My Summer Lair Chapter #325: Have You Experienced A Bad Shabbos?
Shabbos is the Yiddish term for the Jewish Sabbath…a day of rest and celebration, observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. However…in Daniel Robbins’ film it’s clearly…based on the title a Bad Shabbos. Indeed things go oy vey. (Hah, last one…that’s the extent of my Yiddish.)
David (Jon Bass) and his fiancée Meg (Meghan Leathers) are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner on New York’s Upper West Side when an accidental death (or murder?) gets in the way. Dead bodies ruin so many dinner plans.
With Meg’s Catholic parents due any moment, this family dinner soon spirals into a hilarious disaster. Think of Bad Shabbos as a Jewish Meet The Parents. This time the boy is Jewish and the girl is Catholic but open to converting to Judaism. And add brisket and a dead body.
The Jewish parents are played by David Paymer and Kyra Sedgwick. They live in the Upper West in a posh building which explains how Cliff “Method Man” Smith gets involved. Meth is a doorman. Turns out he’s capable of dealing with a dead body.
(And impersonating a Jew! As you’ll hear Daniel Robbins reveals: “Halfway into the shoot Kyra Sedgwick turned to me. She’s like, you know, Method Man’s stealing the movie. And I was like: no, everyone’s amazing. Turns out the reaction to him has been through the roof.”)
Welcome filmmaker Daniel Robbins, co-writer and director of Bad Shabbos—a sharp, fast-paced wonderfully inappropriate comedy where a simple and traditional Friday night Shabbos dinner turns into a Jewish I guess Knives Out situation.
Yes, there’s a dead body in the bathroom however that’s not what makes this Sabbath dinner stressful.
David has been introducing his Catholic fiancée Meg to his Jewish traditions. And finally…tonight Meg is gonna introduce her parents, a Catholic family from Wisconsin to David’s Jewish family and their noble religious traditions. Oh and of course as an added bonus…their dysfunctional family dramas. That’s an all-inclusive package.
Helping to tamp down the drama while also dealing with the dead body is an intrepid doorman played by Method Man. Wu-Tang!
Religious traditions! Cultural collisions! And Method Man who at one point impersonates a Jew and in trying to be culturally sensitive, thoughtfully shares where he keeps his foreskin. It’s quickly apparent that while the doorman is good at dealing with mysterious dead bodies he’s not well-versed in Judaism.
You can always mine culture for comedy because so much of what we do as culture is…weird.
Bad Shabbos won the Audience Award at Tribeca.
It’s opening in limited release in Toronto and Vancouver and New York City and LA. Check the link for the #PantsWorthy list.
Here’s my conversation with Daniel…stay tuned towards the end because I ask him about Method Man…turns out Meth improvised a number of specific locations where he keeps his foreskin.
I think my favorite one that didn’t make the final movie cut is the Maroon 5 bit. Wait for that.
Bad Shabbos also stars Milana Vayntrub, Theo Taplitz, Catherine Curtin and John Bedford Lloyd.
Bad Shabbos @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Friday, May 16, 2025 at 3:30 pm (EST)
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