We’re back at Sundance in the Vulture Spot, where we’re interviewing the casts and creators of the year’s buzziest films. Check out all our coverage from the film fest here.
The world of onscreen bar and bat mitzvahs gets a little bigger with Between the Temples, a Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane-fronted comedy that follows a cantor whose adult bat mitzvah student was his music teacher in elementary school. Throughout the film, director Nathan Silver deftly establishes a recurring theme of conflict breaking out at places that are supposed to be calm — which, according to him, is just part of growing up in a Jewish family. He lived those dinners, alright? You can hear about how he wove that lived experience into his film in the video above, along with:
➼ Slow nodding from the cast as co-star Madeline Weinstein discusses a dinner scene that surfaced “kooky stuff”
➼ Jason Schwartzman waxing poetic about what to do with “that which you don’t know”
➼ What Carol Kane’s character wasn’t supposed to do
Between the Temples, which also stars Robert Smigel, Dolly de Leon, and Caroline Aaron, premiered on January 19.