Displaying items by tag: Jon Bass

BAD SHABBOS

US, 2024, 84 minutes, Colour.

Milana Vayntrub, Kyra Sedgwick, Catherine Curtin, Ashley Zuckerman, David Paymer, Jon Bass, Josh Mostel, John Bedford Lloyd, Meghan Leathers, Stephen Singer, Theo Taplitz, Cliff "Method Man" Smith.

Directed by Daniel Robbins.

A New York Jewish comedy. It opens with two elderly Jewish men walking down the street telling a joke – and that a body falling in front of them. Going back two hours…

This is a Sabbath story, the older members of the family for strict observance, the next generation not so strict. One of the sons of the family is engaged to a non-Jewish fiancee who is taking lessons in scripture. The family is expecting her parents from Wisconsin to come for the meal.

Already there are troubles. The young son, ultra-moody, wanting to join the IDF to defend Israel, doing push-ups in his room, always touchy, especially about his sister’s boyfriend. He then puts three laxative travels in the way friends drink – forgetting that he suffers from colitis, has a turn and dies. Ultimately, everybody becomes involved, a lot of dithering, a lot of anxiety, the young man continually absolving himself from all blame, the family, though irritated with him, protecting him.

Kyra Sedgwick is the mother, a variation on the tough and demanding Jewish mother, especially on her prospective gentile daughter-in-law, scenes in the kitchen. David Paymer is the father, a pleasant man, writing books, theorising about confrontations and situations, quite inadequate with the crisis. The young man and his fiancee become more involved, especially with the arrival of her parents.

They also involve the and at reception, played by Method Man, eager to help, discovering the truth, but a good friend of the father, wrapping the body, throwing it out the window to land on the garbage truck – but, of course, missing.

As the family huddled together, a detective arrives and reads a note found on the dead man’s body apologising to everyone – and the audience sees that it is being typed by the man at reception.

While it is a variation on The Trouble with Harry and Weekend with Bernie’s films, the responsibility of the young man who put the laxative tablets in the drink, and the desperate moves by the family to defend him provide black humour is also uncomfortable attitudes towards them and their responsibilities.

A pleasure to see Josh Mostel as one of the old men telling jokes.