When you walk into an indie comedy, you expect a small film with modest acting and a few hearty chuckles from time to time. What’s unexpected is the laugh-out-loud, balls-to-the-wall dark humor of Donny’s Bar Mitzvah, which it delivers from start to finish. If I had a heart condition and my lungs were deformed, I would have died fifty times over of asphyxiation due to the fits of laughter.
Make no mistake, this film is as disgusting, revolting, and as lowbrow as you can get. But boy, is it an absolute joy to watch!
“You people are sick in the head! This isn’t a party, it’s a whorehouse!”
Donny’s Bar Mitzvah follows–you guessed it–thirteen-year-old Donny Drucker (Steele Stebbins) as he experiences his bar mitzvah way back in 1998. But it doesn’t only focus on Donny, we’re also introduced to a whole host of guests throughout the night and their slow slide into degeneracy. Halfway through the party, a game wheel is spun, and Mrs. Wang (Judilin Bosita) wins a fantastic prize: a beer enema. Mr. Wang (Eugene Kim), who has never been to a bar mitzvah before, screams out, “You people are sick in the head! This isn’t a party, it’s a whorehouse!” Honestly, this quote perfectly encapsulates this film.
Donny’s Bar Mitzvah is a small and modest film with a runtime of eighty minutes and takes place in just once location, really. However, it’s not about the length of the feature, but how you use it, as debut director Jonathan Kaufman knows very well. I count at least five unique subplots going on here, all equally insane and hilarious. The tone and cadence of the humor are set within the first ten minutes, and it never lets up. The direction and editing are judicious–jokes don’t linger, scenes never overstay their welcome, and transitions between scenes are complimented by hilarious ’90s era graphical effects that never failed to amuse.
If you crave a quick hit of dark raunchy comedy, it doesn’t get better than Donny’s Bar Mitzvah.
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