After a string of romantic misfires, Shira (Moran Rosenblatt, she of the deep, pebbly throat) is so certain that Maria (Luise Wolfram) is the end all to unhappiness that, after a whirlwind 3 month courtship, she asks for her hand in marriage. As if tackling a story of queer love, Tel Aviv style, isn’t enough, writer-director Shirel Peleg brings the Holocaust to the wedding shower. Shira is a Jew, but Maria isn’t just another gentile: she has German blood in her, something that doesn’t sit well with Shira’s grandmother Rivka (Berta Posnansky) — “The Real Jewish Princess,” as a neon sign in her home proclaims. It’s not an issue of sexual preference — Grandma doesn’t mind that Shira is a lesbian, just so long as she doesn’t look like a truck driver. The outspoken Rivka is also a concentration camp survivor who doesn’t cotton to her granddaughter cohabitating with “the spawn of Adolf and Eva.” Placing social issues (and American rom-com tropes) ahead of romance has a way of impregnating Peleg’s good intentions with predictability. Fortunately, she’s blessed with a cast expert at navigating the film’s rougher patches. John Carroll Lynch is so delightful as Rivka’s American dad that it’s not worth mentioning that he’s about as Jewish as Miracle Whip®. (2020) — Scott Marks
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