At the heart of Fantasy Life, which marks Matthew Shear’s directorial debut, is a sweet relationship between dropout law student Sam (Shear) and mother-of-three Dianne (Amanda Peet). Sam is — as the movie clunkily establishes — a clumsy mess with some mental health issues; she is a former child actor who, at 51, feels washed up as an artist.

They are brought together when her husband’s parents suggest Sam as an emergency babysitter for her young daughters. Sam’s “mannying” opportunity arises when he visits his therapist after getting laid off, because he needs to confess a compulsive antisemitic tic he has developed. His imperturbable therapist (Judd Hirsch) employs his wife (Andrea Martin) as office administrator and it is she who extends both repeated good wishes to his parents and the possibility of him looking after her granddaughters. Over the course of the seasons around which the film is structured, Sam becomes the girls’ nanny and, since Dianne’s rock bassist husband David (Alessandro Nivola) is away on tour they get to know each other. The two find solace and hope in each other.

Although Nivola portrays David as a douche, and although there is sexual tension between the two leads, their relationship is treated gently and with nuance. David and Dianne’s marriage is on the rocks, but is limping along. Much to the relief of Dianne’s wealthy parents (Bob Balaban and Holland Taylor) as well as to the movie audience, the film does not — as it threatens — lurch into the tabloid spectacle of “Manny Beds Mommy.”

Shear is best known for his acting, with supporting roles in a number of Noah Baumbach films and, most recently, a similar ensemble role in Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples. As a director, Shear is clearly in love with Peet who, thus encouraged, gives a luminous performance. Shear, who also wrote the film, tries too hard to evoke the three distinguishing characteristics of his role: appealing, awkward, smart. It’s his movie but he does not look like he’s enjoying starring in the action. Perhaps he should have just cast his look-alike Adam Pally (Dr. Peter Prentice in The Mindy Project) as Sam.

Shear’s experience in the film industry has given him access to some high profile actors. His willingness to use them means that he sets the bar for his first film too high. After all, sending what is effectively his student film to SXSW for its premiere is a bold statement as is casting Zosia Mamet along with the aforementioned Balaban, Taylor, Nivola, Hirsch, Martin and Peet. Having this many celebrity names in a single production earns it attention, I guess. But it also means more scrutiny for a production than you might otherwise expect, or even want.

Though Shear succeeds in gently evoking an odd, imbalanced relationship between two people on either side of a familiar community but in different stages of life, he often does so in ways that are crudely conceived, not fully realized, or lacking a unified aesthetic. The film bills itself as a comedy, but there are few laughs and the drama lacks sustained intensity.

The film grew out of an idea Shear had brought to Pizza Club — what his friend the actor Ashley Zukerman (who does not appear in Fantasy Life) described as a few friends “going out for pizza under the guise of helping each other with projects.” Shear has been picking up bits of stories here and there, and you can feel the elements of authenticity: For example, Dianne gets recognized at a restaurant, but the star-struck waitress thinks she’s Lake Bell.

Too often, though, the scenes feel contrived. A detail announces itself as a choice rather than something organic, or a scene’s very presence seems justified only by what it’s meant to explain. It’s easy to hear the director telling the actors what to do — “Judd, do that thing with your hands”; “Andrea, just stand around helplessly tearing your hair out.” Scenes function less as drama than as annotation, dutifully clarifying Sam’s social awkwardness or her agent’s thinly veiled contempt for Dianne. Or to highlight some relationship development — let’s show how Dianne and Sam view the manny-Mommy relationship differently by showing two bumping into each other when he has the kids: He looks at her, she is happy to see him and kids, but is quite as happy to move off again.

As far as the production goes, the design is unobtrusive and the cinematography is crisp and clear. And, though he under-uses the excellent actors at his disposal — Balaban has a far wider range than the one note of disgust at the schmuck manny that he evinces repeatedly — he does not betray them. The celebrity pantheon actually adds to a homely feeling. It’s almost a joke itself, when you recognize almost every character in the movie because they are well-known actors. And that sense of familiarity is totally in keeping with the movie’s New York vibe.

Fantasy Life will conclude the New York Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 28.

The post So many Jews stars in this comedy, so few chances for them to shine appeared first on The Forward.

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and beloved member of the community in Minneapolis, is not an isolated event.

It is an illustration of how our society risks drifting into patterns of dehumanization — patterns that have paved the way, historically, for some of the worst horrors human beings have ever inflicted on one another.

Over the weekend, I, like millions of others, was shocked by the footage of Pretti’s killing. In a video verified by major news outlets, Pretti is seen holding a phone and standing with protestors before being pinned to the ground and shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents.

He had been legally armed, with his weapon holstered, and had initially gone to help a woman who had been injured by pepper spray. For this, he was accused of “domestic terrorism” by some of our leaders.

And I was shocked, too, by a New York Times report about how researchers with a history of racist thinking obtained the protected genetic data of more than 20,000 American children, and used it to produce studies asserting correlations between race and intelligence. Mainstream scientists have roundly rejected these claims as biased and unsound, but they are spreading anyway: Grok, the Elon Musk-developed AI known for engaging in bouts of antisemitism on X, has cited the pseudoscientific research close to 30 times just this month.

Yes, these two stories — one about an awful killing in Minneapolis, and one about theories of biological racial hierarchies repackaged as science — appear to have little in common. But together, they raise a terrifying and essential question: Are we ignoring the early signs of a far deeper moral unraveling in our society?

