Dinner in America

It’s rare that a film I’m initially lukewarm on manages to so thoroughly win me over, but Dinner in America did just that. About a punk rocker on the run from the law who finds himself in an unlikely relationship with a quirky outcast, the film has a peppy sense of style and an oddball charm that’s hard not to be won over by. That’s not to mention Kyle Gallner and Emily Skeggs in the two lead roles, whose affable chemistry goes a long way towards making the film work as well as it does. But the movie is also objectively too long; there’s a reason why 90 minutes is the standard length for a romcom, even if this is an off-kilter entry in the genre. The first half, in particular, is draggy and meandering, with the quirk cranked all the way up to eleven. The film needs to take it down a notch, and it does — once it embraces its romcominess and focuses on the couple spending time together, it becomes an endearingly warm-hearted comedy about the blossoming relationship between two misfits. It takes a bit too long to get there, but it’s worth the wait.

*** out of ****