I watched this movie earlier today and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. We start in Baltimore 1914, with the Patriarch of the Jewish-Pole Krichinsky family, Sam, arriving in Baltimore on July 4th, the spectacle all around him encapsulates his excitement for new life and opportunity. We see his life as a wallpaper presser in his newfound home in America. Over time, the years pass by, into the 1940s and 50s and eventually to the early 70s at the end of the film. He marries and has a large family. His son and nephew go into business together, he helps to raise his grandson, he battles verbally with his wife and his brother and deals with old age and with loss in its many different forms, biological, financial or otherwise. I don’t want to give spoilers but oddly enough, even if I did, it wouldn’t fundamentally change much of your viewing. The movie isn’t about a huge plot-twist, or a gigantic action scene that kills multiple characters or anything. I would describe it as a Slice of Life, and the pain-staking detail that Barry Levinson-Gould went through in directing this movie to be accurate to the times is more than admirable. Every car and piece of furniture is spectacularly curated. The scenes that are supposed to feel happy and exciting look bright and vibrant, kinetic in a way. The scenes of dispair, of agony in some sort, feel so slow and dark that you feel like you yourself are there, begging for the moment to pass. (in a good way, not saying the scenes are boring and drag on too long) There are also many small comedic moments, nothing that will get you flying off your seat, dying laughing, but small little cultural/linguistic things, like the difference between “Can I?” and “May I?” or how they pronounce Turkey or Furnace (Toykey, Foynace). I really loved this movie, if you have a chance to stream it or check it out from your local library I would highly suggest it. It was a great movie and I feel like (as cringe as it sounds to say) I lived through a period of the 50s watching this movie. My big caveat is that it sorta puts Rose-Tinted glasses on and drifts past issues of racism or abuse by only focusing on this one particular Jewish family. Besides that, I really liked this movie, I related to it on a very personal level (except I’m not Jewish) with some of their plot points and characters that appear, it really touched me at certain points. I would probably put this in my top 30 movies, watch it if possible. That’s all Folks!