Melvin Goes to Dinner
When Melvin (Michael Blieden) and his friends sat down to dinner, film festival audiences went wild. Initially chatting casually , the four soon begin disclosing the kinds of real, raw truths about themselves that people can only tell their most intimate friends: their sexual encounters, their dirty secrets, the mean, awful things they did or had done to them. Maura Tierney is spectacular, and Jack Black and David Cross provide hilarious cameos.
Member Reviews
The First Thing I Noticed Was The Music... - Yogini
The musical score is wonderful, and adds to the film. That said, the script is finely tooled, builds subtly into a tour de force for the four fine actors who carry the action. It is often obvious which films are derived from successful stage plays, and this is one of them: Lines and action are crafted in ways that most movie script-writers miss entirely, and that is too bad, because film, with close-ups, has the possibility of so much more intimacy than the perspective of the stage, and yet the stage is usually more intimate than film. How can that be? Once again, I take umbrage at the slogans and flash-words that are used to sell the movie: They pander to the trashy yellow press aspect, while in reality, the film, while dealing with the nitty-gritty of life, unfolds like a well-orchestrated piece of music. (The musical score, of course, helps with that aspect.)A cute indi film - jaydjay
Though no work of great art there is something compelling about Melvin Goes to dinner. I think it is the frank and real script and the unaffected acting. This could be your dinner party or night out ...that is if you have some fun, slightly naughty and very interesting friends. It is fast paced and entertaining what more do you want?Not just for mr. show geeks - gonyou
Chances are if you are a Mr. Show geek like me (the funniest sketch show ever!) you have heard of this movie thanks to all the alumni in it, not least of which David Cross, Jack Black and Bob Odenkirk but this is a more pensive stage to screen adaptation.
Director Odenkirk does a good job of maintaining interest (with jump cuts, time incongruities and acting out the dialouge) in what could have been 90 minutes of sitting around a dinner table. Much of the conversation is fascinating, some of it seems contrived and self aware and the "reveals" at the end work as much as you let them. There's some great cameos with Cross, Black and SNLer Fred Armisen and ER's Maura Tierney. Still for all the star power and clever directing it's hard to escape the really low budget feel. In fact while the acting is good, you can't help but think some of the scenes would have benefited from more takes, time and money. Still, this is definetly worth a look.
For more of that "Mr. Show" type humour though check out the "Frank film festival" in the extras sexction
Member Reviews
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The First Thing I Noticed Was The Music... - Yogini
The musical score is wonderful, and adds to the film. That said, the script is finely tooled, builds subtly into a tour de force for the four fine actors who carry the action. It is often obvious which films are derived from successful stage plays, and this ...A cute indi film - jaydjay
Though no work of great art there is something compelling about Melvin Goes to dinner. I think it is the frank and real script and the unaffected acting. This could be your dinner party or night out ...that is if you have some fun, slightly naughty and very ...Not just for mr. show geeks - gonyou
Chances are if you are a Mr. Show geek like me (the funniest sketch show ever!) you have heard of this movie thanks to all the alumni in it, not least of which David Cross, Jack Black and Bob Odenkirk but this is a more pensive stage to screen adaptation. ...