Filmology Rating: 2 out of 4
Imaging feeling alone in a universe where everyone is a different color than you, makes triple the amount of money that you make, and comes from a different place than you. If this is impossible for you to imagine then you clearly haven’t been living in or paying attention to the United States for the past three hundred years. Beatriz at Dinner shows a dinner party in which those who have money and power control the entire menu and those who they feel are below them are lucky to get any of the table scraps that would be left. It’s a dinner that sounds like a reality for many.
Beatriz, played by Salma Hayek, is living a rather thankless life as a massage therapist. She doesn’t hate her life, she is happy to be able to make ends meet, but she is left with a distaste for those who have so much, only wanting more. Beatriz finds herself accidentally invited to a dinner party when her car breaks down at a client’s house and her every action is questioned slowly as the party gets going making her question her very human existence.
I’m a liberal progressive. I have never tried to act otherwise when I write or when I talk to people, I am who I am. However unlike Miguel Arteta, the director, and Mike White, the writer, I feel that having other voices that might disagree with me is better for our society as a whole. It will let me grow as a person, whether that be to help me cement the views that I have and be able to defend them or at times change the way I have been thinking regarding certain things. Basically, have an open mind or get out, has been that attitude that I have had.
In general, I have enjoyed the other films which Arteta has directed, mainly Cedar Rapids. However, this film just lacked that dark comedy that he brought to his other films. This film offers a look at a Trump like businessman, played wonderfully by John Lithgow, but I already see this type of evil everyday. All you would need to do is turn on the news to watch a narcissistic maniac why would I want to willingly watch a movie that is trying to tell everyone that these type of people are monsters. This film is just liberals speaking to liberals, most conservatives don’t go to the movies unless it’s a military or Michael Bay movie. Beatriz at Dinner in some ways feel like the liberal version of An American Carol while yes this film is better crafted but it still feels the message is the same. The other side is destroying the world. If you are going to make that call, at least try to say the other side isn’t perfect either. We have never lived in a singular world.
Beatriz at Dinner feels like it offers an interesting appetizer, it looks fantastic and has a good taste at first but the more and more you eat the more you just feel nauseous. You in fact feel so nauseous that you never make it to the main course of the meal. Beatriz is a good rough draft of a film but it should have been reworked and have a clear thesis other than just beating the same drum that has been beaten for ages.
Rating: Skip It
-Jonny G