Josh and “Jake” Kornbluth (Anthony Nemirovsky) in “Love and Taxes”
Love and Taxes:
Freewheeling the IRS
by Jamie Jobb
Our dog answered a casting call a dozen years ago for "Love and Taxes", the new comedy by Berkeley's Kornbluth Brothers which premiered at the recent San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. That entire "dog scene" consists of two shots covering a quick aside in Josh Kornbluth's typically baroque narrative.
Basing their films on Josh’s stage-tested scripts, the Kornbluths are radical cinematic improvisers well rooted in Bay Area street theater/free speech traditions. Who knew they grew up in New York?!? Together the brothers have cross-bred a West Coast hybrid of that old East Coast movie mope and trope, Woody Allen, whom we recall made a film called “Love and Death” over forty years ago.
The Kornbluths are very funny, upbeat guys capable of making their own hilarious movie magic. My wife and I saw that ourselves on the set of “Love and Taxes”. If we were Jewish, we’d say the boys are quite “friviling” (Yiddish expression, look it up!) Yes, and they’re seriously frivolous as well.
Who else could pull off a location shoot involving two dozen canines obediently following Josh on a San Francisco sidewalk next door to a huge Asian wedding in the Fashion District? We marveled at the ordered chaos created by their handful of crew, led by cinematographer Hiro Narita (“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”).
The tail end of our Tibetan Terrier (not Jewish) is all that appears on screen in a quick cutaway lasting a split-second. Of course it took all day to shoot that short clip when Bailiff Bailiwick, Esq. (incorrectly spelled in his screen credit) was a pup. The independent production itself took seven years to complete – telling a story that took another seven years to develop. Like all Kornbluth pictures, everything feels vaguely Biblical, yet profoundly comical.
“Love and Taxes” is a "coming-of-middle-age story", as the brothers like to call it, built around scenes growing out of performance video of Josh’s monologue of the same title. The older brother has written at least six staged monologues which he regularly performs across the country, sometimes in solo repertory! An outlandish feat for any performer, Josh keeps repeating it!
Furthermore, his theater career overshadows his two-year stint hosting the most informative tv talk show many of us ever saw, KQED’s “The Josh Kornbluth Show”. He actually read the books written by folks he interviewed, and more often than not, he’d suggest topics for further books with his insightful questions posed to these very same authors! As an homage to Bay Area man-in-the-street radio legend Mal Sharpe, his show also included “Wandering Josh” segments. Imagine Woody Allen exposing himself to public comment on the street like that!
Meanwhile, Jacob Kornbluth's development as a truly original independent film director is every bit as randomly organic as his brother’s development as a 21st Century Will Rogers. When Jake (pictured below) showed up on Josh’s doorstep homeless with no skills and no prospects, he collapsed onto a futon where he remained motionless for several days. As the film points out, Josh could tell his young brother was alive because the pizza he placed near Jake’s mouth upon leaving the apartment was gone when Josh returned. It’s alive, It’s alive!
brother Jacob behind camera
The pleasant paradox of “Love and Taxes” is that one brother (the writer) actually plays an exaggerated version of himself while the other brother (the director) casts someone else – the very funny Anthony Nemirovsky – to play an exaggerated version of himself! This wrap-around screen logic pervades the whole film and allows the brothers to jump-cut scenes from the graphically-designed stage show with scenes of the “live” story filmed around town using the same material, but with actors expressing the lines instead of Josh.
Another Kornbluth strength is their ensemble approach to casting. Enmeshed in the Bay Area theater scene, they know fine actors. Helen Shumaker was terrific as Marlina D’Amore, Josh’s boss in “Haiku Tunnel”, the brothers’ first film. In the new film she plays Mo who takes Josh for his tax ride! Sarah Overman is totally terrific as Sara, Josh’s would-be-wife, if only he’d pay his back taxes. Sarah also sparkled as hyper-sexed Julie Faustino in “Haiku Tunnel”.
This is an oddly coherent true romance of Love and Taxes, of course. But also it’s a touching tale of Options and Duty. Signatures and Fatherhood. Civics and Pay Back. Not to mention a "bun in the oven".
And the film ends in a singularly profound moment which must be seen in a theater with an audience to fully experience its resonance. It’s a summary emotional moment too strong for “spoiler alerts” because it’s far too complex to explain in words on a page.
Josh Kornbluth – Pack Leader – from “Love and Taxes” dog scene
Kornbluth Cited in Tax Code
In 2004, Josh Kornbluth got a call from a United States Tax Court Judge who said he’d cited a scene from “Love and Taxes” in a judicial opinion he had just completed. Said scene involves a former IRS Commissioner who resorts to invective when he learns Josh hasn’t paid his taxes for seven years. The Commissioner calls Josh a "pisher". The tax judge opined that his was the first known instance in American jurisprudence of that Yiddish word’s usage in a judicial opinion.
Josh Kornbluth expresses himself boldly through his wife’s bespoke shirts
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