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day to remember how, to paraphrase a quote often misattributed to Mark Twain — actual provenance unknown — that while history never repeats itself, it rhymes.

In the leadup to the Holocaust, an influential set of intellectuals and scientists in Germany and elsewhere — including the United States — believed that heredity could explain such so-called “social ills” as criminality, disability and poverty. They believed that society should use biology to control who reproduces and who should not.

They advocated for compulsory sterilization laws, immigration restrictions and other policies that targeted people deemed in some way unfit. In the U.S. alone, tens of thousands of people — disproportionately poor, disabled and people of color — were sterilized under these laws.

From there, it was the express lane to the notion that some lives matter more than others. In Germany, that notion led to the murders of millions.

A society’s moral fabric does not degrade all at once. It does so as a kind of cumulative effect, as the language of hierarchy and worthlessness creeps back into our national conversation; as agencies of state power operate without the restraint of transparent accountability; as deaths are treated as less than tragic, because the people who died were seen as less than fully human.

So, when a study today suggests that mental ability is tied to race, we should tremble. So too when we see an innocent civilian violently killed in the streets, and officials leaping to defend his killers and mock his memory.

We are in a crisis of national conscience. And the risks are great.

Pretti’s killing, like that earlier this month of Renee Nicole Good, has sparked widespread protests because something profound is at stake: the belief that every human life is precious, and that it is our society’s responsibility to care for all lives — not degrade them or treat them as more or less worthwhile.

It is not inevitable that we will repeat the worst chapters of history. But we will — if we fail to hear the alarm when it first sounds. Remembering the past gives us a moral imperative to recognize the early signs and refuse to quietly follow the course.

We must speak clearly: not this, not again, not on our watch.

The post On Holocaust Remembrance Day, warning signs of our contemporary society crumbling appeared first on The Forward.

The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Since Hamas’ brutal takeover of the Gaza Strip, the terrorist organization has made it part of its modus operandi to embed itself in any civilian infrastructure.

In the aftermath of the October 2025 ceasefire, Israel has taken considerable steps to remove existing terrorist infrastructure in areas that fall under IDF control, all within the realms of the agreed terms.

Despite this, The New York Times would like to have its audience believe that Israel is systematically destroying the Gaza Strip, even after the signing of a ceasefire.

In “Israel Is Still Demolishing Gaza, Building by Building,” the Times highlights satellite imagery showing that thousands of structures have been demolished since the October 2025 ceasefire, presenting this as ongoing destruction despite the truce. The framing casts Israel as the all-encompassing villain, while Hamas is effectively granted a free pass.

Perhaps worse, when the New York Times transferred the article to its Instagram feed of nearly 20 million followers, the misleading narrative was blasted with even larger gaps in the story.

The Instagram version omits even the limited factual caveats included in the full article, leaving audiences with a one-sided story that excludes Hamas’ role, its terrorist infrastructure, and the realities driving Israeli operations. What remains is not comprehensive reporting, but a carefully curated narrative designed for maximum emotional impact and minimal accountability.

While the Times portrays the ceasefire as “respite” solely for Palestinian civilians after a “punishing” two-year war, nowhere do the journalists acknowledge that ceasefires are intended to apply to both sides.

More importantly, it was Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel — which was accompanied by rockets and the slaughter of innocent civilians — that began this war. In presenting the war as one against Gazan civilians rather than a campaign against a terrorist organization embedded within civilian areas, the New York Times empties the ceasefire of its reciprocal meaning.

Following Israel’s offensive in Gaza, it became increasingly clear the extent to which Hamas has embedded itself and its military infrastructure within civilian locations.

In fact, the very end of the article quotes a Gazan that blames Hamas for having “militarized civilian spaces.” Naturally, a quote blaming Hamas was omitted from the Instagram carousel and hid until the bottom of the article, ensuring the fewest eyes so as not to sway too far from the narrative of absolving Hamas of wrongdoing.

The New York Times is also acutely aware of the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, having visited tunnels on a tour with the IDF during the war.

Still, when the IDF showed the Times classified maps displaying Hamas’ tunnel system — particularly in Shejaiya, within the Israeli-controlled area beyond the yellow line — the newspaper claimed it could not “independently verify” their accuracy. The context of Hamas’ vast tunnel network is missing from the Instagram post entirely.

What Instagram users are left with are two satellite images taken in two different locations in the Gaza Strip, both of which show IDF-controlled areas beyond the yellow line. While the photos are described ever so slightly more in depth in the article, the Instagram post hopes to use them as the concluding evidence that Israel is acting against the ceasefire to continue its ruthless destruction of civilian infrastructure. However, because they are beyond the yellow line, not only are there no civilians there, but Israel is within its full right under the ceasefire to remove any existing terrorist infrastructure.

The New York Times‘ Instagram post presents itself as a case study in media literacy — or, more accurately, its absence. Designed for audiences with short attention spans who are unlikely to click through to the full article, the post strips away essential context, leaving users without any meaningful understanding of why or how the IDF has continued military action against Hamas in the wake of the October 2025 ceasefire.

While the article itself omits critical facts, the Instagram post goes even further. By removing what little context remains, it actively misleads its audience, inviting millions of followers to fill in the gaps with assumptions rather than facts. This is not journalism adapted for social media. It is narrative curation that sacrifices accuracy for maximum impact.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.