To Dust

'To Dust', is a dark comedy starring Geza Rohrig (Schmuel) and Matthew Broderick (Albert) and was featured at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It follows the quest of Orthodox Jew Schmuel to find out what actually happens to the physical body of his wife, who has recently died of cancer. Although cancer is used in many films, the 'eating one up from inside' description fits well here as Schmuel is being 'eaten up' by the conflict of his religious belief of what happens to his wife's soul, his love and longing for his wife, and the scientific facts of what happens to the physical body after death. He ventures out of his Orthodox rules and enlists the help of Community College Biology Professor Albert to explore this bodily mystery. What follows is a series of dark but funny scenes between the two men that ultimately reveal the core tenants of the movie-love, peace of mind, and acceptance. A very unique film with great performances that I hope will find the light of your local theaters.

Would have gotten nine stars except the characterization of the C.C. prof was more comical than realistic, and any half way adequate collegiate anthropology or forensic taphonomy dept. or natural history museum could have given direction to questions of decomposition. Anyway, sort-of-science meets orthodox Jew (actually an Hasidic cantor) in this at times amusing, at times heartfelt devotion, journey & discovery of soulful death. The pig (other animals have also been time lapsed filmed) cycle of returning nutrients to the earth is a film classic which brings up the question of the effects of embalming chemicals & casket materials.

This is an unknown dark comedy gem, definitely worth checking out if you are into bizarre arthouse movies. It has got a gorgeous style of direction, with a dark, yet wonderful serene kind of feel to it, which I was really impressed by!

This movie is best described as a drama comedy. The drama part is about the man's unconsolable grief about his wifes death. The comedy part is the bizarre hilarious ways in which the man tries to console himself. One way of finding consolation is by burrying a pig to literally see it rotting away in the ground. You'll understand why, if you start watching...

Yes, this all might sound bizarre and even gross, but everything is done with the utmost respect for those feelings of grief everyone experiences when a loved one dies. There are many ways of grieving and this movie portrays one the most bizarre ways of grieving I have ever witnessed.

An extraoridinary movie, although it may not be suited for the faint of hearted, it is still so magnificently subtle in direction and genuinly goodhearted in nature. Really impressive and touching story about grief.

When the R rating for this film declares disturbing images they're not kidding. The movie is a dark, absurd, and morbid comedy, as a Hasidic cantor (Geza Rohrig) becomes obsessed with trying to find out how long it will take his recently deceased wife's remains to decompose into dust so that her spirit can be free.

He will eventually team up with a reluctant community college science professor (Matthew Broderick) to try and get some answers. They will employ some highly bizarre and weird techniques to try and accomplish this.

I found most of the intended deadpan humor didn't quite work here, but as the film progressed I did find some of it darkly funny, like the scene with the security guard (Natalie E. Carter) at the Tennessee body farm.

Overall, after reading so many glowing reviews from pro critics I came away disappointed with this movie. It's not an easy watch for sure, but it also was unlike anything I can recall seeing on screen before.

Jewish or not...it doesn't matter. I'm Jewish, but not Hasidic. This grabbed me at the core as a human. Such a beautiful movie. I wish they ended it with more answers. Both Broderick and Rohrig did SUPERB jobs bringing their characters to light. If only they could do another movie together!!!