Rating: NR | Runtime: 84 minutes
Release Date: May 23rd, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Menemsha Films
Director(s): Daniel Robbins
Writer(s): Zack Weiner & Daniel Robbins

We should’ve eloped.

David’s (Jon Bass) family still gets together every Friday night for Shabbat dinner regardless of the arguments and shouting matches that ultimately ensue. They’re all still in New York and it’s an excuse to be with family, uphold tradition, and enjoy the often-explosive entertainment as long as they aren’t the one embroiled in that evening’s squabble. But this weekend is different and demands a modicum of restraint since David’s fiancé Meg’s (Meghan Leathers) Catholic parents are coming all the way from Wisconsin to join them. So, they’re each a bit on-edge imagining just how bad things might get.

Rather than simply engage with the odd couple antics of entitled Christians (John Bedford Lloyd’s John and Catherine Curtin’s Beth) crashing a volatile yet loving table of Jews, however, Bad Shabbos director Daniel Robbins and co-writer Zack Weiner introduce a more pressing event to the fold by way of the appearance of a dead body. And, due to the circumstances surrounding this death implicating a member of David’s family in manslaughter, they must decide what to do. Call the police and risk one of them going to prison? Or attempt moving the body so it can be found days later as just another proverbial “New York death” and risk everyone going to jail?

David votes police. His younger brother Adam (Theo Taplitz) implores him to reconsider. Their sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub) is justifiably enraged while Dad (David Paymer’s Richard) desperately looks to his latest fad of “nonviolent conversation” to guide him through the chaos as Mom (Kyra Sedgwick’s Ellen) prays for the whole ordeal to be over. They don’t have much time to argue through it, though, since they’re up against two ticking clocks. One is the impending arrival of Meg’s parents and the other is the start of the night doorman’s (Alok Tewari’s Cano) shift. Because the only way to make not calling the police work is with help from their daytime doorman friend Jordan (Cliff “Method Man” Smith).

What follows is a fast-paced, irreverent romp as they run around trying to get themselves out of this impossible situation. Everyone’s quirks become both a means towards pushing the plan forward and an inevitable hiccup ensuring things get worse before they can get better. It takes almost twenty minutes just for everyone to learn about the body due to only one character being trusted with that information at a time. The hope is that the next will have the correct answer, but this scenario not having a correct answer means another candidate must be brought up to speed. And all bets are off once John and Beth enter the room.

The premise for everyone coming together being religious allows for a nice mix of jokes at Judaism’s expense and sweet moments of a family’s love seen through its traditions (and in spite of them). Because beyond the corpse is a story about inclusion and the many ways in which we exploit religion as a means to bolster inherent prejudices. Yes, we see this in a broad way via John’s inability to do the bare minimum as a guest in a Jewish home. But it’s also seen with impactful nuance via Ellen’s inherent mistrust in her son marrying a non-Jew—despite Meg literally converting to Judaism to ease that worry. We’re so quick to judge and lord our superiority that we can refuse to accept what our eyes see.

This is very much an actor’s film as a result because the tone and subject matter could quickly turn towards bigotry if not for how each performance delivers its dialogue born from knee-jerk impulse. Lloyd and Curtin toe the line perfectly to stay on the side of ignorance rather than hate. Paymer and Bass expertly glide between clichéd neuroses and situational panic to never fall into stereotype. Vayntrub and Taplitz provide opposite spectrums of support via her need for convenience causing her reverence to wane and his search for identity driving him to overcompensate. And Method Man unsurprisingly steals the show as the outsider holding as much potential for salvation as ruin once he lets his Judaism fanboy out.

It’s a fun ride through a familiar comedic premise using specific cultural touchstones to foster a uniquely singular sensibility. Credit the filmmakers too for never holding piety above the absurdity of the premise. The goal is to show how much this family loves each other, but that shouldn’t erase the fact they can still also be bad people. Sure, the dead body belongs to someone Robbins and Weiner go out of their way to ensure we know is no great loss, but we’re still talking about a person. Their job isn’t to redeem their characters, though. It’s to set them on a path that entertains while supplying enough growth to invest in their success. I like when a script isn’t afraid to break an egg for its omelet without worrying about needing to retroactively save that egg too.

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The cast of BAD SHABBOS; courtesy of Menemsha Films.