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NEW YORK – May 23, 2025 — After delighting audiences and critics alike at the Tribeca Festival last year, the audacious black comedy Bad Shabbos officially opens in New York theaters today, with a nationwide U.S. release set for June 6.
A sharp, lightning-paced satire centered around a chaotic Shabbat dinner in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the film explores intergenerational tension, religious identity, and cultural stereotypes — all under the guise of a farcical family get-together gone spectacularly wrong.
Directed by Daniel Robbins and co-written with Zack Weiner, Bad Shabbos is already being heralded as a crowd-pleaser, with its blend of slapstick absurdity and deeply resonant themes.
Despite its Orthodox Jewish setting, the film’s relatable characters and rapid-fire humor make it accessible to audiences of all backgrounds. While it may risk offending some with its fearless jabs at cultural and religious quirks, the general consensus is that it’s a comedy with heart — and plenty of bite.
From Tribeca Winner to Theatrical Release
Having clinched the coveted Audience Award at the Tribeca Festival, Bad Shabbos comes to the big screen with significant buzz. The film’s win at Tribeca highlighted its wide appeal and strong emotional core, which struck a chord with viewers from diverse communities.
Its warm reception has been credited in large part to the deft balancing act performed by Robbins and Weiner — both Jewish filmmakers intimately familiar with the film’s setting and characters.
“People see their own families in these characters,” Robbins noted during a Q&A following the film’s Tribeca premiere. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, or atheist — everyone’s had a dinner like this, where everything that can go wrong, does.”
Plot: A Night of Mayhem and Meaning
The film begins on a deceptively quiet note, with two elderly Jewish men — portrayed by Josh Mostel (son of Zero Mostel) and Stephen Singer — strolling home from synagogue on Friday night, exchanging Yiddish jokes and reminiscing.
Their calm is shattered by an unexpected incident, setting the stage for a frenzied flashback that unfolds over the next 90 minutes.
The story rewinds to earlier that afternoon, as David (Jon Bass) prepares to introduce his non-Jewish fiancée, Meg (Meghan Leathers), to his opinionated, semi-Orthodox family over Friday night dinner.
Meg, earnest and curious, is undergoing conversion to Judaism and wants desperately to be accepted. David’s family, however, greets her efforts with varying degrees of skepticism and passive-aggressive critique.
His mother, Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick), a neurotic perfectionist and archetypal Jewish matriarch, sets the tone early with an awkward micromanaging of Meg’s watermelon slicing skills.
His father, Richard (David Paymer), a self-help book enthusiast with a penchant for rehearsed psychology talk, attempts — and often fails — to keep the peace.
As the guests arrive, including Meg’s well-meaning but out-of-place parents (Catherine Curtin and John Bedford Lloyd), the tension escalates.
The youngest son, Adam (Theo Taplitz), a sullen teen obsessed with joining Israel’s elite Shayetet naval unit, retreats to his room in a haze of protein shakes and paranoia.
Meanwhile, daughter Abby (Milana Vayntrub) arrives with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), lying to her mother about driving in on Shabbat.
In the middle of it all is Jordan, the building’s doorman, played with unexpected warmth and charisma by rapper-turned-actor Clifford “Method Man” Smith.
Jordan acts as a Greek chorus of sorts, offering streetwise wisdom and comic relief. His close friendship with Richard provides one of the film’s most unexpected emotional arcs.
A Tightrope Walk Between Satire and Affection
What makes Bad Shabbos more than just a madcap comedy is its intimate understanding of Jewish life in New York. Robbins and Weiner weave humor and heartache together in a way that reflects both the absurdities and the deep emotional ties within Jewish families.
The humor frequently flirts with offense, using broad strokes to poke fun at Jewish neuroticism, WASP cluelessness, and African American-Jewish cross-cultural dynamics. But instead of leaning into cruelty, the film handles its caricatures with affection and insight.
