Fastest Seder EVER

A couple days ago, I got to see the editor of Heeb again (this time clad in less leather). It was at a Heeb-sponsored sneak preview of When Do We Eat?, an independent movie about a Passover Seder gone awry when the father's antacid is spiked with some "so good you'll see G-d" extasy. Someone else has wondered what narcotics could do for a religious experience in their blog; now you can watch this movie and find out.

The movie was really funny, although perhaps a little melodramatic in the second half. It brings together all "types" of Jews in one dysfunctional family. The father makes Christmas tree ornaments for a living (hmmm...a comment on how Jews wrote all the good modern Christmas carols?), one son is a sort of hippie-stoner, and in true psychologist-meets-sexual revolution fashion, one daughter is a sexual surrogate (sort of a cross between a therapist and a hooker). One aspect of the movie that was particularly well done was the tension that exists between the less observant father and his recently-turned-Chassidic (Chabbad) son. The mother dotes on her religious son, trying to make the seder live up to his standards. She tells everyone he's a "Good Jew;" his recent religious awakening somehow redeems the rest of her dysfunctional family who often ask "since when do we care about kosher?" The father, on the other hand, feels threatened, maintaining that a non-observant Jew is a "Smart Jew."

And like all-things-Jewish, apparently, When Do We Eat? touches on Holocaust experiences as well. The grandfather lost almost all of his family in the War and represents an older generation of Jews that are constantly waiting for another enemy to rise up and try to obliterate the Jews. It occured to me that the ability to put 1st-person Holocaust references into movies set in the present day is nearing an end. When the father mentioned the family who hid him during the War, people in the row behind me (Heeb staff and others associated with the film) audibly commented that he's too young to have actually been alive during that time. Maybe he's supposed to be a really young-looking 65-year-old, but it's a bit of a stretch.

All in all, I highly recommend this movie. It's funny and even touching at times. You can see it next week to take your mind off all that bread you're not eating.