Pinsky

A quirky charmer set in Boston’s Russian-Jewish community, Pinsky stars Rebecca Karpovsky as Sophia, a twentysomething lesbian with a hint of Harpo Marx. In a short period of time, she breaks up with her girlfriend and loses her beloved grandfather (who drops dead on a walk). That one-two punch sends Sophia reeling and back to living with her estranged grandmother (Larisa Popova), who is more than happy to see Sophia’s return as evidence that the latter was never really gay and is ready to be fixed up with Trevor (Jacob Brandt), who knows perfectly well that Sophia is not interested in men. As overbearing babushkas go, Popova’s martyr-despot grandmother character has a chokehold on the free wills of family members, but Sophia tends to make that easy by living with no fire or direction. Co-written and directed by Amanda Lundquist, Pinsky is a loose-limbed, breezy film with eccentric edges that include Sophia’s impulsive debut as a standup comic. And while it often flirts with absurdity, Karpovsky’s appealing performance makes it all worthwhile. Recommended. (T. Keogh)