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Law enforcement officials estimate that a million pills of ecstasy were smuggled into the U.S. via Hassidic drug mules in the late ’90s. Some were aware of their situation, others chose to remain ignorant. Holy Rollers tells the mule story through the eyes of 20-year-old Sam (Jesse Eisenberg), who, when we first meet him, seems to have his life all carved out for him: He’s training to be a rabbi even though he’s not really feeling it, he works at his father’s Lower East Side fabric shop and his marriage is already arranged to a girl he has barely spoken to. To earn some extra cash, Sam gets mixed up with his neighbor, another Hassid named Yosef (Justin Bartha, playing it as cartoonishly as possible), who introduces him to the mule trade by initially telling him he’s transporting medicine. “Relax, mind your business and act Jewish,” Yosef tells Sam on his first run. Soon, Sam is helping to broker drug deals (just seeing Q-Tip call Sam’s boss a mishpocha may be worth the run time), recruiting new members to the fold and kissing lapsed Jew Rachel (Ari Graynor), even though he was forbidden to touch women scant weeks earlier. Make Sam Italian and Holy Rollers is a Goodfellas knockoff; Cuban and it’s a Scarface variation. The only problem is this film isn’t exciting enough to rest on its thriller laurels, nor is Sam’s rise and fall enough to justify it as some morality play. Just like Sam, Holy Rollers is lost in the middle.
—Molly Eichel

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Official Site: holyrollersfilm.com

Rating:	R
Director:	Kevin Asch
Cast:	Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, Danny A. Abeckaser, Ari Graynor, Jason Fuchs, Q-Tip, Bern Cohen, Mark Ivanir, Charlie Hewson, Elizabeth Marvel
Release Date:	May 21, 2010 (NY/LA), June 4, 2010 (Limited)
Running Time:	100
Distributor:	First Independent Pictures
Genre:	Drama
Advisory:	for drug content and language throughout, and brief sexual material