There are bits of “Repo Man,” “Napoleon Dynamite” and other literally or just philosophically “punk rock” cult comedies in the DNA of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s rude yet ingratiating “Dinner in America…
” — and mercifully none whatsoever here of his 2011 first feature “The Bunny Game,” a shrilly monotonous “extreme” horror for which all is now forgiven. This rambunctious mix of anarchic humor and misfit romance is not always inspired in the writing department, but its uneven qualities are mostly steamrolled over by the infectiously high-energy execution., who turns an admittedly showy role into something quite likely to become the favorite movie character ever for a small but fervent minority.
We first meet Gallner’s Simon as he’s about to get chucked from a paid drug-research study he’s enrolled in for a little extra cash. Suffering the same fate is newly-met Beth , who casually invites him over for dinner and possible sexual favors at home, where her family appears to have stepped out of Jules Feiffer’s “Little Murders.
At first glance, Simon is just a walking snarl, forever picking fights over nothing, however hopeless he is in an actual punchup. Yet under oddball Patty’s roof, other sides emerge: He can be droll, imaginative, a consummate liar, even altruistic in his own bemused way. Fooling her family into taking him in as an alleged son of missionaries, he both provokes them and improves their lot, if only by introducing several desperately uptight personalities to the unwinding power of weed.
Gellner makes Simon so charismatically cool we can shrug off the fact that the script include some homophobic slurs amid his colorfully profane language. He tosses off lines with the kind of insouciant bravado that makes them seem instantly repeatable, though on the page few might seem special.
Its various amiable plot complications leading to a concert/police-raid climax, followed by some amusing epilogue material, “Dinner” isn’t masterfully constructed or even wildly original. But it has a bright comic look and energy to it, with every design contribution from Jean-Philippe Bernier’s widescreen lensing to John Swihart’s thumping electro-trash score upping the viewer’s happy-pill dosage.
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