Holy Rollers

After Jesse Eisenberg was Oscar-nominated for ‘The Social Network’, it became inevitable that this dreary drugsploitation drama – given a limited release in the US last summer – would finally find its way into UK cinemas. It’s an overfamiliar tale – an innocent young man is lured into the lucrative world of drug smuggling and lives the high life for a brief time before it comes crashing down – with the added twist that the lead characters are observant Hasidic Jews. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ‘Holy Rollers’: the plot ticks along, Eisenberg is comfortable in the lead and first-timer Kevin Asch directs with confidence. But equally, there’s nothing we’ve not seen before in the likes of ‘Blow’ and ‘Goodfellas’: cue the glitzy nightclubs, raging parties, heavy comedowns, trips to fashionable European destinations, the off-limits boss’s girlfriend making eyes at our hapless hero and the inevitable clampdown by the forces of law and order. This is moviemaking on autopilot.