THE SCREENING ROOM
GUY LODGE
STIFF-BACKED, starchedlinen dinners with people you know formally but don’t like, grazing on microscopic courses of what tastes like lawn clippings while discussing an upcoming election in politely guarded tones—could anything be more tedious and anxietyprovoking? Actually, yes; The Dinner, the ambitiously sculpted but ultimately exasperating new film from Oren Moverman, rather too vividly recreates all the aforementioned discomfort for viewers—minus the extensive wine list to make it go by less painfully.