is, or as we have come to know it scientifically and socially, and the story is told against that backdrop. I’ve also found a lack of certitude in the storytelling, one that doesn’t seek to provide answers as to ask questions. Of course, this is in addition to exploring themes common to most spiritual practices, like faith and reason, life and death, love and loss, and our place in the larger community. We’re not sure if we’re getting miracles, or even answers, and that’s where we find Shmuel, right in the opening scene as he’s saying goodbye to his wife.

Shmuel is part of the ultra-Orthodox sect of Hasidic Judaism, which arose as a revivalist movement in Western Ukraine during the 18thCentury, adopting a number of specific religious and social customs. Among the larger Jewish population, roughly 15 million worldwide, the Hasidic community is a small percentage of that population, about 130,000 households. They are also a more insulated community, generally handling matters internally, which has caused them to come under fire from accusations of domestic abuse. For more information, check out the Netflix documentary ONE OF US, which speaks to some women who have left the community, often at great expense. Or for a more transgressive criticism, check out my review for DISOBEDIENCE (Episode #248). I was actually worried this film might be another criticism of the Hasidic community, but TO DUST thankfully does not address these darker issues, and that’s definitely part of the film’s charm.

The good news is that Shmuel is definitely not an abuser. He’s a cantor for his local community, a devoted father, and up until his wife’s untimely death, a loving husband. Moreover, Shmuel is played by Géza Röhrig, a Hungarian poet and actor, who is a convert to Hasidism, which allows him to understand the world both inside the community and from the outside looking in. Röhrig’s portrayal of Shmuel becomes our gateway into the Hasidic community of upstate New York, full of seemingly alien customs which Snyder highlights as part of the film, without any overt explanation or messaging. We might not understand everything happening, but we understand its meaning to Shmuel in the larger community. His awkward encounters with the larger community are often filled with playful comedy, the kind that comes from miscommunications and blissful ignorance. And most importantly, we get to see that even the ultra-religious have crises of faith, which is where the story really takes off.

Like everyone, Shmuel is looking for answers, and when he is unsatisfied with the answers from his own community, he looks outside, ending up in the classroom of a science professor named Albert, who is ironically unsatisfied with his own life teaching students who obviously don’t care. Each ends up turning to the other to find meaning in their life, an obvious representation of faith and science attempting to solve the problem of Shmuel’s grief. The darkly comedic part of this film is the source of his grief. Shmuel is obsessed with knowing when his wife’s body will be fully decomposed, and Albert unwittingly finds himself conducting a series of experiments to help him understand the process, each of which gets darker and more surreal, and eventually ends in a very unexpected, extremely cathartic place. The two work well together on screen, even if the story remains focused on Shmuel when they’re not together.

In addition to the great story and excellent performances, Snyder does a great job framing key scenes, finding a nice color pattern and muted filters to create a consistent picture. The film has a nice mix of stoner rock, especially when Albert’s on screen, and an excellent score by multi-instrumentalist Ariel Marx. Sets and locations are all well-chosen and well-framed. Everything really comes together in the end, for an impressive debut feature film from Shawn Snyder. I sincerely hope he has more features in store.

TO DUSTis a very poignant look at faith and reason, and life and death, masquerading as a surreal buddy comedy. The film has its strengths in its story and its performances, but is also carried by great production design, a wonderful soundtrack, and an impressive score from Ariel Marx. Drama fans, especially for films about grief and the grieving process, will definitely enjoy this film, as well as anyone looking for a peek into the less controversial side of the Hasidic community. Everyone else, just know going in that it will have a lot of heady discussion at times, as the subject matter demands.

Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 66

One Movie Punch: 8.6/10

TO DUST (2018) is rated R and is currently playing on Amazon Prime, Hoopla, VUDU, and Kanopy.