Movie Review: Bad Shabbos

By John Corrado

Spending time with future in-laws can be awkward. Add an interfaith dynamic – and a freak accident – into the mix, and you have the recipe for Bad Shabbos, the entertaining and distinctly Jewish indie comedy from director Daniel Robbins.

The film, which won the Audience Award at Tribeca in 2024, centres around David (Jon Bass). David is bringing his fiancée Meg (Meghan Leathers) home for Shabbat dinner with his family. Meg is Catholic, but studying Judaism, and plans to convert.

David’s family includes his more observant mother Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick), who is just coming around to the idea of her son marrying a non-Jew, and his intellectual father Richard (David Paymer), who wants everyone to get along. There’s also David’s sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub), who brings along her corporate douche fiancé Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), and their loner younger brother Adam (Theo Taplitz), who works out in his room all day and dreams of joining the IDF.

They are gathered for a traditional Shabbat dinner in their New York City apartment. But an accident occurs that leaves a body in the bathroom, and the family scrambling to figure out what to do. Meg’s Catholic parents (Catherine Curtin and John Bedford Lloyd) are also driving in to meet the family for the first time, adding a ticking clock element to the film. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Cliff “Method Man” Smith, who steals every scene as the doorman in the family’s building.

The situation gets more absurd as the night goes on, and Robbins, who co-wrote the film with his collaborator Zack Weiner, crafts a mix of dark comedy and family drama, that takes on an almost farcical, screwball quality. Robbins and Weiner also successfully weave in elements of Jewish faith and tradition. It’s this cultural specificity that adds an especially unique flavour to Bad Shabbos. The film also very much functions as a New York comedy, shot and set entirely in the Upper West Side.

The film is short at 84 minutes, but moves at a frantic pace, unfolding almost in real time. There is a dinner table scene that maybe goes on a bit too long (which is probably sort of the point), and the film also feels a little too tidy at the end. But the cast has fun bouncing off each other, and Robbins packs in enough madcap moments to keep Bad Shabbos entertaining and enjoyable throughout.