In March, we told you about “Bad Shabbos” when it made its local debut at the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. It played to a packed house and plenty of knowing laughs — the kind you only get when a story feels a little too close to home. Now the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner is back, this time as part of its nationwide general release. If you missed it the first time, you’ve got a second chance to see it in the theater.
A Shabbat dinner that goes from awkward to absurd
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The premise hasn’t changed, but the laughs are still fresh. David (Jon Bass) and his fiancée Meg (Meghan Leathers) are hosting their first meet-the-parents Shabbat dinner. He’s a modern Orthodox New Yorker. She’s a Catholic from Wisconsin, deep in conversion classes. The brisket’s ready, the challah’s golden and then… there’s an “accidental death” in the middle of the evening.
What follows is a rapid-fire spiral of cover-ups, panic and improv, led by David’s high-strung mother Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick) and his well-meaning but mildly hapless father Richard (David Paymer). Watching from the building’s lobby is Jordan — played by American rapper, record producer and actor Cliff “Method Man” Smith, the doorman who dispenses advice with the calm of a man who’s seen worse.
More than just Jewish in-jokes
Director Daniel Robbins shot entirely on the Upper West Side, even working in a scene at legendary deli Barney Greengrass. The humor lands whether you know the difference between milchig and fleishig or not — because at its core, “Bad Shabbos” is about family under pressure. If you’ve ever hosted a dinner where everything went wrong, you’ll feel right at home here.
The film runs just 84 minutes and of now, we can only find it playing in one St. Louis area theater: Marcus Des Peres Cinema, 12701 Manchester Rd.
