Theo Taplitz, Kyra Sedgwick, Catherine Curtin, Milana Vayntrub, John Bedford Lloyd, Meghan Leathers, Jon Bass, and David Paymer in Bad Shabbos.
Ah, family! David (Jon Bass) and Meg (Meghan Leathers) are deeply in love, and Meg is studying hard to convert to Judaism so she can join David’s family. The happy couple head to a sure-to-be-fraught Shabbos dinner where David’s very traditional Jewish parents (David Paymer playing Richard the warm but wacky dad, Kyra Sedgwick playing Ellen the witheringly icy mom) have invited Meg’s gentile parents (John Bedford Lloyd as the stoic dad, Catherine Curtin as the Midwestern nice mom) to New York from all the way in Wisconsin for both families to meet for the first time. Anticipating the various culture clashes (Jewish vs. Christian, East Coast vs. Midwest, urban vs. rural) has already left David a nervous wreck—and that’s before David and his family unexpectedly find themselves dealing with…a dead body?!
Bad Shabbos is one of those movies where one phone call probably could have solved everything in a matter of minutes, but then we wouldn’t have much of a movie, would we? Instead, bad decision after hilariously bad decision start to pile on top of each other, which would get beyond ridiculous if the cast weren’t so good at selling it. This is a fantastic ensemble all-around, particularly Bass (best-known for the Daniel Radcliffe-fronted comedy series Miracle Workers) as the perpetually exasperated people-pleaser David, Milana Vayntrub (Lily of AT&T commercial fame, also seen in the horror-comedy Werewolves Within) as his sarcastic sister Abby, and Sedgwick (The Closer) as the mom who wants everything just so—and having a gentile daughter-in-law is not “just so.” Sedgwick is wicked in the earliest scenes when David and Meg first arrive at her home, but even better as things start to fall apart and she flashes a pasted-on smile while you can see the impending nervous breakdown in her eyes. The only weak link is Theo Taplitz’s Adam, David’s little brother, who is a little underwritten as a stereotypical sullen teen. But he’s more than made up for by Method Man himself, Cliff Smith, who steals every scene he’s in as Jordan, the doorman of Richard and Ellen’s building who is maybe a little too involved in their lives.
It’s easy to see why Bad Shabbos (directed by Daniel Robbins and written by Robbins and Zack Weiner, in their third feature together) won the Audience Award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival where it debuted: granted, it has a silly, sitcom-ish premise and takes it to some ridiculous places, but it’s eager to please and packs a ton of gags into its breezy 84-minute run time. If you can just roll with the silliness, the family dynamics will almost surely make you laugh just as much as their poor decision-making makes you cringe. | Jason Green
Bad Shabbos screens as part of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:00pm at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive 10 (12657 Olive Blvd.). Tickets are $16, or $5 with a full festival pass. To purchase tickets or to check out the full festival lineup, visit jccstl.com.
