Fuck 'em all, fuck 'em all, but us
Dinner in America is a 2020 American romantic dark comedy film written, directed, and edited by Adam Carter Rehmeier.
Kyle Gallner stars as Simon, an aggressive punk on a warpath for quick cash. A brush with the law leads him to hide out with Patty (Emily Skeggs), a young and sheltered outcast. The pair form an unlikely duo as they realize that they have more in common than either had expected.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film festival in January of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, theatrical release was delayed until May of 2022, with a video-on-demand release in June of that year.
Dinner in America provides examples of:
- Actually, I Am Him: Patty is completely unaware that the on-the-lam punk she let into her home is her "music boyfriend." Simon doesn't let her in on the truth until much later, when he's actually developed feelings for her.
- Arc Words: "You need to take it down a notch!" Said by various characters in situations ranging from awkward to downright violent.
- Auteur License: The film was written, directed and edited by Adam Carter Rehmeier.
- Blackmail: Simon gets revenge on the bullies by taking a picture of them unconscious and naked with the corpse of a cat. He promises to circulate the pictures if they ever bother Patty again.
- Blatant Lies:
- Simon tells Bobby to stop looking at him. Bobby says, "I'm not," while staring daggers at Simon.
- Downplayed when Simon pretends to be a missionary just back in from Tanzania while dressed like a punk and swearing up a storm at the dinner table. Patty's parents buy it completely due to how sincere the lie seems to be.
- Brick Joke:
- Simon smokes in Patty's house, and Patty objects, saying her father is allergic. Simon responds, "Fuck your dad." Later, Simon attends dinner with Patty's family, and Patty's dad is sneezing thunderously.
- When Simon lingers in the bathroom, Patty knocks and asks if he's taking a "number two." Simon slips away to confront his bandmembers, and when he returns, he finds that Patty has left a little pyramid of toilet paper for his presumed bowel problems.
- At dinner with Patty's parents, Simon lies that his own parents are missionaries building houses in Tanzania. Much later, when Simon's mom stumbles onto them recording a song in her basement, Patty asks, "How was Tanzania?"
- Burger Fool: Simon and Patty have a "shitty lunch" at a Hawaiian burger joint. The cashier stares vacantly at them with his mouth hanging open as they order.
- Catchphrase: Simon is prone to complimenting something by saying it's "fucking tits."
- Character Development: In the final scene, Patty stands up to two bullies herself and has changed her look to something more mature.
- Color Motif: Red, white and blue. This is dinner in America, after all. The credits are all in red, white and blue. There are a number of American flags displayed throughout the film, and Patty wears an outfit with an American flag theme for a portion of the film. The net of her basketball hoop is red, white, and blue. Simon also has an Eagle Scout badge pinned to his bomber jacket, which has the colors red, white, and blue.
- Contrived Coincidence: Patty is obsessed with PSYOPS and sends love poems and pictures to the lead singer, John Q. She bumps into Simon, who is John Q.'s real identity. She doesn’t recognize him because he wears a ski mask when he performs. He, in turn, receives her photos but doesn't recognize her at first because she never has her face in the photos.
- Creator Provincialism: The film is set in Detroit because writer/director Adam Carter Rehmeier was living in Detroit at the time.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Patty is terrible at basketball and trips on her stairs. One telling note that Simon has started to care for her is when she smacks herself on his drum set, nearly knocking it over, and he winces and asks if she's alright rather than get mad about his drums.
- Decoy Protagonist: The film seems to be setting up some sort of weird romance between Simon and Beth, who meet while drugged up in a trial research program. But then Simon runs away, and Beth is never seen again. The next scene introduces the real female lead, and the pair meet several scenes later.
- Dinner and a Show: Several of the dinners we see in the film get disrupted by family strife.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Patty is often seen drinking from juice boxes due to being a female Manchild.
- Drives Like Crazy: Simon, as he shows during the pair's Roaring Rampage of Revenge. "Buckle up! I drive fucking nuts!"
- Dysfunctional Family: Pretty much every family gets portrayed this way. But nothing beats Simon's. He has an extremely condescending and needlessly combative sister, a father that has been giving him the silent treatment for a long time, a mother that is more preoccupied with what others will think than Simon and what is implied to be a brother-in-law who is a complete dickhead. If this wasn't enough, Simon sister's kids are a pair of mouthy brats. On top of that, Simon himself is the proverbial Black Sheep, being a rebellious punk well into his adult life. The only normal, functional and non-aggressive person in the entire household is Simon's younger brother - and he and Patty instantly take a liking to each other.
- Extremely Short Timespan: With the exception of the epilogue, the movie takes place in under week.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Patty's father (and mother, too) openly tell her she should forget about going for a rock concert and how bad it would be for her. This contrasts with her actual music choices for punk, but she's not allowed even going for a regular concert. Patty is in her early 20s.
