By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Bad Shabbos, now playing in movie theaters across the country, is a good farce.
David (Jon Bass) has become engaged to a Catholic girl, Meg (Meghan Leathers), who has been studying Judaism preparatory to conversion. Now it’s time for David’s New York family to meet and host Meghan’s Wisconsin parents for a Shabbos dinner.
Tensions, already running high, are complicated with the arrival of David’s sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub) and her boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), who makes a habit of insulting David’s brother Adam (Theo Taplitz).
While dinner is being prepared and the Gelfand family awaits the arrival of Meghan’s parents, John (John Bedford Lloyd) and Beth (Catherine Curtin), Adam decides to play a practical joke on his tormenter. He crushes three laxative pills up and stirs them into Benjamin’s drink. What he doesn’t know is that Benjamin suffers with colitis. He slips making his way to the toilet, falls, and fatally hits his head.
The family goes into a full panic. David asks the doorman Jordan (Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith) to remove that day’s surveillance video of the lobby, so there won’t be any visual evidence of Benjamin’s visit. Jordan volunteers to help dispose of Benjamin’s body, but as he is doing so, the doorbell rings — Meghan’s parents finally have arrived.
As the families sit down for Shabbos dinner, the hosts pretend that everything is normal. Trying to cover up what’s happening in the bathroom near the kitchen, David’s parents make up all sorts of Jewish “traditions” to divert the attention of Meghan’s parents. They hurry the dinner so the future in-laws will leave and give them an opportunity to sneak out Benjamin’s body.
Jordan, an African-American, listening to the disastrous get-acquainted dinner, attempts to save the day by posing as the late-arriving Benjamin.
Tsuris (troubles) keep building to a climax in this 84-minute film directed by Daniel Robbins.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.