Meduzot 2007

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film is shot through with keen observations and dry wit, and has a refreshing, easygoing sense of flow. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The celebrated Israeli author Etgar Keret and his wife, screenwriter Shira Geffen, directed this luminous foray into magic realism, Tel Aviv style. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen have made a mysterious film, full of existential anxiety, in which lonely people, all connected to the sea, find ways to repair their lives. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A brief, haunting tale of three women in contemporary Tel Aviv, Jellyfish seems to float in its viewers' consciousness; you'll remember its images long afterward. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Jellyfish is the kind of film that will ring true for some viewers, while striking others as too slight and precious. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: Most of the first hour passes without much more forward motion than its namesake. But in the corners and niches of that slow development, we get to know a handful of people, crisply drawn in fast sketches. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The film has a sense of the genial absurdity of life, a whimsical appreciation of the inescapable randomness of our anything-can-happen existence, of how fragile yet resilient are the bonds that draw people together. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Marvelously inventive, often-ironic Israeli storyteller Etgar Keret and his life- and workmate, Shira Geffen, spin in Jellyfish a dreamy, arty, alluringly cockeyed tale. Read more

Jason McBride, Globe and Mail: Thematically, it's extremely precise, and one of its most compelling themes is the failure, or uselessness, of language. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It would be easier to recommend it if only, like its characters, it didn't drift quite so easily, aimlessly knocked about by the tide. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: There's enough material here for a miniseries, but the directors keep the proceedings to 78 brisk minutes without making the viewer feel cheated. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A little piece of cinematic poetry. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: These stories have as their justification that fact that they are intrinsically interesting. I think that's enough. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I appreciated and admired the craftsmanship of Jellyfish more than I loved it, and I found its whimsical, magic-realist touches a bit cloying. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Jellyfish, with its pervasive sense of mysticism, is anything but standard, predictable storytelling. What is it exactly? Well, you might as well ask a jellyfish. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: [A] tightly constructed, cleverly stylized, serio-comic ensemble piece. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Bleakly wistful, regarding its essentially lonely characters with a gaze both tender and lethal. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Provides a diverting portrait of modern-day Israel, as the filmmakers eschew history, politics and religion to focus instead on more intimate and universal issues of fate, loss and the longing to connect. Read more