- Foreshadowing: You wouldn't expect that a punk like Simon would have taken an art appreciation course in college, but then we find out that he's a musician from a rich family.
- The Ghost: The Alliance is referenced many times in dialogue as a popular but mainstream new band from New York, and their manager makes an appearance in the third act, but we never see nor hear the band themselves.
- Gilligan Cut: The two jocks who bully Patty confront her on the bus, only for Simon to intervene, and attempt to defend her. They challenge him, and he instantly pulls the cord. Smash cut to him getting his ass kicked.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: In the first scene, Beth is trying to be seductive while drugged to her eyeballs. The camera zooms in as she licks her lips suggestively, unaware that she's drooling.
- Happily Adopted: Discussed by Simon. After Kevin accidentally learns he's adopted and is hateful toward Simon for seemingly ruining his life, Simon points out that Kevin has it not only really good, but his adopted parents clearly love him very much, so maybe he should chill the fuck down instead of throwing a tantrum.
- Hidden Depths:
- The first indication we get that there's more to Simon than just an irreverent hooligan is when Patty recalls that he took the same art appreciation class as her. Later, he's able to come up with a Seamless Spontaneous Lie using specific knowledge of church terms and Tanzanian cuisine. He also has an Eagle Scout badge pinned to his bomber jacket; it's possible he earned it himself.
- Patty is a sheltered, naive and seemingly dim-witted young woman, but Simon is surprised that she's such a good kisser and is shocked by her talent for lyrics and vocals.
- Hourglass Plot: Early on, Patty is sending letters to John Q., her music idol - including random intimate polaroids. By the end of it, Simon, who is revealed to be John Q., is sending letters from prison to Patty, using the exact same style of colourful envelopes and adding polaroids with his penis.
- I'll Take That as a Compliment: After Patty notes that Simon has changed his hairstyle since she saw him in class a year or two ago, Simon tells her that she looks the same. She thanks him, but he tells her, "That wasn't really a compliment." This could be a Stealth Insult or a simple statement of fact.
- Intoxication Ensues: Patty's parents get unexpectedly stoned. Her father just stares vacantly at the TV and responds to every question with, "Oh... yeah!" A Reveal Shot reveals that they're not wearing any pants.
- Jabba Table Manners: Simon is always shown hunched over his plate with his elbows on the table. He shovels food into his mouth with his fork and licks his fingers while eating.
- Jerk Jock: Patty is often sexually harassed by two track runners who call her slurs.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Simon keeps insulting Patty only to quickly say, "I'm fucking with you!"
- Lethal Chef: Patty's mom is implied to be a bad cook. Nobody in the family is enthusiastic about her taco salad in spite of her attempts to sell it, and her husband complains that it's spicy, which confuses her. When Simon compliments her chicken cordon bleu to ingratiate himself, the family is nonplussed, and Kevin asserts it was bought premade. Later, Simon says the family's coffee is terrible, and Patty admits that it's instant.
- Manchild: Patty is a rare female example. She's 20 years old but dresses and behaves like an adolescent, even drinking from juice boxes with lunch. She lives under the thumb of her parents and asks their permission to go on activities. In the final scene, she's wearing some makeup and looks more mature, showing her character development.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Simon is a rare male version. He's an irreverent punk who gets Patty to come out of her shell.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Simon will take whatever is available no matter what his real interest level is. He agrees to attend Beth's family dinner when she bribes him with the promise of a blowjob. Even when he's just a few minutes from receiving it, however, he lets himself be seduced by Beth's mother, causing a scene that eliminates both possibilities. When he's with Patty, he pursues her even though he finds her weird. The trope is ultimately subverted when Patty actually propositions him, and he's too beat up to do anything but sleep.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: They are barely qualified to be antagonists, but still. The two fame-hungry bandmates betray Simon to pay off the sleazy manager who's supposed to get them a dream gig, allowing the manager to collect the bounty. But they've just sent their singer to jail, effectively destroying any chances their band ever had.
- Meet Cute: Simon meets Patty when she covers for him in his escape from law enforcement.
- Mistaken for Junkie: When Patty tries to defend Simon against accusations that he's a junkie, she says that he only took Monday and Tuesday because his face hurt, referring to the pills she gave him from her pill schedule box. Simon's family assumes that this is junkie gibberish.
- Motifs: As the name suggests: dinners. There are eight dinners featured over the course of the film: the clinical trial (which Simon barfs on), Beth's Sunday dinner (which Simon uses to bludgeon Beth's brother), Patty's family dinner (which ends with Patty screaming in rage), Simon's dinner at Patty's house (prepared by an implied Lethal Chef), at the Greasy Spoon (where Simon refuses to order and gets thrown out), at the burger joint (which Simon says is crap food), at Simon's family's house (which gets disrupted by mayhem), and finally Simon's prison dinner, which is the only food he enjoys.
