Sometimes the only comedy that seems funny is black comedy, and it’s good news for Israelis who appreciate gallows humor that Bad Shabbos, a crowd-pleasing film about an Orthodox family, opened in theaters throughout the country on Thursday.
The movie, which won the coveted Audience Award at the Tribeca Festival in 2024, has connected with mainstream audiences, but for those who actually know what it’s like to observe the Sabbath according to the tenets of Orthodox Judaism, it should be especially funny.
And if you grew up observant – especially on Manhattan’s Upper West Side – it may strike you as more of a documentary than a feature film.
It’s also the rare American-Jewish movie that may well please native-born Israelis, because it’s so off-the-charts politically incorrect. If it doesn’t offend you here and there, you may be comatose. In addition to making fun of Jews, it also plays with stereotypes of African Americans and gentiles.
It opens with two alte kakers (Josh Mostel, the son of Zero Mostel, and Stephen Singer) telling Jewish jokes on a Friday night stroll home from shul until they are interrupted with what seems like divine intervention, but which is a very earthly surprise.
It then flashes back to a few hours before the beginning of the Sabbath, as various members of a family are getting ready for a Friday night dinner. Bad Shabbos is especially adept at delineating the disparate levels of observance within this family, and of each member’s own inconsistencies.
Many think of observance as an either/or proposition, and while for some it is, for so many others, it’s complicated. The movie presents that conflict in a way that will amuse insiders without baffling outsiders. It also shows how all the characters are grappling with their religious identity and how this is a central part of what has kept Judaism alive for millennia.
On the Friday night in question, David (Jon Bass) is bringing his non-Jewish fiancée, Meg (Meghan Leathers), home. She’s in classes to convert to Judaism, and his parents have accepted her, sort of. The scene where Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick), David’s mother, micro-manages Meg cutting up watermelon is a perfect depiction of a wary mother-in-law-to-be who just can’t accept her son’s choice.
Meg’s open-minded but ignorant parents are going to meet David’s for the first time at this dinner, and you can cut the tension with a knife, although you’d better make sure it’s not a dairy knife, since Ellen is serving brisket.
Ellen is a bit of a control freak, while David’s father, Richard (David Paymer), is the kind of guy who reads self-help psychology books and then adheres to the letter of whatever law they lay down. The rest of the family ranges from quirky to certifiable.
Adam (Theo Taplitz), the youngest son, stays in his room most of the time and spends all his time exercising, getting upset about real and imagined slights, and dreaming of joining the IDF’s elite Shayetet unit, Israel’s equivalent of the Navy SEALs.
Abby (Milana Vayntrub), David and Adam’s sister, and the boyfriend with whom she has a rocky relationship, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), drive to the Shabbat dinner, but pretend to Ellen that they didn’t.
Rounding out this group is someone who feels like a family member, Jordan (Cliff “Method Man” Smith of the Wu-Tang Clan), the building’s doorman, who has bonded with Richard. He knows all about the tense family dinner that’s about to take place on his shift, and he gives David and Meg advice as they wait for the elevator.
Just minutes before Meg’s folks (Catherine Curtin and John Bedford Lloyd) are supposed to arrive, something unforeseen and potentially catastrophic happens, and the rest of the movie shows how this family circles the wagons, with the help of Jordan.
The conflicts and general silliness intensify, but at the same time some characters show strength and resourcefulness that no one imagined they possessed. And the movie ends on a sly twist that should make just about everyone smile.
The ensemble cast works well together, but the standouts are the superb character actor Paymer (Get Shorty, State and Main) as the father and Method Man (who played Cheese in The Wire) as the all-knowing doorman.
It’s a classic farce, directed by Daniel Robbins and written by him and Zack Weiner, and the laughs and twists keep coming.