When Do We Eat?

Families don’t come more dysfunctional than the Stuckmans. First, there’s paranoid patriarch Artur (Jack Klugman), a Holocaust survivor who is still so afraid of Nazis that he carries a packed suitcase everywhere he goes. He is embarrassed by his successful son, Ira (Michael Lerner), because he made his fortune in the Christmas ornament business.

Ira has agreed to host the Stuckman clan’s annual Passover gathering, even though he prides himself on running the world’s fastest Seder. This suits his second wife, Peggy (Lesley Ann Warren), just fine, as long as she can invite her hunky Israeli boyfriend (Mark Ivanir).

Their couple’s kids are just as kooky as their parents, starting with Nikki (Shiri Appleby), a sexual surrogate who sleeps with her clients. Next, we have Hassidic Ethan (Max Greenfield), a hypocrite who cares about keeping a kosher kitchen but has qualms about sleeping with his sexy cousin Vanessa (Mili Avital).

Then there’s Zeke (Ben Feldman) a druggie who is not above slipping a hit of ecstasy into his father’s food, if it’ll help make the old man mellow out. Meanwhile, Lionel (Adam Lamberg) is autistic, and Jennifer (Meredith Scott Lynn), Ira’s daughter from his first marriage, has brought along Grace (Cynda Williams), her African-American lesbian lover.

If all of the above sounds to you like a recipe for disaster, you’ve guessed right. Relying on Passover as a unifying theme, When Do We Eat? is a farce which will work for you to the extent that you are familiar with Jewish culture and are open to an irreverent brand of politically-incorrect humor which stipulates that no subject is sacrosanct. Laugh aplenty abound as a hallucinating Ira imagines himself to be a modern-day Moses and attempts to lead his Chosen People to the Promise Land.
Li Chaim!

Very good (3 stars)
Rated R for sex, expletives, and drug use.
Running time: 86 minutes
Studio: Thinkfilm

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