Review of My Dinner with Andre (1981) by Greg S — 21 Jul 2018

My Dinner with Andre possesses a titanic reputation, largely because it delivers massively on its simple premise: two estranged, artsy friends meet at a restaurant and have a protracted conversation. This is all that happens; the entire movie is held afloat by the Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory's fascinating performances and the sheer magnitude of their considerations.

Terence McKenna once remarked of Finnegan's Wake that it compressed "the entire contents of the universe into about fourteen cubic inches." One might say something similar about My Dinner with Andre: that it compresses the entire contemporary human experience into just under two hours. This sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not. Their conversation touches upon the role of the artist, the influence of the Holocaust on late 20th century Jewish-American life, occultism, the conveniences afforded by technology, the unthinking manner in which people live their day to day, the struggle to derive meaning from occurrences, the boon of socioeconomic privilege... the list goes on.

Apart from the film's thematic brevity, Shawn and Gregory deserve praise for the multifaceted characters they portray. Different viewers will come away with different ideas about their dynamic. Andre embodies lofty privilege in a way the financially struggling Wallace can only conceive of, yet its difficult to dismiss Andre's at times pointed thoughts on these grounds.

I won't say much more except that this is one of the most important movies ever made. Discussion of importance is usually relegated to not-particularly-fun-to-watch films with groundbreaking or gorgeous cinematography (à la "Barry Lyndon"). This is not the case with My Dinner with Andre, which is as important to the American cinematic tradition as it is thrilling to watch. I do not exaggerate when I say that this is the most entertaining viewing experience I've ever had.