If there ever was a Jewish institution that required a lampoon, it is the Bar or Bat Mitzvah. So much pressure on a 12 or 13 years old child… and then there are the parents who are putting on the soiree and the intense burden to “keep up with the Goldbergs” in the Bar Mitzvah Olympics that is growing up Jewish. Donny’s Bar Mitzvah tackles this very subject and at the center of it all is the titular character, played by Steele Stebbins.
He’s torn between being a part of the party and ceremony of his parents’ dreams, or simply just trying to be a newly anointed teenager who has a mad crush on one of his guests and an army of friends who will do just about anything to help their boy on his big day—including wearing Donny’s Bar Mitzvah hats with purple plastic dildos on them. Yeah, that’s not the biggest jaw-dropper of writer-director Jonathan Kaufman.
It’s a schtick from beginning to end that tires quickly with its low production value and an extremely low bar for humor. It has occasional heart, sure, but it is drowned out by a crude excuse for a comedy as I’ve ever seen. I can see where Comebacks was coming from, but unfortunately, his film felt disjointed and was too much to suspend disbelief throughout.
Although, there is an innate joy in witnessing Bar Mitzvah, for those of us who had them, where we wish it had gotten a little wild—just without the divorcing parents and affairs, drugs, and excessive drinking. That awkward feeling of liking a girl and wanting to dance with her and how that works out is classically handled in Donny’s Bar Mitzvah, so Kaufman does get something right.
This is a low-budget affair, but that aspect works. After all, this is a film of a Bar Mitzvah from a time period that was all about VHS tape. It’s supposed to look that way. The premise is that the film is an old videotape of Donny’s party and it gets put into the VCR and we get our front-row seat to the soiree of the late 90s. Too bad that the premise didn’t live up to what it is that Comebacks delivers.
There are aspects of this endeavor this is cringe-worthy. Debating hitting the stop button occurred repeatedly throughout the witnessing of the film. The thing is, I’m one of those movie viewers that have to discover how this whole story ends—even if the tale itself is not even worth your time. There are not even redeemable characters, save the titular Bar Mitzvah boy… Stebbins’ Donny. Granted, we never see the actual religious ceremony. Why would we? This is about the party and the depravity that follows. Again, movies that push envelopes of taste are my bag, baby. It’s just there’s a bar and it is pretty low for Donny. Many aspects of the entire film, well… they don’t even make any sense. There are plot holes. There’s suspicion of disbelief and then there is what will be required to make it through Donny’s Bar Mitzvah.
My Bar Mitzvah was in the early 80s and by the end of the Decade of Decadence, things with celebrating the making of boys and girls into men and women. As much as people spend on weddings, they were spending on an ancient Jewish ceremony that is for a thirteen-year-old. Stebbins is perfectly cast. He is lost in this circus of events that are supposed to be about him, but in fact, were never about the transition into manhood. This aspect should not surprise and may actually resonate. The Bar or Bat Mitzvah party is about the parents. Sure, the kids have a blast in the increasingly expensive status symbol that is the post-ceremony celebration. That is one of the only lessons of the entire film.
It’s difficult to sit through a film where there are characters that you would never want to spend time within your life. This is one of those films. All the married couples have issues, that are they are willing to share with their friends and complete strangers. There are vile suggestions and scenes—which I have no problem with—it’s just that in Donny’s Bar Mitzvah they appear to be purely for shock value. This is supposed to be a comedy. There’s nothing funny about a Bar Mitzvah boy puking on the girl he likes for approximately three-and-a-half-minutes. OK, perhaps it was funny the first few seconds, but come on.
Oh, and there’s an entire recurring segment with Danny Trejo and a mysterious secret agent party pooper that he is just determined to put an end to. It’s as silly as it sounds and then some. Sadly, it’s a clever joke that drives the Trejo portion, it’s just that the payoff is missing any kind of pow or even irony.
Grade: D