Review of My Dinner with Andre

If you would have told me that my new litmus test would be a film consisting of a conversation between theater director Andre Gregory and playwright Wallace Shawn, I probably would have believed you, honestly, but only after some serious discussion--which is exactly what this movie is so great at. Andre has been feeling disillusioned, and so his directing has been put on hiatus. He has been travelling to remote places, visiting with people who do not speak his language and participating in bizarre rituals in order to find something meaningful to re-spark his life again. However, things haven’t been working out quite like he’d planned. But slowly, Wally starts to chime in on some of Andre’s insights and we see that most people are in that same rut, trying their hardest to block out the imperfections of the world. A riveting conversation about the nature of reality, what it means to be human, the need for connections in the bizarre alienation of city life, technology, and love. This movie is a wonderful spark for intelligent conversations about things most people don’t spend a lot of time talking about, but really should.