The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1990)

The early 1960s In preparation for his Bar Mitzvah a Jewish boy Max Glick Noam Zylberman from a small Manitoba community with an overbearing family tries to navigate his comingofage with his familys condescension and bigotry using his sarcastic Jewish humour The towns rabbi dies and a subplot develops in which Maxs father Aaron Schwartz and grandfather Jan Rubesboth synagogue leadersare saddled with a traditional Hassidic rabbi who sticks out like a sore thumb among the otherwise assimilated Jewish community To make matters more difficult Max likes a Catholic girl 14 year old Fairuza Baulk in just her third film whom he later competes with in a piano competition The quirky funloving rabbi tries to help him with his problems yet harbours a secret ambition of his own Filmed in Winnipeg and rural Beausejour Manitoba Canada