Shabbat Dinner is boring as usual for William Shore. His mother has invited two crazy hippies and their son and is doing her best to show off, his father is drunk and berating their oddball guests, and he doesn't have much in common with their son Virgo. That is, until Virgo tells him that he has just come out as gay.
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Powerful
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
A good film. amusing, well acted, reflecting, in inspired manner the univers of adults and the world of teenagers. but , in its second part, unrealistic. or forced. or expression of a too hard effort to create a clear genre to film. because something is in unfair place. the kiss is predictable. but the after scenes are not realistic. something missed for define it as the nice short film who you expect.
I guess that the coming out experience will be an evergreen subject for gay film makers but this is far from the best version of this story I've seen. The dialogue here could have used a lot of work. While the premise is fun and the film isn't too cringe-inducing, there could have been a lot more innuendo between the boys and the parent's dialogue could have been more related to what the boys were saying. If the one boy HAD come out to his parents just the previous day, there should have been some evidence of that in the parents' conversation and there wasn't. Just for laughs compare this to Boychick (2001) which is readily available on you-tube. It may just be my experience with Jewish mothers but the mother in that rings a lot truer despite the films being more than a decade older.
I'm so glad they did a smart way of adding in a tradition that I never knew about until I saw this movie. The title really stood out well in this film!The actors were even brilliant too. Chris and Dan's characters were very clear and easy to hear even if they are meant to be playing as awkward teenagers. I'm telling ya, some actors that play teen roles really make their characters too obvious whereas William and Virgo were so easily understood which keeps the storyline at its best! Although near the end, I wondered did Williams father knew the boys were having sex because the room was dark or was he drunk? That scene made me quite curious, oh well that never bothered me since the boys will be talking again ;)Well done Mr Michael Morgenstern for creating this cute lil film :D
I truly enjoyed Shabbat Dinner. It made me feel strongly. It reminded me how incredibly vulnerable I once felt about my own same-sex attraction. I also felt the same need to hide such an important part of myself from others!There is also plenty of humor in this powerful short film, which given the intensity of the subject matter is much appreciated!I also had the good fortune to meet the director, Michael Morgenstern. He mentioned Shabbat Dinner was his first film! I was amazed! If his first film is this good, I can't wait to see what else he comes up with in the future!