Quando Comemos?

The central themes are universal (dysfunctional family, holidays gone wrong), but the story unfolds in the unique setting of a passover dinner--which I believe is a movie first. The filmmakers wisely put a non-Jew at the table to make us non-Jews feel at home. The characters are well-developed and convincing--a real feat in a story about a family that includes a sex surrogate, an autistic teen, a Hasidic Jew, a lesbian half-sister, and a stoner. Fantastic cast. Michael Lerner is wonderful as the father. He plays a wide emotional range very convincingly. Why hasn't this guy been in more great roles? This film really gives him a chance to shine. Ben Feldman, Cynda Williams and Meredith Scott Lynn also give great performances. Stunning visual effects and a great soundtrack.

When Do We Eat? is a wonderful movie. It's very comical and smartly done. I'm not Jewish, but I definitely related to the craziness and abnormalities of a dysfunctional family coming together for a specific purpose or event. The acting was quite decent, of one particular actress, Shiri Appleby, who was absolutely incredible in the film. It was a very different role for her and I was pleased to see how well she did with the transition. I'm a huge fan of hers and having the opportunity to see her in a movie that she had no difficulty identifying with was great. I definitely recommend this movie and I'd love to see it again.

First movies are by definition hit and miss. They are usually self indulgent (often justifiably so) and either modest or insane. This movie is astonishingly none of those things. The movie is a mass-appeal charmer with some real touching moments blended in with the many physical comedy bits the movie uses to elicit laughs.

The laughs come easy and the viewer forgets the movie is a debut movie, filmed on a modest budget as opposed to a Hollywood blockbuster. The effects are effective, funny and just low-tech enough to fit the visionary elements of the movie. The cast demonstrates legitimacy and insight, even in performing characters that are comically extreme and yet more than on dimensional, led by memorable performances by Michael Lerner, Max Greenfield and the venerable Jack Klugman.

It's a charming movie about a Jewish experience but really, it is one that any family gathering has elements of and thus the movie is familiar to the viewer within the first minutes. The jokes are cute, accessible, funny and insulting only to the most oversensitive among the Jewish diaspora. The few Jewish in-jokes that non-Jews would wonder about are not particularly germane to the plot, but could be tightened up in the future.

You can't fake laughter. 700 saw this movie in its opening night gala world premiere at the Palm Beach Film Festival. I laughed, they laughed and hopefully, a star is born in the creative juices percolating in Salvador Litvak's head.

I got lucky and was able to sneak into a screening in Hollywood of this yet to be released film. What a great couple of hours it was! Most indie movies today aren't worth the film they are shot on. This one is a great exception. Starting with a terrific script, great performances and direction...the film also has knock out production values including some great visual effects...it's hard to believe this film was done on such a small budget. "When Do We Eat" is very funny, painfully real and has great comedic performances by Jack Klugman, Michael Lerner , Ben Feldman, Lesley Ann Warren (as good as her performance in "Victor, Victoria") and Max Greenfield. "When Do We Eat?" should be required viewing for all indie producers and directors on how to do an indie right!

A good movie about Jews for non-Jews. This movie uses humor raw, sophisticated, slapstick to detoxify Jewish stereotypes. It shows the origin of some of these stereotypes in easily understood terms: fear, lust, resentment of parents; same as everybody else. The density of jokes per minute is enormous. Sometimes two and three at a time. There is something to offend every Jew - initially. But the truth in the criticism is evident too.

Great acting performances. The actors are required to simulate so many intense emotions that a mediocre cast would have killed the movie.

Because the movie is so funny it can stand on its own as a comedy but I think Jews will come out of it happier that they are Jews and non-Jews will come out of it wanting to know Jews.