To Dust

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!!!

'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.

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.

"To Dust" (2018 release; 91 min.) brings the story of Shmuel, an Orthodox Jew. As the movie opens, Shmuel is at the hospital, where his wife just has passed away unexpectedly. Shmuel is bewildered and in deep grief. At night he has nightmares about what becomes of the body of his wife. He becomes obsessed with that, and by accident befriend Albert, a science professor at the local community college. Albert explains to Shmuel what becomes of a person's decaying body by showing the analogy of a decaying pig's body... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is one weird little movie. What starts out as a movie about grieving for a lost loved one, gradually evolves into something different altogether: a dark, if not black, comedy about decaying bodies, both of the human and of the animal kind, yeah... While the initial third of the movie is mostly so(m)ber and even macabre, the last hour is at times laugh-out-loud funny. The biggest surprise for me was the outstanding and all around charming performance from Matthew Broderick as the community college science professor who unexpectedly (but not unwillingly) becomes tangled up in the life of the grieving Orthodox Jew, leading to situations he probably never imagined possible. In that sense, the movie is a bizarre "buddy movie", pairing the Orthodox Jew to this divorced college professor. Check out the scenes as they go on the road to Knoxville, TN to check out a "body farm" (yea, it's kinda like that level of weirdness). Frankly, I'm amazed this movie even got made (and surely the fact that Broderick stars was the deciding factor in that). This little movie is way out there, and surely not for everyone. In the end, I found it uneven but at times brilliant.

"To Dust" premiered at last year's Tribeca film festival (yes, a year ago) and showed up out of the blue in the theater this weekend. I just had to check it out. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended by exactly 10 people, myself included, of which 2 couples left after about 20 min. and didn't return... If you are in the mood for a dark Jewish comedy that is "out there", I'd readily suggest you give this a chance, be it at the theater (not very likely), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

I love it for many reasons. From the acting to the humor. But, especially , for idea. Yes, a not very inspired used idea but real good if the experience of the lost of loved one is not so far by you. No doubts, the film could be better. But it is a decent one and the art to not be victim of cliches to not propose easy solutions is real meritorry. A clash between lives of two isolated men . And the fair end of this story of doubts, faith and friendship. Short, just good job.