Adam Carter Rehmeier's Dinner In America

TONIGHT’S FILM.

ADAM CARTER REHMEIER’S DINNER IN AMERICA

WHAT IT IS.

A spoiler-free description of the movie.

A punk rocker and a young woman unexpectedly fall in love.

IF YOU LIKE.

If you like these things, then you’ll like the film.

▶ Napoleon Dynamite. But punk, with a far filthier vocabulary. Though, by the end of the film, this comparison is no longer valid.

▶ When extras are funny. This film makes great use of its extras and non-speaking characters to create little moments of humor out of thin air.

▶ People saying things they aren’t supposed to say. The leading man frequently violates the most basic social niceties with clenched teeth and crass language.

MY TAKE.

What I liked about it.

Adam Carter Rehmeier's Dinner in America will sneak up on you. Because despite early, frequent signs to the contrary, you will be helplessly endeared to the film and its characters by the time the credits roll.

Much of this is the result of two surprisingly tender performances from the film’s co-stars, Emily Skeggs and Kyle Gallner, paired with a clever score composed by John Swihart.

At the outset, the score is sonically abrasive, chaotic, and punk.

Kyle Gallner’s Simon is reckless, with an unusually brash contempt for societal norms. His clench-teethed performance is so convincingly anarchist. Disruptive, a little bit uncomfortable, and strikingly funny as an element of contrast to the Midwestern setting.

Opposite Gallner is Emily Skeggs’ Patty, whose wardrobe and generally aloof demeanor bears a modest resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite. Her non-verbals are comic firecrackers in the film. Exceedingly dim-witted stares and eyes-closed nods. Nervously pursed lips. Incessant juice-box sipping.

It all works really well, and the film could have easily stayed here. Napoleon Dynamite, but punk! Napoleon Dynamite, but woman! Napoleon Dynamite, but bad words!²

However, as the nature of Simon and Patty’s relationship comes into view, the abrasive score fades. It gives way to something that feels more like a loving embrace. Gallner’s Simon reveals a fierce, gentle protectiveness you didn’t think he’d be capable of. Skeggs’ Patty reveals a woman far more capable of standing up for herself than you’d likely assumed.

Under Rehmeier's direction, these performances earn a remarkably sweet, affecting payoff. One that, as stated at the start of the recommendation, sort of sneaks up on you.

There's something else that continued to grab me long after watching Dinner in America: this lingering feeling that, had I given them a chance in the first place, I may have seen these characters for who they were. Instead of merely settling on my first impressions. That perhaps I failed them as much as the world around them in the film did.

Fortunately, one of the central theses of the film is that it doesn’t really matter much what I think.

Enjoy the film.

OH, NEAT.

A fact or two about the production that makes you say “oh, neat”.

▶ In the third act, Emily Skeggs’ Patty performs an original song called ‘Watermelon’. Skeggs co-wrote the song in one day on set with the writer-director, Adam Carter Rehmeier. In her words: "I basically wrote a bunch of stream-of-consciousness-Patty poetry and brought it to Adam, and we sat there and read through it and just kind of jammed."⁴

▶ Dinner in America debuted to critical acclaim at Sundance in 2020. But, it struggled to secure a buyer. After a short theatrical run in 2022 (self-released by the filmmakers), the film landed on Hulu. It developed a rabid fanbase on TikTok, which eventually led to a fan-requested theatrical revival in 2024.⁵

THE QUOTE.

One great line of dialogue from the film.