“The film plays with stereotypes, but it doesn’t feel mean,” said one Tribeca attendee. “It’s like when your grandma roasts you at the dinner table — brutal, but it comes from love.”
Indeed, one of the film’s most poignant moments comes when Meg delivers a dvar Torah — a brief Torah commentary — that unexpectedly silences the table.
Despite being only midway through her conversion, her insights reveal a spiritual connection deeper than some born-Jews at the table. The scene is played with sincerity and offers a touching reflection on what it means to truly belong in a faith community.
Standout Performances
The ensemble cast is uniformly strong, but David Paymer and Method Man emerge as the film’s emotional anchors. Paymer, a veteran character actor known for roles in Mr. Saturday Night, Get Shorty, and State and Main, delivers a nuanced performance as a father trying to reconcile his rigid upbringing with his children’s evolving identities.
Method Man, whose acting chops have matured significantly since his early days with Wu-Tang Clan, brings both gravitas and levity to the role of Jordan.
His scenes with Paymer offer some of the film’s most understated emotional beats, showing how genuine friendships can form in the most unlikely places — in this case, the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building.
Kyra Sedgwick, as the matriarch Ellen, walks the fine line between loving mother and overbearing nightmare, infusing her role with subtle pathos that makes her relatable, even in her worst moments.
Behind the Scenes: Authenticity Drives the Chaos
Robbins and Weiner have clearly drawn from their own experiences growing up in Jewish households and Upper West Side communities. In interviews, they’ve spoken about the importance of grounding the absurd plot twists in emotional truth.
“The story’s outrageous, but it had to feel real,” said Weiner. “We wanted people to laugh, but also to recognize their parents, siblings, or even themselves in these characters.”
The film also pays close attention to the rituals and rhythms of Orthodox Jewish life — from blessings and candle lighting to the proper handling of kosher kitchen utensils. The comedy arises not from mocking these traditions, but from the clash between generations, identities, and personalities within them.
Comparisons and Influences
Some critics have likened Bad Shabbos to the 2004 Argentine-Spanish comedy Only Human, which tackled a similarly fraught Shabbat dinner — albeit with a Palestinian fiancé and a wayward block of frozen soup. But where Only Human leaned on slapstick, Bad Shabbos feels more grounded in its specific New York Jewish setting.
Others have pointed to sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Transparent as spiritual cousins — though Bad Shabbos avoids the cynicism often associated with those shows, opting instead for something more affectionate, even in its darkest moments.
Future Plans and International Release
There is currently no confirmed release date for Bad Shabbos in Israel, but speculation is high that it will be featured in upcoming Jewish film festivals in Jerusalem or Haifa.
Given its themes and familiar cultural setting, the film would likely strike a chord with Israeli audiences navigating similar family dynamics and religious tensions.
Meanwhile, Robbins and Weiner are reportedly in early talks about a follow-up project, potentially a television series expanding on the Bad Shabbos universe — or perhaps another film delving into Jewish-American life with their trademark blend of wit and sincerity.
Conclusion: A Shabbat to Remember
Bad Shabbos succeeds by embracing both the chaos and the beauty of family life. It’s a film that will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers — especially among those sensitive to cultural self-deprecation — but its sharp script, vibrant characters, and universal themes of love, identity, and acceptance will resonate far beyond its Jewish roots.
In a cinematic landscape often dominated by reboots and franchises, Bad Shabbos stands out as a bold, funny, and heartfelt original.
Whether you’re Jewish, gentile, or somewhere in between, it’s a comedy that proves one thing: when it comes to family dinners, nobody gets out unscathed — but if you’re lucky, you’ll get a good story (and a few laughs) out of it.
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Running Time: 97 minutes
Rating: PG-13 (for language and thematic material)
Release Dates: New York – May 23, 2025 | Nationwide – June 6, 2025
Directed by: Daniel Robbins
Written by: Daniel Robbins and Zack Weiner
Starring: David Paymer, Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Bass, Meghan Leathers, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Milana Vayntrub, Ashley Zukerman, Theo Taplitz
