Dinner In America Review

3 stars of black comedy coming-of-age film.

Dinner In America is written and directed by Adam Rehmeier (Jonas, The Bunny Game) and produced by Ben Stiller (Zoolander, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). It is a gritty and uncompromising comedy, exploring the realities of finding your feet in the world.

“I knew I recognized you. You were in my musical appreciation course at the J.C. before I quit. Professor Babcock threw a stapler at you.”

Simon (Kyle Gallner – American Snipers, The Finest Hours) is a young punk rocker, living on the fringes of society and often on the wrong side of the law. As the film opens we see him taking part in a drugs trial, which is he is kicked out of, due in large part to fellow participant Beth (Hannah Marks – Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency).

She takes him home to meet her family, and after an awkward dinner he takes a fancy to her mum and things go downhill from there. The evening finishes with him doing what he likes best, setting fire to the front of the house. The police are called and he’s on the run again.

While avoiding the police, he stumbles across Patty (Emily Skeggs – Salem), recently sacked from her job cleaning out animal cages at the local pet-shop.

Patty is a sheltered and socially awkward twenty year old, who’s only fun in life is listening to her favourite punk rock band Psyops and sending extremely dubious letters and photo’s to the lead singer  John ‘Q’.

In an astonishing (and deeply unlikely) twist of fate, the two find they have more in common than either of them could possibly have imagined, as they embark on a destructive yet enlightening adventure together.

Dinner In America is an interesting film. Simon is deeply unlikable and brings nothing but trouble to everyone he comes across, with the exception of Patty, to whom he takes a shine. Patty is sweet (ish) and naive and about to be taught about life by probably the worst person you could think of. The acting is absolutely superb throughout and makes these two larger than life characters totally believable.

It’s a pretty damning look at American society and very difficult to watch in places, however once they eventually start to get to the music, the whole thing suddenly comes to life. If you’re not too sensitive then this one is well worth a watch.

“You need to take it down a notch.”

DINNER IN AMERICA is streaming on ARROW and available to buy or rent on all digital platforms in the UK from 1^st June

Dinner In America is available on:

ARROW, Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Sky Store, Microsoft, Kanopy

£9.99 to buy

£5.49 to rent

Subscriptions are available for £4.99 monthly or £49.99 annually
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