Dinner in America

The first 15 to 20 minutes struggled, with the cuts too sharp and the dialogue a little clunky. However, stick with it - once it got going it found a good pace with a light tone, comedic moments and some highlights that were genuinely touching. I didn't think it offered anything new in regards to the story (ultimately it's a bad boy and a 'weirdo girl') but it was so well done with thorough, fleshed out characters, that it was very hard to find anything to dislike about it. It felt genuine and, importantly, it offered something different to what gets churned out nowadays. Plus points for a catchy headline song as well.

This movie tries to do everything it can to make the audience want to switch off in the first part. It presents you with a terrible, manipulative person who'd be a danger to anybody getting close to him, and then puts him on a collision course with someone you instinctively want to protect from him.

You're just going to have to trust me that there's more that needs to unfold. Beautiful things are going to happen. It's messy and trashy, and it needs to be. You'll even end up feeling a little bit bad for having those protective feelings at first, which is going to feel unthinkable when you're in the early stages of the story. Learning what Patty wants and seeing her find it is an absolute joy.

It's a great film with some surprisingly subtle things to say about freedom and what it means to invent yourself.

Quirky, offbeat comedy centered around two intensely unconventional characters. Much of the film is spent passive aggressively or all-out aggressively railing against banality and status quo in the American suburbs but there is also a sweet, heartwarming core and a lot of charm. It did feel a little long in the 2nd half without quite as much momentum as the 1st but overall this was a really enjoyable and unusual film.

I tuned in for Kyle, who I have seen and liked in other things. The first half of this movie had me squirming, with the opening scene being particularly hard to watch; if you're squeamish you may want to avert your eyes. Also there is a LOT of profanity. It was hard for me to see all the ill-treatment that Patty endures in her daily life (what's in all those pill boxes anyway?) I thought, do I really need to see more of this? But by the halfway point I was thoroughly invested. The "dinner in America" scenes around the family table were a hoot-did anybody recognize their own childhood here? (Take it down a notch!) Throw Simon in the mix and the whole household is upended! But a touching tenderness develops when Patty and Simon discover their hidden relationship with each other. I feel like Patty could have ditched her meds after that: Simon is her new feel-good, and it's nice to see Patty shine like that.

It's these little indie movies that restore my faith in cinema. I'm sort of guy that trawls IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes looking for new movies, but there are always ones that fly under the radar. Looking at this movie being over 4 years old now and only having over 5000 ratings on IMDB is quite sad. No doubt it will gather an audience over the years, but someone should release it on a streaming platform or something to get it more exposure. Its basically a James Dean for the 2020's, but much funnier. Although rough on the outside it's actually a feel good movie. Was very impressed with the direction and the 2 main lead's. To be honest, thought they were better performances than those who just won Oscars this year.