To Dust (2018) Reviews

• Dark (if not black) Jewish comedy is uneven but at times brilliant

  paul-allaer2019-03-16

  "To Dust" (2018 release; 91 min.) brings the story of Shmuel, an Orthodox Jew. As the movie opens, Shmuel is at the hospital, where his wife just has passed away unexpectedly. Shmuel is bewildered and in deep grief. At night he has nightmares about what becomes of the body of his wife. He becomes obsessed with that, and by accident befriend Albert, a science professor at the local community college. Albert explains to Shmuel what becomes of a person's decaying body by showing the analogy of a decaying pig's body... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is one weird little movie. What starts out as a movie about grieving for a lost loved one, gradually evolves into something different altogether: a dark, if not black, comedy about decaying bodies, both of the human and of the animal kind, yeah... While the initial third of the movie is mostly so(m)ber and even macabre, the last hour is at times laugh-out-loud funny. The biggest surprise for me was the outstanding and all around charming performance from Matthew Broderick as the community college science professor who unexpectedly (but not unwillingly) becomes tangled up in the life of the grieving Orthodox Jew, leading to situations he probably never imagined possible. In that sense, the movie is a bizarre "buddy movie", pairing the Orthodox Jew to this divorced college professor. Check out the scenes as they go on the road to Knoxville, TN to check out a "body farm" (yea, it's kinda like that level of weirdness). Frankly, I'm amazed this movie even got made (and surely the fact that Broderick stars was the deciding factor in that). This little movie is way out there, and surely not for everyone. In the end, I found it uneven but at times brilliant. "To Dust" premiered at last year's Tribeca film festival (yes, a year ago) and showed up out of the blue in the theater this weekend. I just had to check it out. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended by exactly 10 people, myself included, of which 2 couples left after about 20 min. and didn't return... If you are in the mood for a dark Jewish comedy that is "out there", I'd readily suggest you give this a chance, be it at the theater (not very likely), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

• Not For the Faint of Heart

  larrys32019-05-08

  When the R rating for this film declares disturbing images they're not kidding. The movie is a dark, absurd, and morbid comedy, as a Hasidic cantor (Geza Rohrig) becomes obsessed with trying to find out how long it will take his recently deceased wife's remains to decompose into dust so that her spirit can be free. He will eventually team up with a reluctant community college science professor (Matthew Broderick) to try and get some answers. They will employ some highly bizarre and weird techniques to try and accomplish this. I found most of the intended deadpan humor didn't quite work here, but as the film progressed I did find some of it darkly funny, like the scene with the security guard (Natalie E. Carter) at the Tennessee body farm. Overall, after reading so many glowing reviews from pro critics I came away disappointed with this movie. It's not an easy watch for sure, but it also was unlike anything I can recall seeing on screen before.

• guess what she's dead

  raff-stapp2019-02-19

  She dies and the whole movie is about what happens after? Same thing that happens to everything that dies.

• Unique film

  Nagfilms2018-07-26

  'To Dust', is a dark comedy starring Geza Rohrig (Schmuel) and Matthew Broderick (Albert) and was featured at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It follows the quest of Orthodox Jew Schmuel to find out what actually happens to the physical body of his wife, who has recently died of cancer. Although cancer is used in many films, the 'eating one up from inside' description fits well here as Schmuel is being 'eaten up' by the conflict of his religious belief of what happens to his wife's soul, his love and longing for his wife, and the scientific facts of what happens to the physical body after death. He ventures out of his Orthodox rules and enlists the help of Community College Biology Professor Albert to explore this bodily mystery. What follows is a series of dark but funny scenes between the two men that ultimately reveal the core tenants of the movie-love, peace of mind, and acceptance. A very unique film with great performances that I hope will find the light of your local theaters.

• Misunderstood

  ladd_mangrum2019-02-13

  Dark and repetitive story line that develops slow. Could be better. I think the creators do not understand reality of Jewish faith. I found myself while watching wishing most scenes are made differently.