Bad Shabbos (2024)

This saw limited release in December last year, as reflected by a Christmas tree on screen, but got wide release in late May. Now a local theater has been hosting a Jewish film festival. Thanks to my mom for calling my attention while I'm in the area.

Observant Jew David (Jon Bass) is engaged to Meg (Meghan Leathers), who is preparing to convert. He invites her and her Wisconsin Catholic parents, John (John Bedford Lloyd) and Beth (Catherine Curtin) to a Friday night dinner at the New York City apartment of his parents, Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick) and Irv (Stephen Singer), where they'll also meet his brother, Adam (Theo Taplitz); his sister, Abby (Milana Vayntrub); and Abby's boyfriend, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman). Perhaps it's just as well that Meg's parents are running late, because Adam pulls a prank that accidentally kills Benjamin. Not wishing to get Adam in trouble, his family conspires with Meg and friendly doorman Jordan (Cliff "Method Man" Smith) to hide Benjamin, hurry dinner along, and whisk Benjamin to his apartment before a less friendly doorman (Alok Tewari) starts his shift.

Don't feel too sorry about Benjamin. He's a jerk who feigns (or perhaps believes in) his innocence, especially with regard to Adam. Even Abby won't miss him, because she'd been waiting for an ideal moment to dump him. Not to say I'd have agreed to the criminal scheme, even if Adam had a promising life outside of lockup.

Religion plays a bigger part in the plot than I implied above. The main family passes irregular behavior off as Jewish customs, counting on John and Beth not to know better. On the other hand, Jews aren't supposed to do labor like moving bodies on the Sabbath. Ellen and Irv are almost as concerned about that as about the prospect of arrest.

As a farce, it reminds me a bit of Death at a Funeral (2007, not 2010), only with a single plotline. Thankfully, the bathroom humor is a little less gross. The runtime is slightly shorter too, at 84 minutes, reflecting fairly rapid delivery.

If you're a gentile, don't worry: The filmmakers don't presuppose much knowledge of Judaism. Jordan could have found the whole thing funny if he weren't involved. But yes, being of both Jewish and Christian stock, I probably get a little more out of it than the average viewer.

I'm sure my parents would enjoy it at least as much. Too bad they couldn't come with me.