Jesse Eisenberg in Holy Rollers steps into the underworld

Jesse Eisenberg in Total Film magazine, April 2010.

"Jesse Eisenberg is a wise choice to play Sam Gold, a role that calls from his movement from the innocence of Eden to the evils of Sodom. He chalked up a similar role in "Solitary Man", which opens on the same day, there playing a nerdy college sophomore who is mentored by Michael Douglas's character in the ways to get around women. "Holy Rollers" takes place in 1998, with Eisenberg's role anchoring the picture as son of the owner (Mark Ivanir) of a wholesale fabric store, a boss who is not particularly interested in money but is very much concerned about doing the right thing by God. Young Sam Gold, a shy fellow who is introduced to a prospective bride (in an excellent depiction of what happens on a "first date"), is to part ways with his dad and with the Jewish community when he is seduced into a drug smuggling ring by an Israeli dealer who uses Hasidim as mules.Jessie Eisenberg, Ari Graynor and Justin Bartha attend the Variety Studio at Sundance on 25th January 2010 in Utah.

Involving also his best friend, Leon (Jason Fuchs), Sam is brought into the racket by his older brother, Yosef (Justin Bartha), then introduced to Jackie Solomon (Danny A. Abeckaser) who is the rep in Amsterdam and to the latter's party-loving girl, Rachel (Ari Graynor), who resembles a young Barbra Streisand.
As Sam becomes more worldly, going from refusing to shake Rachel's hand to kissing her passionately, later cutting his payes to resemble the look of a secular Jew, the tightly-knit community spreads rumors, resulting in the young man's ostracism.
Photographer Ben Kutchins contrasts the open society of Amsterdam with its legal prostitution trade against a scruffy New York neighborhood that is nonetheless embraced by the Hasidic community. Cosmopolitan Europe, the party scene, the Ecstasy pills, all drag Sammy into the rat-race but not without causing a battle royal within Sam's mind. Like Piper Kerman, the principal character in the memoir "Orange is the New Black", a woman who is not aware that she has crossed the line into illegal money laundering, Sam is pulled step by step into the underworld, gaining a small fortune in a short time but losing his soul". Source: www.movieweb.com

Watch next theatres "Holy Rollers" will be playing at holyrollerfilm.com