BAD SHABBOS
(director/writer: Daniel Robbins; screenwriter: Zack Weiner; cinematographer: Matt Clegg; editor: Kait Plum; music: Eli Kesler; cast: David Paymer (Richard Gelfand), Cliff “Method Man” Smith (Jordan, doorman), Josh Mostel (Saul), Meghan Leathers (Meg), Kyra Sedgwick (Ellen Gelfand), Theo Taplitz (Adam), John Bedford Lloyd (John), Jon Bass (David), Milana Vayntrub (Abby), Ashley Zukerman (Benjamin), Catherine Curtin (Beth), Alok Tewari (Cano, doorman); Runtime: 84; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Adam Mitchell; Carnegie Hill Entertainment; 2024)
“Well-staged urban ethnic comedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Daniel Robbins (“Pledge”/”Citizen Weiner”) admirably directs and co-writes with Zack Weiner this well-staged urban ethnic comedy. It’s a Woody Allen-like film that gets his comedy down pat and uses the same location spots that’s his comfort zone.
It’s set on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
David (Jon Bass) is engaged to the shiksa Meg (Meghan Leathers), a Catholic from Wisconsin. She’s undergoing a conversion process to be Jewish.
The couple go for their usual Friday Sabbath dinner to his argumentative upper-class parents’ apartment in a luxury Manhattan Upper West Side building. His parents are Richard (David Paymer) and Ellen Gelfand (Kyra Sedgwick), On this occasion, her parents, John (John Bedford Lloyd) and Beth (Catherine Curtin), are also coming along, and will meet his parents for the first time.
David worries about what they will think of his boisterous parents, the Sabbath rituals and the other guests, that include his IDF loving strange younger brother Adam (Theo Taplitz), his sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub) and her playboy boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman). He’s also concerned if his control freak mother’s hostility to Meg for not being Jewish will be a turn off.
One of the guests has a fatal accident in the bathroom and is left dead on the floor, just before the expected arrival of Meg’s parents. Their doorman Jordan (Method Man) comes up with a way to cover-up the body while it’s still in the apartment so it won’t interfere with the Sabbath dinner.
There are some plot twists , some effective physical comedy, a low-key slick jazz score in the background by composer Eli Kesler, great location shots (including one of Zabars, the iconic West Side foodie hot spot) and a fine ensemble cast who know how to do zany.
It played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 1/16/2025 GRADE: B
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