REVIEW: ‘Beatriz at Dinner’ was delicious

The Office of Student Life’s Film and Speaker Series hosted a screening of “Beatriz at Dinner” Sept. 30 in the SSCB Lecture Hall.

The film is about Beatriz (Salma Hayek), a massage therapist/holistic healer who drives up to an extravagant mansion to give her client, Cathy (Connie Britton), a massage. When she is ready to leave, her rundown Volkswagen will not start. Cathy offers for Beatriz to stay for dinner while she waits for her friend to come fix her car, and Beatriz enthusiastically accepts the seemingly harmless invitation. Once the dinner guests arrive and the night gets underway, Beatriz quickly finds herself at odds with the guest of honor, Doug Strutt (John Lithgow)

I really liked how the film was basically a satire for President Donald Trump and all his antics. There were scenes in the movie that were directly inspired by headlines about Donald Trump. With that in mind, the movie made me feel uncomfortable at times. For example, everybody was talking outside before dinner, and Beatriz, a woman of Mexican decent, was hovering around awkwardly because she did not know anybody. Doug saw her and assumed that she was a part of the staff and said “Can you get me another Scotch?”

Other culturally insensitive micro-aggressions occurred throughout the movie, filling the lecture hall with a plethora of nervous laughter. Although uncomfortable, these instances were important in creating the overall allegory of the Trump era.

An aspect of the movie that I particularly enjoyed was that a lot of scenes were open to interpretation. At the end of the movie, Beatriz walked straight into the ocean and went under the water and came back up in what seemed to be her childhood home. There was not any explanation as to what happened, and this let the whole audience interpret it in different ways. This allowed for further discussion to occur after the movie ended and various perspectives to be seen and exchanged.

Lastly, the speaker after the movie was one of the best ones that I have seen yet. Wanalee Romero, lecturer of literature and director of the First-Year Seminar Program, was the facilitator, and she made the discussion very audience based. I really liked this concept as it allowed for everyone to share his/her thoughts and feelings about the movie.

“I liked the way Dr. Romero approached the speaker series as an open discussion,” said fellow moviegoer Madi Stults, environmental science major. “I don’t like to be talked at, and she made it really open and inclusive.”

Furthermore, Natalia Marfil, biology major, also agreed with this sentiment.

“I liked hearing everyone’s interpretations of the symbolisms and hidden meanings in the elements of the film,” Marfil said.

Ultimately, “Beatriz at Dinner” was possibly the most interesting movie I’ve seen from the Student Life Film and Speaker Series. It was an interesting narrative, and it sparked great conversations afterward. The discussion with Romero was engaging, and it encouraged me, and other students, to come out to more movies in the Film and Speaker Series to participate in further discussions.