Mendy

Adam Vardy's earnest but predictable drama focuses on the titular young Brooklyn-based Hasidic Jew, who reconnects with an old friend named Yankel, a man who has rejected the insular world of Hasidism and is sharing an apartment with a black Brazilian woman named Bianca (a former stripper studying choreography at New York University), with whom Mendy winds up falling in love. Despite sincere performances by Ivan Sandomire as Mendy and Gabriela Dias as Bianca, Mendy's characters are strictly one-dimensional stereotypes—the sheltered, unsophisticated Hasid and the sultry, world-weary Brazilian stripper-turned-dancer—and variations of their opposites-attract story have been told many times before (it also doesn't help that this low-budget production looks dreadfully cheap). In fact, the only truly organic energy here comes from Spencer Chandler as Yankel, the tattooed, barhopping ex-Hasid who embraces secular life with a vengeance. It's a shame the film didn't focus on his journey rather than the plodding misadventures of Mendy. Not recommended. (P. Hall)