MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ
MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ (trailer here) turned 40 earlier this week. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that it’s a personal favorite because of its reputation as pretentious…but is a little pretension really the worst thing? Written by and starring Wallace Shawn and André Gregory, the film is set almost entirely at a restaurant table, where Shawn and Gregory’s characters (coincidentally named Wally and André) have a long, meandering philosophical conversation. There’s no more plot than that, and I completely understand if it sounds boring—it has continuously been the butt of jokes in pop culture for a reason. But the action (limited though it may be) does still rise, climaxing with Wally finally openly criticizing André’s dramatic, mystical worldview in favor of an appreciation for the mundane. Shawn and Gregory succeed in bringing contemplative storytelling to the screen by situating a movie wholly concerned with life and how to live it at the most ordinary of activities: dinner with a friend. Check it out on HBO Max if you’re feeling just a hair pretentious this weekend.
—Nolan Russell, Executive Assistant
