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Avalon (1990)

Avalon (1990)

7.2

A family moves to America in this bittersweet, semi-autobiographical drama

Movie

United States of America
English, Yiddish
Drama
1990

TLDR

It’s a great Thanksgiving watch, but it’ll be a sad mirror of what our lives and families have become.

What it's about

In 1914, Polish Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky moved to Baltimore. Later, he tells his story to his clan, whose second and third generations make different choices to assimilate into America.

The take

For the longest time, family was everything. Traditions were maintained, opportunities were made and created for it, and the community helped each other, especially for immigrant families, who only had each other. Avalon holds plenty of the nostalgia of early 1900s America, but it’s mostly bittersweet with the way the American Dream slowly eroded the extended immigrant family, with the ever-changing times shifting each nuclear unit’s priorities, circumstances, and connection to the clan. Like seafarers seeking the titular utopic island, Avalon ponders on the way the family worked to reach for an abundance that they didn’t get to share as a whole.

What stands out

The plot can seem a bit unfocused, not being centered on Sam, so it doesn’t really follow the journey of one main character, but it makes sense considering the film is about the whole family, and the narrative feels exactly the same as our memory of our own families.

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