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Reviews for March 23rd, 2021

Donny's Bar Mitzvah

Directed by Jonathan Kaufman




      In 1998, Donny Drucker (Steele Stebbins) celebrates his bar mitzvah with his friends and family, His brother, Bobby (John DeLuca), shows up with his closeted best friend, David (Radek Lord), to the party. Also attending are David (Radek his friends, Sam (Adrian Ciscato), Eric (Joshua Gonzalez), and Hannah (Isabelle Anaya), his love interest whom he hopes will be his girlfriend. Meanwhile, a serial party pooper who crashes parties and poops at them, might be lurking somewhere inside the party.

      Writer/director Jonathan Kaufman throws plot, plausibility and political correctness out the window and exchanges it for a wild, high-energy ride that's full of crude, rude and lewd humor. Much like how the Farrelly brothers pushed the envelope with low-brow humor, Kaufman does the same while pushing the envelope even further. Expect gags involving various bodily fluids, pregnancy, kids using profanity along with plenty of booze, drugs and some nudity. The adults seem to be behaving just as immaturely and irresponsibly as the children which is somewhat amusing, but eventually all of the outrageous humor gets tiresome and repetitive with jokes that overstay their welcome.

      If you're easily offended or prude and prefer witty humor grounded in realism like in Shiva Baby, Donny's Bar Mitzvah won't be your cup of tea. If you're into over-the-top, raunchy comedies like Superbad, The Hangover, Good Boys and The Hebrew Hammer, it will provide you with some guilty pleasure, as long as you're willing to check your brain at the door. It's worth mentioning that the film is shot to mimick what it would be like watching a VHS tape--in fact, the first scene shows someone putting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch the "recording" of Donny's bar mitzvah. At a running time of 1 hour and 19 minutes, Donny's Bar Mitzvah is like an unapologetically silly, dirty and irreverent SNL sketch that goes on a little too long while making you laugh every now and then. It might be best experienced while high or drunk with a group of friends.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Released by Circle Creative.
Opens at Film Noir Cinema in Brooklyn and on VOD.