- Mugging the Monster: Subverted. Simon is established to be a hard-as-nails punk and criminal who easily manhandles Kevin when attacked. So when those two track-team bullies pick a fight with him for defending Patty, we know what's about to go down. Except instead, Simon gets his ass kicked and told he sucks at fighting.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Simon grabs Kevin and points out how comfortable his life is. "Look at that bunk bed. It's fucking tits."
- Naked People Are Funny: After getting accidentally stoned, Patty's parents are revealed to be sitting on their sofa with no pants on, just like Kevin.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The two jocks who bully Patty, and later Simon love using the R-slur, and the F-slur. Also at the beginning the man whose house Simon eats at drops an N-word, which makes it a lot easier to forgive Simon for nearly sleeping with his wife and setting his house on fire.
- Prison Rape: The Alliance's manager says that Simon's pelvis will get split like a soft-shelled crab in prison. The closest it gets is Simon's celly wanking to the news.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Simon is aggressive, impulsive and angry. Patty is passive and withdrawn. By the end, they've helped each other come a bit closer to the center, with Simon learning to mellow out a bit and Patty being more assertive.
- The Reveal: Midway through the film, it's revealed that Simon isn't just some unhinged criminal. He's the lead singer of a punk rock band trying to finance the band.
- Reveal Shot: After a whole conversation with her parents, who have been accidentally stoned, Patty asks, "Why aren't you wearing pants?" A change in camera angles reveals that, in fact, they've been without pants the whole time.
- Revenge Is Sweet: Simon helps Patty shoot the moon with this, as far as the two jocks are concerned, given that they knock them out, strip them naked, and then set their precious tracksuits on fire, take a picture of them naked together with a dead cat to use as blackmail if they ever come after either of them again, before letting them be woken up by their own teammates finding them.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Simon's a true-blue punk rocker who refuses to sell out, which puts him at odds with two of his more practical bandmates.
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Simon spontaneously decides to start pretending to be a Christian missionary midway through his dinner at Patty's house and completely convinces her parents to the point that they agree to let him stay in their own son's bedroom.
- Secretly Wealthy: Simon is revealed to come from a rich family. He has apparently claimed the entire basement as his room, which is enormous and filled with musical equipment. He's also a persona non-grata and clearly the Black Sheep of the family.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Simon is rudely frank when he tells Patty that she might be attractive if she ditched her glasses, ponytail, and work smock. He has her model for him and decides that he's interested. Patty keeps wearing her glasses but otherwise follows his advice.
- The Silent Bob: PSYOPS's drummer Donovan never speaks a word through the whole film, though he casts his vote for Simon during a band meeting and commiserates with him over refusing to sell out. He's on quaaludes.
- Smoking Is Cool: Simon the badass punker is often seen with a cigarette hanging from his lips. In the end, Patty also strikes a cool pose with a cigarette, though she ruins it by coughing.
- The Stoner: Simon introduces Patty's adopted brother Kevin to smoking weed. The next time we see him, Kevin is stoned to the eyeballs and shows no signs of stopping (especially since he found a girlfriend who also loves getting high).
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Although Simon goes to jail when his band betrays him, he ends up thriving on the inside, constantly writing new songs and keeping himself in shape. His relationship with Patty remains rock solid, with them exchanging letters and her visiting when she can. Patty herself has grown self-confident and is implied to be on her way to becoming a punk singer.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Simon the hardass punk challenges Patty's bullies to a fight and seems to be about to get his big hero moment. We then smash cut to Simon getting pummeled by the bullies. As tough as he may be, fighting two jocks at once is an unlikely prospect.
- Tap on the Head: Simon knocks the tracksuit bullies unconscious with a blow to the head. They wake up a few minutes later none the worse for wear.
- Title Drop: "Dinner in America" is one of PSYOP's singles. Patty says that she had to make a copy because her original got eaten. In the end, Simon complains of the lengths he had to go to to get a good dinner in America.
- Toilet Humor:
- While taking a break in the alley behind the pet shop, Patty is forced to watch a homeless man take a giant dump on the sidewalk.
- Simon excuses himself to the bathroom, sneaks out of Patty's house, and stays out for hours. When he gets back, he finds that Patty has stacked a little pyramid of toilet paper for him outside the door, apparently guessing that he's having bowel issues.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer spoils the fact that Simon is the lead singer of the band that Patty is obsessed with, which only gets revealed as a twist halfway through the film.
- Villain Eats Your Lunch: In her first scene, Patty's breakfast sandwich gets stolen and eaten by one of the two jock bullies. He finds it disgusting and tosses it back at her.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Nauseous from the medication given to him in a drug trial, Simon is served a dubious dinner and instantly vomits onto his tray.