Film

Minyan

Name: Minyan
Genre: Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Samuel H. Levine, Ron Rifkin, Christopher McCann, Richard Topol, Mark Margolis

Coming-of-age

A quietly urgent 1980s New York drama about a young Russian Jewish boy caught between tradition and desire. When he discovers two closeted men living in his grandfather's building, an unlikely friendship opens questions about faith, identity, and what it means to belong. Intimate and patient, for viewers who prefer depth to drama.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet coming-of-age stories where faith and desire pull against each other inside a tight community, and you don't mind a slow, observant build.

Skip it if you need the faith and sexuality conflict to move fast, because this is a patient, low-key drama that lingers in rooms and lets its dilemmas sit.

What it asks of you: Expect a running time of nearly two hours, with long unhurried scenes in the senior complex and a gentle, melancholy register that rewards stillness more than momentum.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Call Me by Your Name2017

A lyrical, sensual exploration of first desire and identity set in Italy's countryside. Like Minyan, it finds tenderness in constraint and argues that love—in all its forms—is spiritual.

But The pacing is languid to the point of abstraction, and if you're looking for plot momentum, you'll be disappointed.

The Half of It2020

A smart, gentle comedy about a teen writing love letters for someone else while sorting her own feelings. Shares Minyan's warmth, its sense of humor about identity, and its faith in conversation as intimacy.

But It's lighter in tone—some viewers want weightier material about these subjects, which this isn't trying to be.

Prayers for the Stolen2021

A tender portrait of girlhood under duress, where a tight community of women and girls hold each other up. Shares Minyan's attention to how identity forms within constraint and tradition.

But It's set in rural Mexico during cartel violence, which casts a much darker shadow than Minyan's story carries.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Minyan

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chungking Express1994

Both films believe that belonging happens quietly, through presence and attention rather than declaration. Both find profound connection between people who shouldn't quite fit together.

Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong romance about fractured people finding connection in neon-lit streets. It's about loneliness, identity, and how we show love through small acts when words fail us—but in a completely different register: sensual, kinetic, almost hallucinatory.

But If you're watching for straightforward narrative or emotional clarity, you'll be lost. It's more about mood and visual poetry than plot.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black man's life learning to be himself. Like Minyan, it's a quiet meditation on identity, masculinity, and the spaces where love becomes possible.

But It's fragmented and impressionistic—if you need a traditional narrative, this won't provide one.

A Prophet2009

A young man finds transformation and identity within an unlikely community. Both films are interested in how people become themselves in spaces not designed for their becoming.

But It's set in prison and is far more violent and cynical than Minyan's worldview.

The Fits2016

A mysterious, visually striking film about a young girl seeking belonging within a dance crew. Like Minyan, it's about identity formation and the pull of community.

But It's elliptical and withholding—some viewers find it frustratingly opaque rather than thoughtfully ambiguous.

Fried Green Tomatoes1991

A deceptively gentle film about women finding power and love within a restrictive society. It has Minyan's ability to hold multiple truths at once about identity and belonging.

But The framing device is cloying, and the film softens its own radical content in ways that can feel compromised.

Torch Song1953

Joan Crawford in a melodrama about a woman discovering desire and selfhood. A relic of its era, but genuinely interested in identity beyond its own comfort.

But It's camp and dated, shot in garish Technicolor—takes real work to watch past its surface aesthetics.

A Ghost Story2017

Both films are concerned with how we haunt the places and people we love—how identity persists in memory and space, how the past clings to the present.

An uncannily moving meditation on time, loss, and what remains after we're gone, told through a sheet-covered ghost watching his old house. It shares Minyan's patience and its belief that the smallest moments can hold the deepest meaning.

But It's melancholic to the point of abstraction, and some viewers find it precious or pretentious rather than moving.

Tongues Untied1990

Both works argue that identity—especially queer and ethnic identity—requires witnesses and spaces of witness. Both show how community and desire are acts of resistance against enforced silence.

Marlon Riggs's groundbreaking documentary-essay about Black queer identity, sexuality, and community. It uses poetry, testimony, and performance to explore what it means to speak yourself into being when institutions demand your silence.

But It's explicitly sexual and political in ways that can feel confrontational; some viewers will find it didactic or uncomfortable.