The Jewish day of rest. In the United States, it begins on Friday evening at sundown and ends 24 hours later. Typically, families get together to celebrate Shabbos by having an elaborate meal on Friday. Of course, spending time with one's family always presents unique challenges, especially if you don't actually like your family. Well... it isn't that they don't like each other, in this case, Adam (Theo Taplitz; Showing Up) doesn't like Abby's (Milana Vayntrub; This is Us) boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman; Succession). However, things go horribly wrong when Adam plays a seemingly harmless prank on Benjamin, and a typical family meal becomes a really Bad Shabbos.
This Friday night isn't like every other Friday night at David's (Jon Bass; Molly's Game) family's Shabbat dinner. This Friday night, David's fiancé, Meg (Meghan Leathers; For All Mankind), and her Midwestern, Christian parents are coming to meet their daughter's future in-laws, Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick; The Closer) and Richard (David Paymer; The American President), for the first time. Thanks to Adam's "prank," the entire family, and some unwitting accomplices, are suddenly thrown into a tailspin, formulate a plan, and desperately try to get rid of Meg's folks before it all unravels.
Even though this is an ensemble cast, each member contributes something unique to the film. Sedgwick can communicate without ever uttering a word by simply staring at the other actors. Bass is outwardly calm and cool while the audience can tell he is screaming on the inside. Leathers is a bundle of nerves between her future mother-in-law's disapproval and her need for her and David to please parents. Tapiltz, Zukerman, and Paymer all play their parts well, and then there is the surprise of Cliff "Method Man" Smith (Garden State) stealing a few of the scenes he is in. I'm sure if someone had told him ten years ago that he would be in a sweater vest, wearing a yarmulke, and discussing Ethiopian Jews in a movie, he would have laughed at them. Yet, surprisingly, he pulls it off well.
Known for the horror film Pledge, co-writer and director Daniel Robbins based the story on co-writer Zack Weiner's Shabbos dinners where family and friends would often play practical jokes on one another. The two expanded the idea to "What if one of those practical jokes went wrong?" Based on this premise, Robbins' ideas manage to work well after a somewhat slow start. Also, the funniest moments don't come until well into the third act, so, while there is a chuckle or two sprinkled here and there, the viewer needs to sit through "the meal" to get to the payoff. Robbins also had a challenge, as most of the movie takes place in a two-story apartment in Manhattan that doesn't allow for much maneuvering of cameras and furniture. Miraculously, he still manages to get a variety of angles from which to tell the different components of this story.
As a storyteller, Robbins has a keen eye for flow and angles, which is why Bad Shabbos won the Audience Award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. The story could be interpreted in two different ways depending on the lens through which you view it. Many Jews will identify with the familiar tone of the traditional Friday night meal and how the members of the family interact with one another. Others, with a different sensibility, might look at the movie as a family treating their guests poorly while trying to cover up a crime.
In the end, the movie will more than likely invoke an emotional response from the viewers, and as a filmmaker, you can't ask for much more.
Grade: B
