A Holocaust survivor, born and raised in a different time, must face the realities of the modern world. When confronted with an unfamiliar object, an iPhone, will Mordecai be able to fit into a world that has changed so much around him?
Having witnessed his mother’s gradual deterioration due to Alzheimer’s, entrepreneur Marvin Samel — known for cigar empire Drew Estate — steps behind the camera for the first time to direct “iMordecai,” a love letter to his family. Raised by Holocaust Survivors, Samel knows a thing or two about battling deeply-embedded grief with humor, generational differences, the awe contemporary tech inspires in the elderly, and encroaching mortality. Commendable themes make one wish Samel knew nearly as much about helming a feature. While he incorporates these themes into his debut, the result is a haphazard tonal jumble that lacks a sense of purpose or any semblance of filmmaking flair.
Marvin cast Sean Astin to play himself: a cigar kingpin called Marvin, who forcefully gifts an iPhone to his dad, retired plumber/painter Mordecai (Judd Hirsch). Mordecai doesn’t like new things: he taped up his old flip-phone, his car windows are similarly taped with plastic, and he rips his apartment apart attempting to fix a plumbing issue. “There’s no buttons!” he exclaims to his wife, Fela (Carol Kane), upon receiving the gift. When a friendly local, Nina (Azia Dine Hale), offers private lessons to help him with the gadget, he agrees.
That’s when the film’s subplots and odd asides start to snowball. Fela sees her husband with Nina at the mall and gets jealous, which somehow leads to the discovery of her dementia. “Some days, she’ll be fine, some days, she won’t,” Marvin explains to Mordecai, who seems reluctant to accept reality. He becomes entranced by Nina, who introduces the modern world to him. A simple addition of an iPhone opens the gateway to a world of discovery, such as Beats by Dre.
In the meantime, Marvin goes through his monetary and marital issues, which seem irrelevant, inconsequential, and tacked on. Then there are the extended animated flashbacks, a relationship with the “iStore” (couldn’t get the rights there, I assume) employee/part-time aspiring comedian Jared (Nick Puga), unnecessary flashbacks to young Marvin’s poker games, and Mordecai’s past misadventures, the discovery of an SS Officer grandpa, Holocaust memories, cigar making, and so on and so forth.
There’s just too much going on. Product placements for iPhones and Beats by Dre aside, plenty of it jars; the awkward editing, the misjudged camera placement and movement, the comedic moments that fall flat, the abundant sentimentality, and the lack of filmmaking acumen. Samel throws everything he can into the washing machine, and it all comes out bleached. Even little moments that almost work — the plug in Mordecai’s car, “geezer art,” lines like “I stopped smelling in the 1970s” — get lost among the deluge of tonally-inconsistent elements. Thank God for Hirsch, who is excellent, per usual; some of the film’s most tender moments happen when it’s just him and Carol Kane together.
You can’t blame Samel for a lack of earnestness, but perhaps he should stick to his day job. He’s clearly an eloquent man with a slew of exciting stories to tell — perhaps over a cigar as opposed to on celluloid.
In Theaters Friday, February 24th
