Simi Horwitz is a feature writer and film reviewer based in New York City. In 2022, she received first place for film criticism from the Society for Feature Journalism, and in 2023, a New York Press Club Award for an Entertainment News feature; and three Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including first place for film criticism — all for pieces published in the Forward.
Simi Horwitz
By Simi Horwitz
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Culture In Mexico City, a young artist’s affair threatens her Syrian-Jewish community
Set in Mexico City, “Leona” is a coming of age tale that follows a young female muralist who falls in love with a non-Jewish Mexican and winds up essentially disinherited from her own community. The Spanish-language film, which marks the impressive debut of writer-director Issac Cherem — who hails from the tightly-knit, Syrian-Jewish community where…
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Culture The trippy, far-out artist who refused to support the Nazis
In Robin Lutz’s intriguing (yet in the end incomplete) documentary, “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity,” the iconic Dutch graphic artist (1898-1972), emerges as a complex and entertaining amalgam. He is an intellectual, a curmudgeon, and a tormented artist twisted this way and that over what he perceives to be his own inadequacies. Lutz evokes Escher’s…
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Culture Against all odds, Holocaust survivors retain their optimism — and their music
Directed by Tod Lending, “Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band” recounts the experiences of two Holocaust survivors, Saul Dreier, 91 and Ruby Sosnowicz, 87, who’ve joined forces to form a Klezmer Band that celebrates their survival — or, more to the point, how they’ve thrived despite enduring Holocaust atrocities. A testimony to optimism and resilience,…
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Culture Yes, he sold art to the Nazis — but was he a traitor or a hero?
“The Last Vermeer,” marking producer Dan Friedkin’s directorial debut, is part melodrama and part thriller, but at its core it’s an exploration of moral complexities that regrettably disappears into distracting subplots and a large cast of indistinguishable characters. By the time the viewer appreciates the complicated ethical and psychological questions at play, the film is…
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Culture 43 years after Skokie, Ira Glasser is still fighting for free speech
Freedom of speech is mined territory. Does the first amendment extend to inciting violence? And how do you define “incitement” Just ask 82-year-old Ira Glasser who served as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years (1978-2001) and is best known for his involvement with the controversial Skokie case. In 1977,…
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Culture Gloria Steinem is having a moment — so why doesn’t she seem more relevant?
In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the controversy surrounding her successor’s impact on the lives of everybody (most pointedly women), the surfacing of Gloria Steinem in three bio-dramatizations — on stage, television, and in film — couldn’t be timelier. In the film, “The Glorias,” we see the feminist icon at various stages…
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Culture How a Jewish marketing whiz tried to save old-time Russian hockey
Though some knowledge of (and interest in) the national ice hockey team of the former Soviet Union (CCCP) might help you to appreciate Gabe Polsky’s new documentary, “Red Penguins,” it’s not essential. Even without a solid hockey background — for that, see Polsky’s earlier doc “Red Army” — this is an oddly fascinating story. It’s…
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Culture In Nazi-era Austria, he needed a father; he found Sigmund Freud
Nikolaus Leytner’s “The Tobacconist,” is one of the more striking and nuanced movies to deal with the rise of Nazism. Set in Vienna in the 30’s, and based on Robert Seethaller’s 2017 best-selling novel, it’s a coming of age tale that recounts the experiences of Franz (Simon Morze), a horny 17-year-old whose personal, political and…
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