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Jellyfish
Zeitgeist Films


9.6

based on 21 reviews
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based on 3 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Sarah Adler, Tsipor Aizen, Bruria Albek, Ilanit Ben-Yaakov, and Assi Dayan

Poignant, often witty, and exceedingly cinematic, Jellyfish tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non-Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines. As this distaff trio separately wend their way through Israel's most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection, and destiny--but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas. (Zeitgeist Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Shira Geffen
DIRECTED BY:	Shira Geffen Etgar Keret
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: April 4, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	78 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Israel
LANGUAGE(S):	Hebrew / French

Alternative Titles: Meduzot

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A beautifully strange movie.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason McBride

Like a Keret story, Jellyfish is economical – a mere 78 minutes – but it packs into its taut, intersecting storylines a charming melancholy and a surprisingly rich depth.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What gives the film a haunting and sometimes droll poetic unity is the way co-directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen trace all their characters moving in a jellyfish-like fashion.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Marvelously inventive, often-ironic Israeli storyteller Etgar Keret and his life- and workmate, Shira Geffen, spin in Jellyfish a dreamy, arty, alluringly cockeyed tale involving three unrelated women in Tel Aviv.

Variety Alissa Simon

Tightly constructed, cleverly stylized, serio-comic ensemble piece. Highly cinematic, with a mood of existential loneliness leavened by magical whimsy, its different story strands share themes including the need for affection and the struggle to communicate.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Yes, Jellyfish says, it's a wonderful life, not in that old-fashioned style we've perhaps tired of but in a surprising new and magical way all its own.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

The scale is small, but Jellyfish has deep currents.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Not for all tastes, but produces haunting juxtapositions.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

These stories have as their justification that fact that they are intrinsically interesting. I think that's enough.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

There's enough material here for a miniseries, but the directors keep the proceedings to 78 brisk minutes without making the viewer feel cheated.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

An Israeli movie with neither politics nor religion--and only one casual, if fraught, mention of the Holocaust--bespeaks an underlying desire for normality that's as poignant and fantastic as Keret and Geffen's modest, shabby Tel Aviv settings.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

The overlapping stories pulse with a tidal rhythm, the film's sensibility flowing between serious and wry, and there are memorable turns from Assi Dayan as the waitress's henpecked dad and Tzahi Grad as a cop with a nonchalant attitude toward babysitting.

The Hollywood Reporter Bernard Besserglik

Several stories, or scraps of stories, are woven together in the making of Jellyfish ("Meduzot"), linked by common themes and a shared sense of humor, poetry and loss.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The film’s spirit is refreshingly playful and sweet.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I appreciated and admired the craftsmanship of Jellyfish more than I loved it, and I found its whimsical, magic-realist touches a bit cloying. Just as I began to appreciate that it had depths I hadn't perceived, it was over.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An interlocking ensemble piece in the tradition of "Crash" and "Babel," but with welcome dashes of whimsy and magical realism.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Jellyfish is the kind of film that will ring true for some viewers, while striking others as too slight and precious.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

In spite of the entropy, Jellyfish is close to a comedy, with a gentle sense of absurdism and a welcome generosity toward its characters.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I have an aversion to such intricately interlocked movies as "Babel" or "Crash" -- for all their pretensions and astral connections they're basically stunts -- and my feelings about Jellyfish are much the same. But this film is handsomely made, and I won't soon forget the almost Jungian image of a wide-eyed child -- emerging from the sea with a red and white lifesaver around her little belly.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

When I ask myself what it is that these women in the movie want, I come up with bubkes.

Film Threat Phil Hall

Although it runs 78 minutes, it feels like 78 hours.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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Jellyfish Zeitgeist Films

Jellyfish
Zeitgeist Films