Toronto: ‘Peep World’
What’s a film festival without a film about a dysfunctional Jewish family or two? Monday it was “Barney’s Version” and today it’s Barry Blaustein’s “Peep World,” as the royally screwed-up Meyerwitz family gathers to celebrate the 70th birthday of its nasty and very wealthy L.A. real estate mogul Henry (Ron Rifkin).
Oy, what a bunch of misfits. The only success is the smug, condescending youngest son (Ben Schwartz), who has written a vicious novel that’s a thinly disguised portrait of his siblings, a porn-addicted failed architect (Michael C. Hall), a failed lawyer (Rainn Wilson in a relatively serious performance) with substance abuse issues and a failed actress (Sarah Silverman). The latter is suing her novelist brother, whose book is being filmed outside her husband, starring her father’s new girlfiend.
“Peep World” is basically a farce, and not a particularly subtle one. Particularly good are Leslie Ann Warren as Henry’s ex-husband and Kate Mara as a publicist who helps the novelist cope with the particularly graphic result of a treatment for erectile dysfunction.
Look for “Peep World,” which is seeking U.S. distribution, on the Jewish film festival circuit.

