'Dinner in America' flips the table on suburban conformity
Adam Rehmeier's comedy is a throwback to '90s cult classics
“Dinner in America” is the sort of movie that a group of friends would have rented at their local Blockbusters in the ‘90s if all the copies of “Heathers” and “Pump Up the Volume” had been gone. Brash, funny and unexpectedly sweet, writer-director-editor Adam Rehmeier’s film still has the spiky edges that filmmakers usually sand down later in their careers.
In fact, “Dinner” seems to go out of its way to make its main character, a rebellious punk rocker named Simon (Kyle Gallner of “Smile”), as off-putting as possible. When we first meet him, he’s near-catatonic as a guinea pig in a drug research facility to earn extra bucks.
Kicked out of the facility, a fellow test subject invites him home to meet her family with the promise of sex and a free meal. Instead, Simon makes a pass at the girl’s mother (Lea Thompson), flips over the dinner table and sets their shrubbery on fire for good measure. It was a boring meal, but that seems excessive.
If Simon leaves no violent thought or action unexpressed, Patty (Emily Skeggs) is his inverse, bottling up her angst and rage inside a quiet, nice-girl exterior. Bullied by local teens (even though she’s 20), yelled at by the owner of the pet shop where she works, and belittled and ignored by her family (including near-catatonic parents played by Pat Healy and Mary Lynn Rajskub), Patty is a powderkeg just waiting for a match.
It will not surprise you to learn that Simon is that match. Patty gives him a place to stay at the family home, and his acts of open defiance against sedate Midwestern existence awaken the rebel inside her. (I have to say, the vanishing Midwestern suburban lifestyle that “Dinner’ satirizes, with its awkward family dinners and nights glued to the TV together, seem almost quaintly appealing in 2025.)
Soon, the pair embark on a mission together, serving retribution to the bullies and co-workers that have made Patty’s life a living hell for so long. As Patty learns to act out, Simon starts to warm a little to his misfit punk rock protege. A scene where they work on a punk song together, and the lyrics Patty has noodled in her notebook turn out to be the perfect complement to Simon’s melody, is genuinely affecting. (Partly because the song itself is so good.)
Propelled by profane dialogue, a cheeky visual style and a soundtrack that sounds like a grade-schooler trying to sound badass on his first drum machine, “Dinner in America” is an enjoyable throwback to a time when teenagers acted out in the real world rather than online. Sometimes it’s the most pointless acts of defiance that are the most meaningful, just to prove to yourself that you can cross that line if you need to.
“Dinner in America” has its Madison premiere at 7 p.m. Thursday at UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall. It is also streaming on Hulu.