Cast: Jonah Feingold

Written and Directed By: Jonah Feingold

release year: 2025

Studio/Streamer: Level 33

*There Is no Known Audio description For this title*

What is it?: Leo is just looking for love, and is in the middle of a situationship. he’d like it to be more, but alas, he’s unlucky in true love. when he runs into an old classmate, he thinks he knows where hope may lie. In order to get back in the game, he decides to finally have his bar mitzvah at 30 years old, and for his mitzvah, he’s going to find a real relationship. Hopefully.

What Works: this was as easy and breezy as cover girl. Level 33 doesn’t always have films that strike my fancy, but I’m glad I went with this. If we don’t review films like this, they go to Tubi and get lost in the algorithm. 31 candles is smart, funny, mostly well shot, and well acted. It felt a lot like two other films from this year, the Baltimorons and Splitsville, which feature a man in some form of crisis with their relationship and doing something extravagant to fix being stuck. Feingold does a lovely job doing three things, and is an engaging lead, smart writer, and at least a competent director.

I would say that he overuses the inner monologues, and the budgetary constraints showed the most in the audio quality of the ADR overlay for these monologues. Hell, knowing what I know now, I would have just ferris beueller’d the whole thing and had him break the fourth wall. At least he wouldn’t have needed to record and mix his thoughts.

The supporting cast is also surprisingly solid in their roles, and there are even a few character actors in bit parts to help make the film feel a little less like a well shot student film. Even if this was a student film, it shows was Feingold is capable of, and he really should be moving up the ladder in Hollywood, with his next feature getting more funding, broader distribution, and maybe even an A-list co-star. He’s ready for his close up.

However, since the bulk of my audience is blind, I also would caution blind/low vision users about actually paying for this. the lack of accessibility is just a thing I expected from level 33, and while I hope they change in the future, it does make me say wait until it appears on a streaming service you subscribe to. The rest of you, go support this. films like this are released all the time, and fail to ever get a substantial platform to find a new audience. If no one watches Feingold, he’ll be stuck at this level, when he’s clearly ready for the next stage.

Why You Might Like it: it is a clever and somehow fresh look at the current ways people date, and perhaps how even though people have friends with benefits, they might still want more.

Why You Might Not Like it: it is indie, and no angel producer swept in with additional funding to clean it up. Sadly, Feingold doesn’t have the Chris Stuckmann effect to get additional funds to make the film pass as shinier, so it just is what it is. For people used to seeing films with 200 million budgets, seeing an indie film with imperfections might be a struggle. Like, don’t double feature this with the new Avatar film.

Final thoughts: all things considered, a strong contender for best film of the year you had no idea even existed.

Fresh: Final Grade: 7.2/10