Weekend Movie Forecast: Brüno or Humpday

Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is about a beloved radio and television star who died in 1966 and today is barely remembered. From 1929 until 1955, The Goldbergs was one of the most popular shows on radio and television. At the center of the show was Gertrude Berg, who played the fictional Molly Goldberg, and the documentary explores her impact as an American Jewish heroine who emerged during the most difficult years for American Jews. The Onion's Noel Murray says that unlike director Aviva Kempner’s previous documentary, The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg, "her latest has too much 'life' and not enough 'times.'

"Kempner tells the story too straight, jumping from point to point without taking enough time to consider the atmosphere and implications surrounding Berg’s work. Interviewees mention in passing how Berg was a harsh boss, and how the show cautiously broached the subject of the Holocaust, and how some more assimilated Jews considered even the tame version of their culture presented on The Goldbergs to be too broad and stereotypical. Any of these threads could’ve been followed a little further, to more fully explore the era’s mindset."