In these days of relentlessly depressing news, a good comedy comes as a welcome relief and this is such a film.
It is about an observant Jewish family in New York who host a Sabbath dinner to meet the Midwestern Catholic parents of their son’s fiancée, when something happens that leads to the evening going completely awry.
The humor depends on some extent on the practices of observant Jews on the Sabbath, especially the many restrictions on what you can do, but I thought that it was not offensive. But then, I am not Jewish and hence not the best judge.
Here’s the trailer.
“The humor depends on some extent on the practices of observant Jews”
Oh, good. It’s such an obscure culture, it’s good to see it being portrayed in media finally.
method man?
‘Method Man’ the stage name of Clifford Smith Jr, is a member of the Wu Tang Clan and also half of the duo Method Man & Redman. I have never seen him act before but he was really good.
i liked his film “how high,” at least, as much of it as i can remember. i think he played an evil genie on one episode of a horror tv show a real long time ago. of course, i could just look at wikipedia or the imdb, but it’s more fun to go by memory. as much of it as i can remember.
The trailer makes it look like this tvtrope is happening:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro
My guess it that you’d have to know about what was going on ahead of time, because I didn’t understand the trailer well enough to decide whether I would like the movie or not.
seachange @#5,
No, it is not that trope. There is no spiritual journey for anyone, it is a straight up farce. Method Man plays the doorman of the apartment building who gets dragged into the chaos and is asked to help out with a specific problem that the apartment residents face.
# 1
Possibly the least surprising comment in the history of the blog?
Okay, I watched it and it’s very good. It starts with the gentle humour of an an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but when “Benjamin” shows up at Shabbos it really hits its stride and becomes laugh out loud funny.
Ignore the sarcastic anti-semitism that started this thread -- unless you’re Jewish you don’t know all the rules surrounding Shabbos, and the movie has fun with that.
The only actual Jewish stereotype I would say is the dad, but even then it comes across as something to make Jewish people laugh, not gentiles. It’s affectionate, not mocking.
I thank Mano for the suggestion. Don’t expect the greatest comedy you ever saw, but for a pleasant laugh for the evening it hits the spot.