To Dust

Name: To Dust
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: February 8, 2019
Duration: 105 min
Rating: 66
Cast: Andrew Keenan Bolger, Ben Hammer, Bern Cohen, Géza Röhrig, Leo Heller

2019

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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5.5	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Good Deed Entertainment | Release Date: February 8, 2019 | R

Starring: Andrew Keenan Bolger, Ben Hammer, Bern Cohen, Géza Röhrig, Leo Heller, Linda Frieser, Marceline Hugot, Matthew Broderick, Natalie Carter, Sammy Voit, Sarah Jes Austell

Summary: Shmuel (Géza Röhrig), a Hasidic cantor, distraught by his wife’s untimely death, struggles to find religious solace while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay. As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert (Matthew Broderick), a community college biology professor, the two embark on an increasingly literal undertaking.

Director: Shawn Snyder

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: R

Runtime: 105 min

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Critic Reviews

Jim Slotek

Mar 13, 2019

An odd, sweet, dryly funny, existential and slightly blasphemous buddy-movie, in which an Orthodox cantor, grieving his wife’s death, seeks the help of a pot-smoking college professor to understand what becomes of a corpse. Read full review

Lorry Kikta

Mar 29, 2019

This is a very inventive, original story, in a cinematic landscape that sometimes seems bereft of such things. Read full review

Richard Roeper

Feb 14, 2019

Directed and co-written by Shawn Snyder, To Dust is a dark but not bleak comedy, an oddly effective love story and also a classic buddy movie, albeit presented within a framework I don’t we’ve ever seen before in the genre. It’s also lovely and offbeat and kind of wonderful. Read full review

John DeFore

Feb 5, 2019

With matter-of-fact Jewish wit, it accepts these beliefs as the story's ground rules, understanding that Shmuel won't make peace with his wife's death until he finds some way of reconciling his ideas with physical realities. If only all conflicts between religion and observable facts came to ends as satisfying as this film does. Read full review

Robert Abele

Feb 14, 2019

The movie could use a little more energy — this is Paul Mazursky territory, after all, not Andrei Tarkovsky — but in its sick-but-sweet attempt to reclaim grief from the trappings of tradition, To Dust is its own well-measured godsend. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Feb 12, 2019

There’s something in the relationship between these two partnerless men — their yearning for connection — that feels, beneath the jokes, very real and very recognizable. Read full review

Mark Feeney

Mar 7, 2019

To Dust has several things to recommend it. It’s decidedly different, and that is no small accomplishment in this day and age. Snyder’s direction has real assurance, though not enough to overcome the films self-conscious — maybe self-congratulatory — weirdness. Read full review

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User Reviews

Brent_Marchant

Feb 7, 2020

When an orthodox Jewish cantor loses his wife at a young age, he has difficulty adjusting to his new circumstances, especially when he has troubling dreams about whether her corpse's deterioration is proceeding in a manner that properly allows her soul to return to source. It concerns him soWhen an orthodox Jewish cantor loses his wife at a young age, he has difficulty adjusting to his new circumstances, especially when he has troubling dreams about whether her corpse's deterioration is proceeding in a manner that properly allows her soul to return to source. It concerns him so much that he consults a biology professor for guidance and expertise on the subject, an unlikely relationship that leads to a dark comedy of errors, one that grows increasingly hilarious with each passing episode. Geza Rohrig and Matthew Broderick serve up big, unexpected laughs that often prove deceptively profound and sweetly sublime. This delicious little gem delivers more than what it superficially seems to offer, leaving viewers with good feelings, a warm glow and a tickled spirit.… Expand

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DawdlingPoet

Aug 27, 2022

This seems to me like an indie, somewhat niche film but its one I definitely enjoyed. It features very quirky characters (Shmuel and Albert) who are unlikely 'buddies', to put it one way! the unlikely situations they find themselves in, relating to Shmuel's late wife, are quite amusing. IThis seems to me like an indie, somewhat niche film but its one I definitely enjoyed. It features very quirky characters (Shmuel and Albert) who are unlikely 'buddies', to put it one way! the unlikely situations they find themselves in, relating to Shmuel's late wife, are quite amusing. I liked the young jewish children too - how they investigate things they find out. Its very quirky, amusing and even somehow thought provoking, borderline poignant, as far as discussions about death is concerned. Yes I'd recommend this film.… Expand

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