Fans of last year’s spooky slow burn His House should be interested in Keith Thomas’ The Vigil as well, a bottled horror that has even more paranoid, claustrophobic dread also set against cultural values.
Menashe acts as both a faithful slice of life of ultra-Orthodox Judaism and an effective character drama from the perspective of a widower. The resonance is thin though, leaving the audience feeling lukewarm towards Joshua Z Weinstein’s otherwise efficient movie.
