‘Bad Shabbos' is a mediocre movie
Jordan's favorite tenants are Ellen (Sedgwick) and her husband Richie (Paymer), who reside in apartment 10B with their slacker son, Adam (Theo Taplitz). Their other children, Abby (Milana Vayntrub) and David (Jon Bass), and David's fiancé, Meg (Meghan Leathers), are arriving for Shabbat dinner when the film opens. The title of the movie is a play on the 'good Shabbos' greeting everyone offers as they arrive.
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Method Man in 'Bad Shabbos.'
Menemsha Films
The entire neighborhood, including Jordan, knows that Meg's Catholic parents, John (Lloyd) and Beth (Catherine Curtin) will be meeting David's family for the first time at this dinner. They're not happy about their daughter converting to Judaism, and Ellen is equally unhappy that her eldest son isn't marrying a nice Jewish woman.
Meg's folks are coming all the way from Milwaukee. Abby's boyfriend, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), is coming from Williamsburg, which is a far shorter commute. Benjamin and Adam have a vituperative hatred of one another, which will prove fatal before a single loaf of challah is broken.
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In the screenplay by director Daniel Robbins and Zach Weiner, Jordan serves the same purpose as Winston Wolf: There's a dead body that needs to be disposed of before John and Beth arrive at the house, and time is running out. 'Bad Shabbos' shoots itself in the tuchus by telling us what happens to the dead body in the opening scene, robbing the frenetic goings-on of any suspense.
The body belongs to Benjamin, who cracks his skull when a prank pulled by Adam goes horribly awry. From here, 'Bad Shabbos' becomes an endless series of scenes where these unlikable characters bicker and fight while trying to dispose of the body. Once Jordan gets involved, the film manages some laughs and a hint of cleverness, especially during the dinner scene that serves as the centerpiece.
David Paymer and Kyra Sedgwick in 'Bad Shabbos.'
Menemsha Films
Dead body disposal comedies like this either lean into their darkness, like the dreadful Christian Slater movie, 'Very Bad Things,' or go for broad situation comedy laughs like 'Weekend at Bernie's.' This film is too chicken to aim for the former, so it has to make Benjamin a bigger louse than Adam so that our loyalties remain with a family covering up involuntary manslaughter. That ploy doesn't work, and the constant family bickering yields only intermittent chuckles instead of the desired cringe comedy shudders.
Paymer seems to be having a ball as the self-help book quoting patriarch. Bass and Vayntrub are convincing as siblings, but Taplitz is too off-putting to generate any sympathy. Sedgwick is saddled with a stereotypical role, but her character's disproving facial expressions and passive-aggressive attitude toward her future daughter-in-law ring true.
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I didn't expect the characters to turn on one another like in Danny Boyle's darker dead body comedy 'Shallow Grave.' But I also wasn't expecting the rather offensive deus ex machina or the resulting tacked on happy ending that followed it. Neither did the film any favors, because these elements felt like a cheat.
Thank goodness for Method Man, who understood the assignment and made the film watchable and fun whenever Jordan showed up. When he isn't on screen, 'Bad Shabbos' is a mediocre movie.
★★
BAD SHABBOS
Directed by Daniel Robbins. Written by Robbins, Zach Weiner. Starring Kyra Sedgwick, David Paymer, Jon Bass, Meghan Leathers, Cliff 'Method Man' Smith, Theo Taplitz, Milana Vayntrub, John Bedford Lloyd, Catherine Curtain, Ashley Zukerman. At Coolidge Corner. 84 min. Unrated (profanity)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
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