DVD: Holy Rollers (15)

Will Dean
Monday 24 October 2011 17:50 BST
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Holy Rollers is a typical smart-kid-gets-sucked-into-crime drama. Only, rather than a smart-talking Italian teen or a Cuban refugee, Jesse Eisenberg's Samuel is a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn.

The crime itself – a drug deal using naive young Hasids to smuggle "medicine" (ecstasy) from Amsterdam – is used as a frame for Samuel to examine his orthodox life. The further he slips into the world of Amsterdam nightclubs et al, the further he gets away from his faith, his friends and his family. And even though Samuel gets the comeuppance the viewer expects, it's not overly clear whether that the orthodox religious life is more beneficial . It's "orthodox kids go smuggling" rather than a proper exploration of lost faith.

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