Content Advisory: Sexual Harassment, Abuse, Animal cruelty or animal death, Substance abuse or alcoholism, Ableism
Movie Info
A fugitive punk rocker encounters a young woman, who happens to be the biggest fan of his band, in Dinner in America. After being kicked out of rehab, Simon (Kyle Gallner) is on the run from the police, due to his tendency of being a pyromaniac. Simon ends up crossing paths with Patty (Emily Skeggs), a mentally slow young woman, who turns out to be an immense fan of the underground punk rock band PSYOPS and its balaclava wearing lead singer John Q. Public. However, unbeknownst to Patty, Simon is the try identity of John Q and is shocked to discover that PSYOPS has been booked to open for the mainstream “eyeliner punk” band The Alliance.
Simon ends up crashing at the Patty’s home, much to the annoyance of her adopted younger brother Kevin (Griffin Gluck). The two end up going on a series of misadventures around the suburbs, including getting revenge on the tracksuit wearing jocks, who bully and sexually harass Patty on a daily basis. As the two begin falling for each other, Simon plans to have a properer date with Patty by taking her to the upcoming PSYOPS gig.
Dinner in America Synopsis
Dinner in America is a punk rock themed indie romance written and directed by Adam Rehmeier. The film stars Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling, Smile, Scream) as Simon, a punk rocker and drug dealer, who has been a fugitive from the police for two years, due to his habit of setting fires. We are introduced to Simon as he is invited to dinner with his fellow rehab burnout Betty (Hannah Marks), where he ends up seducing her mother Beth, played by a cameoing Lea Thompson, before setting fire to the bushes.
Simon encounters Patty as she is sitting in an ally, while Simon is on the run from the police. Patty recognizes Simon as a fellow college dropout, and she invites him home, where Simon impresses Patty’s parents Connie (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Norm (Pat Healy). Simon is shocked to discover that not only is Patty a huge fan of the punk band PSYOPS, which Simon is the incognito singer of, but that she has been the one sending him explicit fan mail.
My Thoughts on Dinner in America
Dinner in America premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and despite already developing a cult following, the film’s original release was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly five years later, Dinner in America is currently undergoing a major resurgence, through various roadshow screenings across North America. In my case, I saw the film as a special screening at Toronto’s, still open, Revue Cinema.
Dinner in America is indeed a very punk rock indie romance, driven by the breakthrough performance by Emily Skeggs (The Miseducation of Cameron Post) as the film’s neurodiverse protagonist Patty, who despite her odd behaviour and confusion about various slang terms, ends up being incredibly passionate, and sexually turned on, about her love for the punk rock band PSYOPS. In more ways than one, Patty’s encounter with Simon helps her come out of her shell.
Of course, Patty’s status as someone quite possibly on the autistic spectrum leads to my biggest criticism of Dinner in America. Throughout the film, particularly in the first half, Patty is the victim of ableist bullying, which includes liberal use of a certain R-word that rhymes with leotard. Despite many of the individuals who say it receiving comeuppance for doing so, the very fact that writer/director Adam Rehmeier felt the need to use this hate speech in the first place did not sit well with me as someone on the autistic spectrum and found many parallels between myself and Patty’s character.
It is also somewhat ironic that the romance that spawns between Patty and Simon comes from the latter arguably being a bad influence on her, with the two skipping on a job search to instead get revenge of Patty’s bullies. However, there is also something sweet about the dynamic shared between Patty and Simon. This is particularly true late in the film when Simon has Patty turn one of her love poems to John Q into a song, which becomes Dinner in America‘s theme “Watermelon.”
Dinner in America is already a cult classic in the making, and the following that the film has generated has allowed the film to get a second life nearly five years after it originally premiered. Make sure to keep your eye out for upcoming screenings near you, during the film’s current roadshow run. Dinner in America is also available on VOD and worth checking out.
Trailer for Dinner in America
