Kevin Asch's "Holy Rollers" tells the story of a group of Hasidic Jews recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from the Netherlands to the United States. In addition to the main story, there's also a look into the Hasidic world. The main character Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg) is expected to marry a woman chosen for him, and he is shown to be afraid to touch a woman not chosen for him. The movie shows the Hasidim having a lifestyle very similar to the evangelical Christians. The look at Sam's life keeps the audience interested in him, but most of the characters aren't really developed enough. Even so, the movie mostly held my attention, both as a look at the drug smuggling story, and a look at the Hasidic culture. Worth seeing.

This relatively short (1h 25min) movie is inspired by actual events in the 1990ies when Hasidic Jews were recruited as "mules" to smuggle ecstasy from Europe (mostly from The Netherlands) into the United States. The introductory part of the screenplay, however, is too long - I mean the events prior to smuggling process. On the other hand, the movie gives a good overview of customs and habits of Orthodox Jews - definitely interesting for non-Jews - and manners of recruiting people for illegal trafficking. The club scenes seem a bit lengthy though... Well done anyway, and the director Kevin Asch won the Breakthrough Director Award at the 2010 Gotham Awards.

Jesse Eisenberg gives his best performance so far - and so different from the one in Social Network, for which he has been praised higher. His interpretation of Sam/Schmuel Gold, a mild-manner 20-year old youngster gradually becoming a smuggling activist, is so convincing and at times funny - although there is always tough and troubled background visible. Justin Bartha, Ari Graynor and Danny Abeckaser are also worth mentioning, going with the atmosphere.

A recommendable movie - and a warning against involvement into illegal trafficking and drug use.

Absolutely awful and boring. It's a wannabe film. A wannabe 'Goodfellas' that came off more like 'The Outsiders' with Hasidic Jews and Israelis. The fact that it's based on a true story is the only way they got this film made. Maybe it could have been interesting if it was told differently but it wasn't. You don't like the main guy you just want to smack him on the head for being such a dumb a**. In fact, you don't like anyone in this film. People don't go to movies to see a bunch of people they don't like in a boring story. It could have been interesting but it wasn't. You really have to wonder what Jesse Eisenberg is doing with his career if he goes from good hit films to this indie turd. Overall, badly written, badly directed. After the Jesus camp horror film he did, maybe he's trying to hit a religious gambit of poor films. It was clear that this film was trying to be poignant and edgy and it was your film student types who thought they could really shake things up with an "unheard of" true story. They sat around drinking beers talking about how they were going to get all of these awards, etc. It's a predictable glory piece that's banking on the fact that the subject matter will get it some awards and out there because Jewish films always get recognition. But, let's face it, if most of the judges at the Olympics were Russian, the Russians would always win. That's just how things go. It just seems that the film makers could have used their time to make something a little less trite. Maybe they should take the Robert Carnegie class or read something on how to develop characters and give them emotional depth. This film was completely void of that. It was just people going from place to place doing stupid and bad stuff. That's it. That's not a movie, that's a newspaper article.